Thanks! I think that in this case that bigger is better too! Personally, the extra spill that comes along with the Baja Designs light is more pleasing to my eye as well. That said, neither of these lights are intended to be standalone, but rather part of a larger "system" of lighting on a vehicle.

Hotshot Offroad I agree 100% with that!! To me baja Designs has nailed the usable light with all their lights that they make. There is a reason they have been in the game for so long! Do you have social media pages I’d like to give them a like or follow

@@08pileggi I do! I haven't been active on them (actually just got them set up) recently, but if you search for Hotshot Offroad on Facebook and Instagram, just look for our logo and you should be able to find it! Tackling one item at a time, but now that the website is live I can be more active in regard to social media as well as KZfaq.

Hotshot Offroad very good I’ll find you! Can’t wait

And that's why we do this. To give you an opportunity to make those decisions on your own as to what is the best for your application!

We can probably make that happen! I was planning on doing a Diode Dynamics lens comparison down the road here, but it can certainly be scooted up in the timeline! You just may be right in your estimation that BD spot and DD driving may be comparable. Also, part of the reason that your Lightforce has a tighter pattern is just due to design. LEDs struggle a lot more with proper beam due to the fact that all of the light comes from a singular point at the back of the housing, whereas with halogen/HID a manufacturer had the ability to put the light source somewhere in the middle of the reflector bowl allowing them to use better characteristics of the reflector design. LEDs in a forward projecting light are at a disadvantage out of the gate, but the technology has certainly come a very long way.

I actually battled back and forth with where to put the beam pattern when I was putting this together. I initially had them higher, but I felt that some of the pattern was getting lost. What I did was I tried to get the bottom of each light's hotspot lined up together on the road. I think that some of the reason that you find it more noticeable here is due to the overall larger size of the XL. It is simply putting out a "bigger" beam. I'll take it into account for next time though! Appreciate the feedback. As for the part 2... I can certainly do that in time! And fortunately I have a pretty good place to do it too. My only concern at this point is if my current camera will be able to pick it up accurately. I'll see what I can do.

Hotshot Offroad Were you filming this on your phone? I’ve done a few of these light reviews and while they aren’t perfect I think the quality is pretty good for all being on my phone.

@@superdutyzack It actually was! While not perfect as you say, it's honestly impressive for what we're workin with.

Hotshot Offroad Depending on what type of phone your filming with, if its newer than 2017 I’d recommend getting a manual setting camera app. If you have a droid then you might have a pro mode which allows you to manually set the camera settings like ISO and Shutter Speed. For the most accurate lighting I film in 1/1 shutter and an ISO of no more than 104. If you check out my last video, I film at 1/1 and 104iso. Filming at these settings will cause the image to be laggy but if you keep the phone still or use a tripod the image quality will be awesome and very accurate. Also I would lock the WB, or white balance. I’ve noticed if you film a light that is over 5k the phone under exposes while warmer lights are easier to film because the camera doesn’t change the exposure. Can’t wait for the next video!

@Superduty Zack I actually took some of your feedback from my last video and worked it into this one. If you pay close attention to it you'll see that the camera isn't fighting with exposure as I swap between lights, and the white balance was also locked. I'll do some testing with those exact specs you listed above, and see how things turn out. Thanks for the recommendations.

Glad it was helpful!

Yessir! I compared these as they are the competitors in their natural state. My personal DD lights will all be lens swapped variants. Even swapped though I can say that BD still does it the best in my opinion.

Of course! It'll be a little bit yet, but I'll definitely do it!

And that's why we do these! To allow you to see for yourself as best as we can!

You certainly could mount them down low, but as I’m sure you’re aware it’s not the ideal mounting location for a spot pattern. You’ll get great reach, but will run into just a few more situations where you’ll get dark pools on the road ahead since the light is mounted so low. If you are going with the max I would probably recommend a driving pattern as well. It has a pretty tight beam as-is, and will reach plenty far for most use cases.

Yep, learning as we go! The Max didn't exist when this test was done, but they'll be in future iterations!

I’d take lifetime over 8 year but also the color temperature is what I think helps a lot more with driving in Baja designs the warmer colors wear out your eyes more and the 5000k makes it’s more realistic if that makes sense I don’t think rigid is bad either but I’m going Baja designs over them still I think they’re better they’re adaptable for whatever you want wide cornering spot only driving combo or racer edition then even laser edition I use they’re lights a lot on my can am and driving at night and they’re miles above what I see a lot of people run I’m gonna get some for my built raptor 700 too

Rigid lights are just flat out, not the name in the game anymore. They used to be, I guess, for normal pods and light bars. BD had always been the better desert racing light, and they are an overall better light for every other purpose now that they have more offerings. Rigid is mid-tier these days.

