|
| Hello ! |
|
| May 20, 2013, 01:59:18 PM |
|
|
 |
Fulkerson Fabrication
LED Off-Road Lights & Our Custom Anti-Theft Light Bar
PRODUCT REVIEW |
Update
After having these lights for about 6 months they started to fog over on the inside of the light. I didn't really use them that much to warent any kind of defect but it happened. I have contacted the company a couple times now and their response has been "we are coming out with new lights and I'll get them replaced for you as soon as I can....." That was a few months ago and still have not heard back from them...... Great idea, but bad execution!
Introduction
One of the first things you will notice when you take a vehicle off road at night is that the factory lights have poor lighting at best. Something about the yellowish glow of the headlights drowns out the different textures of the rocks and dirt and makes depth perception hard to judge. So what do we all like to do when we get our rigs... put lots of very bright lights on them! We stumbled across a company called Fulkerson Fabrication at this years King Of The Hammers race. These guys had an amazing demonstration of their lights at the base of the waterfall at Back Door with rigs slamming into them and people throwing rocks at them without a single light breaking.
Fulkerson Fabrication
Fulkerson Fabrication is a new company that is producing a very unique and versatile LED light. Its not your standard LED light bar. What they have is small LED pods. Instead of cramming a ton of low output LED's on a single circuit board with only one way to mount them, they use a single high power 5 watt LED with a separate driver per LED. What does this mean? If you were to have a standard light bar mounted to your roof and were to roll onto your lid you would have a high possibility of damaging the light bar, thus destroying the $1000 (or more) you spent on it. With Fulkerson's design in the same situation you might loose a few of the lights but the rest of them would still work. And those few lights are easily replaceable without buying an entirely new light bar. Since they are all wired separately to a single plug inside the light bar the chances of loosing ALL your lights are not likely at all. Even if you damage the bar itself it is completely rebuildable with a piece of 2"X2" square tubing and you will have a brand new light bar. The versatility of these light pods also let you mount them in many different ways; individually, or grouped together.
Click on images for large view
  
The JK Anti Theft Light Bar
There has been many different lights on my rigs over the years. Some cheap and crapy and some very good and expensive. The cheap ones don't last long. They either burn out bulbs frequently, the housings break, or they just don't put out the light that an off road rig needs. The expensive ones are great. They have good light output and sturdy watertight housings that don't burn out bulbs often. However, I have had more than one set stolen right off my bumper before. And if you do end up breaking one, you're out quite a bit of money. I wanted a light that was going to be bright enough and durable enough to be able to withstand the abuse my rig sees. I've been thinking about a way to mount a couple lights discretely behind the grill. This would make them harder to notice, and would take more than 2 minutes to undo a couple of nuts and clip the wires. When I saw the product that Fulkerson Fabrication had on display I knew I found exactly what I needed.
After meeting the Guys from Fulkerson at KOH I started telling them about what I wanted to do. The slightly confused but intrigued owner stayed in contact with me and we started brainstorming. What we came up with was a light bar that was discrete enough that you don't really notice at first. It's tucked behind the grill to keep the bumper clean and the kleptomaniac hands away from it. There is a total of 5 lights poking through the grill at around 200 lumens each. This provides a good amount of light without sacrificing valuable bumper space.
More on the LED's
Fulkerson Fab has an aray of different colors, styles, and mounting solutions for the pods that they sell. In its simplest form you can buy the "Builder Pack" for ~$45 and make your own custom light bar or even drill some holes in the bumper and mount them there and you wont need a light bar at all. Or you can buy their "Pro Pod" for ~$80 that is a single LED mounted in a strong 1 3/4" .120 wall tube that you can mount just like any other off road light. Or they can make you any length bar you would like from 4"-50"-100"...... ANY LENGTH YOU WANT, AND ANY SPACING YOU WANT! And you can customize your bar with spot lights or flood lights. They also have a number of different colors and defusers to choose from if you want to get fancy! You can use them as rock lights, backup lights, dome lights, under hood lights, you name it!
Like I said.... Versatile! Probably the most versatile lights on the market today.
They are built to last. The light itself comes 100% water tight in an aluminum housing with a grommet to mount them in. All you have to do is drill a 1 1/4" hole in whatever you want to mount them in, put the grommet in, and slide the light in. They are VERY tight and will never fall out on their own. BUT (now this is what I really like about them) Lets say you mounted them in your bumper and accidentally bumped into something. Since they just slide into the grommet, if it gets hit the light will just keep sliding through the grommet and stay safely inside whatever you mounted them in without getting damaged. All you have to do is pull out the grommet, pull out the light, put the grommet back in, and put the light back in. All without replacing a damn thing!
Pictures
Upcoming Products
Fulkerson Fabrication is working on more unique and really cool products that we should be seeing by the end of summer this year. They are testing a 10 watt LED right now that puts out over twice the lumens that these 5 watters put out. They also have a switch pannel that they are working on that will have bluetooth capabilities. You are going to be able to turn on your lights and accessories with your smartphone!
Please read the update at the top of the article!
Conclusion
I REALLY like these lights. They put out a good amount of light, they are tough as nails, they are versatile, small, and power friendly so they won't drain your battery if you need to leave them on for an extended amount of time without the engine running. And best of all..... They are made in the USA!!! I do wish the beam pattern was a little more spread out, but really this is my own fault because I asked for spot lights without the defusers. If I were add defusers it would spread the light out a little more and give me some periferal lighting on the sides of the trail. But the setup I have is great for shining strait down the road as you can tell. These are an excellent light and I can't wait to get more of them to add to the Jeep.
For more information about Fulkerson Fabrication products check out there website or give them a call.
Fulkerson Fabrication
8590 Trenton Road
Forrestville, CA 95436
Phone: 707-820-1171
Website: www.fulkersonfabrication.com
Check out more articles in this section:
1435 Views
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
.jpg)
