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The Ultimate Flashlight Thread

TrailTamer

TrailTamer

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Joined
May 26, 2020
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Down By The River
I have few bright flashlights but they all were gifted, found or hand-me-down and at most only good at short distance (<30ft). They’re all smaller ones. Sub 1,000 lumens.

I want something I can lit up at distance decently and not “dimly pinhole size”. Something I can light up other side of the river or long distance, or with large “flood” pattern brightly.

I picked up Harbor Freight’s biggest flashlight. 7,000 lumens. $75 OTD. This thing is bright. Especially for with its lens turned all way in for the flood pattern. On maximum brightness about 30ft ahead of me and 75-100ft wide get lit up like daylight bright. Turning the lens out for maximum focus/distance it’s OK, seems to not light up as well past ~100ft away. I feels there’s better flashlights out there for the money.

www.harborfreight.com

7000 Lumen Rechargeable Waterproof LED Flashlight with Battery Bank

Amazing deals on this 7000 Lumen Waterproof Flashlight at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.
www.harborfreight.com www.harborfreight.com
 
I have a mix of Harbor Freight and Fenix flashlights. My home defense guns have Fenix lights on them.

A couple years ago I decide to narrow down my flashlights to those that run on AA or AAA rechargeable batteries. Fenix has a nice selection of flashlights that fit my battery niche.
 
I'm really happy with the Streamlight flashlights. I use the shit out of my pocket one and have a little larger one I keep in my tool bag. If one of them ever takes a shit I'll try a Fenix.
 
Another for Streamlight. I keep a single aaa one in my pocket at all times. I keep a pack of batteries in the truck and a spare battery in my pocket. My work pays for my batteries so I dont have to worry about waiting for charging if it dies while using it. It clips on my hat bill and I have my hands free to use. I am on my 3rd or 4th one due to losing them. Ive never had one go bad. I even dropped my current one in the fuel tank of my semi while it was on. I could see it in there and got it out with a hanger. It never shut off so I could still see it.

They are on sale now for cyber Monday too for only $12.54. Im buying some now.


It is good out to about 20ft. Now that I am hauling feed I need to get a bigger light that will reach 50+ feet so I can see the top of bins. My little one works but its kinda dim out that far.
 
We have Ledlenser lights and headlamps, of numerous sizes. We use them often out on the property and around the house. First one was a gift, we both liked it so we bought more of them. A handful of 1,000 lumen flashlights, a 5,000 lumen large flashlight and a pair of 1,000 lumen headlamps. Never really looked at other brands, probably should have, I just stuck with what worked. I’ve used the 7yr warranty once for a battery that wouldn’t charge, no questions besides our mailing address and it got overnighted to us.
 
Just bought these , not bad quality , decent case, comes with two flashlights with both types of usb cables, rechargeable and also holder for 4 AAA batteries. $35 bucks
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Amazon.com
 
Streamlight's are nicely built but fall short on the lumens side, always being a bit weak for the $$
Fenix are good price/performance ratio, something like a PD40r is one hell of a nice size/output/price combination.
 
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This thing reaches out pretty well even on the wide angle, and the "turbo" setting is obnoxiously bright. I've got a few Coast lights and I've been pleased with all of them, much better value than Streamlight IMO and I've used Streamlight for over a decade.

coastportland.com

XP18R

Stay bright in every situation. The COAST XP18R flashlight delivers the brightest-in-class light and four-mode, multi-beam capability powered by a COAST ZITHION-X™ rechargeable battery. This powerhouse features a real-time power indicator plus patented slide-focusing optical technology.
coastportland.com coastportland.com
 
Can anyone recommend a quality rechargable light with red LED or lense?

I've got a pelican light in my pocket. It is good, but the battery life sucks, and I am sick of going through AA batteries.
 
granitestatedestroyer said:
Can anyone recommend a quality rechargable light with red LED or lense?

I've got a pelican light in my pocket. It is good, but the battery life sucks, and I am sick of going through AA batteries.
Click to expand...
You can get flashlights that use rechargeable 18650 batteries.

For years I used a AA Fenix for theater work, AA's were free as we had a bucket of used batteries from wireless mics because you never put used batteries in a mic even for rehearsals or if the meter says their still 80% or whatever. It killed me to have to buy AA's a couple years ago. :laughing:
 
KungFooMASTA said:
Another for Streamlight. I keep a single aaa one in my pocket at all times. I keep a pack of batteries in the truck and a spare battery in my pocket. My work pays for my batteries so I dont have to worry about waiting for charging if it dies while using it. It clips on my hat bill and I have my hands free to use. I am on my 3rd or 4th one due to losing them. Ive never had one go bad. I even dropped my current one in the fuel tank of my semi while it was on. I could see it in there and got it out with a hanger. It never shut off so I could still see it.

They are on sale now for cyber Monday too for only $12.54. Im buying some now.


It is good out to about 20ft. Now that I am hauling feed I need to get a bigger light that will reach 50+ feet so I can see the top of bins. My little one works but its kinda dim out that far.
Click to expand...

The 2x aaa version is $14 right now (scoll down to select amazon as seller for that price), Amazon.com
 
i have an original SF 6P, a vintage Radar lite, a Malkoff, Pelican sabrelight, and fifty other crap flashlights I should throw away. I would not mind another Malkoff, but the truck 2023 budget is at 2000% of projected.


Edit: And a military issue traffic control wand, the rare (at least to me) straight head military flashlight with cone.
 
Just buy a T6 10 pack flashlights off Ebay that uses the 18650 batteries. $40.00. I also have a few that uses two 18650s and they are really super bright. The batteries store for a long time charged. Then for free spare batteries, tear an old laptop battery pack apart. The batteries are usually good, it's the electronics in the battery pack that fails.
 
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