Vision X XMitter light bar

[Dugn8r]

Don't hate me, but I got rid of my LR3; I was having far too many problems with it. I went and purchased a 2008 Jeep JK 4 door rubicon... unbelievable off road. Anyways - despite this, I wanted to share a light bar with my friends here on the forum - because this thing is simply amazing and will mount to any vehicle.

It's only 3" tall, 42" wide and 4" deep. It can mount to the front of the lower bar of a roof rack, like I have mine, for a really low profile and... holy god, it is bright! I have two HID off-road lights on the front of my JK and they pale in comparison. This XMitter bar puts out 4 times the amount of light as one of the HID's.

So anyways: Here it is...

Here are the stock high beams:

Here is the XMitter bar:

All photo groups are shot with the same exposure.

 

[Dugn8r]

Keep in mind - the bar is merely resting on the pushbar of my patrol car. Also, it was raining and foggy out, so there is a slight white haze and the light didn't go as far as it would on a clear day. The first three photos are as follows:

1. Patrol car, low beams only
2. Patrol car, high beams only
3. Patrol car, only XMitter bar activated.

This last photo shows it resting on the push bar of my patrol car with all of my lights activated. IT's so bright, it washed everything away.

 

[Houm_WA]

what's under the hood of that thing, dug? How do you like it? That might be my next ride...in about 6 years !

 

[Randall]

how much are these light bars and whats the light source? HID?

 

[Dugn8r]

THis 42" one had 80 three-watt LED's... it's amazing how far LED technology has come. The light is far nicer than the light from HID lighting - just pure white. THe light bar is about $1500 (retail).

What's under the hood of what? THe Jeep? It has a crappy V6 froma minivan that gets worse fuel mileage than my LR3 did. And it only has like 202 horses. Go figure. But it has navigation, bluetooth, lockers front and rear... and was only like 32k.

The patrol car has a crappy V8 4.6 liter than can be outrun by any motivated crook in a primered Toyota Carolla with a coathanger for an antenna.

 

[Houm_WA]

FRONT lockers? Is that factory? 202 horses is probably plenty for that thing...how much does it weigh? I do wonder why they didn't keep the 4.0L they were putting in there though. All I know is that I've seen a Jeep Rubicon or two out kicking ass on trails and since then I've been interesting in hearing a little more.

 

[Dugn8r]

FRONT lockers? Is that factory? 202 horses is probably plenty for that thing...how much does it weigh? I do wonder why they didn't keep the 4.0L they were putting in there though. All I know is that I've seen a Jeep Rubicon or two out kicking ass on trails and since then I've been interesting in hearing a little more.

Yes - a rear AND FRONT locker - true lockers, too. AND it had an electronically disconnecting swaybar. For off-roading, it's the bomb. It's just not NEARLY as nice on the road as the Rover.

Well, I got the winch yesterday and just installed most of it today. I put it on the Mopar bumper - I should have picked a different bumper, because I had to do some slight modifying to get it to work.

Anyways, this is the Milemarker 10,500 lb 75-series winch. It hooks to the power steering pump and pulls like no tomorrow, as long as the engine is running. I won't be doing anything in the Jeep that will cause the engine to die, to this is a non-issue for me. What IS the issue is LONG pulls without having to stop because of overheating. Or being able to run under mud and water. I've had two electrics in my life and both died within a year (both brand four-letter name winches). Thelast Milemarker I had lasted three years with use every week (pullingout stuck patrol cars, trucks and uprighting trees...) and never any isues. The These are the reasons I went hydraulic.

Some of the common misconceptions about hydraulic are they create noise in your pump and they subject the pump to abuse. THis is false on both. If you don't route the hoses properly, you will get some noise... just don't make really sharp turns with it and you will be fine. As far as pump abuse - your pump makes the same pressure, wether it is being used by the winch or your steering... or nothing at all. There are no additional stressors put on the pump because of the addition of this winch. If anything, it is better because you have far more fluid in the system... keeps it cooler.

So... without further mealie mouthing, here we are:

THis next weekend, I will get it really stuck in deep goop and see how she does getting out. I suspect I won't have any issues.

 

[richpike]

RE: The winch w/ Rubicon: Wow - that is all I can say. Very impressive.

RE: The lightbar: It is interesting. I'm not sure I'd want it mounted on my car all the time, but I can definitely see the usefulness for offroading at night or on a patrol car.

-Rich

 

[Randall]

So i'm seriously considering this bar. from the pictures it looks awesome and personally i think its very good looking. in terms of range how is it and how is it mounted.

very cool though thanks for sharing

-Noah

 

[Dugn8r]

So i'm seriously considering this bar. from the pictures it looks awesome and personally i think its very good looking. in terms of range how is it and how is it mounted.

very cool though thanks for sharing

-Noah

On this bar, it's not the range that is impessive. I mean... it is, but it pales in comparison to the quality of light this thing gives off and the spread of it. First, because there are 80 light sources on this bar instead of one or two, there are almost no shadows from things like posts and poles. The light is just so pure and white, it makes HID's look bad.

And last - the spread of light is most amazing. There are no hot spots anywhere. Just pure, white light from the very botom of your vehicle to the treeline. If you were driving on a road with a lot of tree canopy, you would see the trees above you, too. It is just amazing.

The distance is not as good as, say, the two off-road HID spot lights I have on there, but it is pretty close. I would take this bar over those HID's any day of the week.

Mounting - I fabricated a bracket to mount it on the front of the bottom roof-rack bar. II did this because I didn't want the XMitter to be any higher than the roof rack. It you wanted to mount it on the bar, though, that would be no problem.

I posted a review with additional photos and diagrams of the mount that I made. I think this is going to be a wicked welling product, so I am in the works of making a few of these mounts that I made for mine. Here is the link:

http://www.jmdougan.com/VisionXReviews/XMitter.htm[/URL

If you make it to the WEst Palm area, I would be happy to show you in person. Photos can't possibly do it justice.]