Tough LED Lightbar Review - Tough Toys
There's no shortage of LED lightbars on the market now, and 4wd specialist Tough Toys aren't planning on being left out. They've introduced a range of bars designed for most popular 4wd vehicles. We took a look at them to see how they perform.
Tough Toys LED lightbars come in enough sizes that no matter what you're looking for you should be able to find one to suit. The smallest model is a compact 6 inches long, and between that and the largest 50 inch model there are five more. They're all based on the same design though, so the technology is consistent across the whole range. We like that because it makes it easy for us to review them, but it's obviously also good if you want matching lights all round your vehicle. Anyway, let's have a look at what you get.
All the Tough lightbars are based around 3 watt high intensity LEDs. These are stacked in two rows and the reflectors are shaped to throw a flood pattern. The colour temperature of the LEDs is 5,000 to 6,500K, so the light output is clear and white. This colour temperature is similar to daylight so with one of these on your roof you get a great view of what's up front. They're bright too. Light output starts at 990 lumens for the 6 inch model and goes up to 10,000 lumens for the largest one. As far as power requirements go, Tough lightbars will run off any DC supply from 10V to 30V.
The cases themselves are die-cast from 6061 aluminium that's been given a tough black powder coating. They're proofed to IP67 standard, which means the units are completely sealed against dust and won't leak if submerged in water for 30 minutes. One of the biggest issues with LED lights is dissipating the heat the LEDs produce, because while they create less heat than conventional lamps they're not as happy living with it and high temperatures can seriously reduce their life. Like most LED lights these ones from Tough use the casing as a heatsink and include fins on the back to increase surface area and get the heat dumped into the air as fast as possible, keeping the lamps cool and giving them an estimated life of about 30,000 hours. The fins are stacked vertically and angled parallel to the ground, so the amount of dust, debris and rainwater is kept to a minimum. They're quite closely spaced, which also helps stop stuff getting in there. The front lens is high strength polycarbonate, so it should stand up well to any minor impacts without getting cracked or scratched.
If you're as impressed by these lightbars as we were you'll probably be wanting to get some fitted to your vehicle. Good news - that's easy. Tough lightbars use custom designed heavy duty steel mounts. These are fully adjustable, so when your lightbar is mounted you can lock it securely at just the angle you want. The 6 inch bar has a single mount, everything up to 20 inches has two and the larger ones have three or four, so once your lights are in place they'll be staying there.
Overall these are some pretty impressive lightbars. Tough Toys aim their products at real outdoor enthusiasts, so everything they stock is built to last. Their LED lights are no exception, so with this level of performance and build quality we have no hesitation in recommending them.
Technical Data
Size | No. of LEDs | Power | Flux |
6 Inch | 6 | 18W | 990LM |
10 Inch | 12 | 36W | 2,000LM |
15 Inch | 18 | 54W | 2,900LM |
20 Inch | 24 | 72W | 4,000LM |
30 Inch | 36 | 108W | 5,900LM |
40 Inch | 48 | 144W | 8,000LM |
50 Inch | 60 | 180W | 10,000LM |