That is correct! That little detail just dropped in the last 24 hours. Certainly a little more peace of mind for a potential shopper!

If you've got the spaces to install a pair of SS3 pros you will get better performance out of them than a single XL racer. That said I'm planning to do more "pair" comparisons over time.

I certainly prefer it! OEM headlight manufacturers are hanging out in the 6000k range for their LED headlight offerings too. Many people really want them to match, even if it may not be the best to your eye when behind the wheel.

Which is why I'm going with baja because they match my hid headlights way better than anything else. Way easier on the eyes in inclimate weather that I travel and work in constantly.

I don't have all of the temps, but I have most! The yellow ones get hotter too btw. These are all lens temperatures. The housing will be a bit more than that. Yellow Sport - 110F White Pro - 137F Yellow Pro - 170F White Max - 160F Yellow Max - 175F

Be finding out soon enough! They’re enroute!

@@hotshotoffroad What I’m curious is how the work. The Pro’s operate at 36 watts I think and these new Max run at 38.5 watts, yet all of the specs like the candela or lux ratings are 40-60% better than the Pro. How can they achieve such brighter results by only changing the led wattage by a few watts? Its kinda disappointing because the led chips are 20 watt chips making the pod 80 watts capable but they capped it down to 38.5 watts I think for thermal management. I checked and both Rigid and Baja in the same size run at 40 watts or more. I know DD has the efficient TIR optics so maybe they don’t have to run at such a high wattage for the same or better output but its kinda weird they aren’t utilizing the full potential of 80 watts or 60 watts. I really wanna switch to DD lights but they are very slow with rolling out new products, I really want them to release a XL pod with bigger optics for more light spread and throw and dual row light bars!!! I think they have the best optics in the game which makes them compete very well with rigid and baja, but they need to expand their product line. I think the new Osram HX LED chips really expand their potential for higher wattage and brighter lights. Now they just gotta improve the thermals to handle high watt temperatures and add some more products to their inventory.

@@superdutyzack Good question. We posed the same one! Here's how they responded! " Good question. Rated power and rated lumens are useless numbers. We know that. You guys might know that. But the fact is, most people don't understand. We have had people vehemently accuse us of "ripping off" consumers because our 14W LED pod is 5 times more expensive than the 100W, 5000 lumen pod on eBay. We fought the battle for a very long time, but it's only worth being called scam artists so many times. We put the rated power and rated lumen figure so we can effectively compete with the general market who unfortunately is dead set on only using these useless "measurements." We do provide the actual measured lumen value and candela, which is more information than most companies. If you think we are trying to mislead anyone with our rated values, I apologize. We have to provide the information our customers demand, and many of them still demand these "rated" values. " Like you alluded to as well these new chips are going to open some doors I think. And I think that we just all have to be a little patient. There's a lot of things coming, and DD is just dipping their toes into this market. Just think... They have come out with the SS3, Stage Series bars, and SSC2s all in the span of just over a year. I think their pacing is pretty strong, personally. I think they'll fill all of the niches that we're looking for given a little more time!

@@hotshotoffroad I like the direction they are going, just needs to be faster haha I really wanna see the have a combo lens for the ss3

It exists! Well, the prototype anyway. If you hit me up on Instagram or something similar I'll send it to you. I can't attach photos or anything in here.

While the DD certainly puts down a cleaner Spot pattern, I can agree that the Baja Designs light is a better “overall” light in this comparison. Certainly a much bigger physical footprint though !

I unfortunately have to disagree with you here. When this video was produced Diode Dynamics had not yet produced a combo lens for the SS3 so that wouldn't have been an option. Additionally, the combo lens is half driving pattern and half flood which would not have been a suitable "apples to apples" comparison for this test. The reason that the spot pattern of the SS3 was chosen to be put up against the XL Racer is that these patterns are the tightest and furthest projecting distance patterns that each brand offers (unless you look at the BD laser series). I was not intending on making the patterns match, but rather showing what the same "pattern" from different manufacturers turns out like on the road. What did become apparent very quickly as you have identified is that the TIR optics in the SS3 create a very tight spot pattern with little errant light. Conversely, the reflector based optics of the XL Racer produce a bit of an additional "cone" of light atop the intended spot pattern. Is that better or worse? Depends on what the goals are for the application!

You're absolutely right @Dan Blumel IF you are into a LIMITED LIFETIME WARRANTY sort of things 🙂

I've done that one too! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nd14iNOrp-DPo4k.html

After reading the title more carefully: “is bigger always better”, I would like to take a moment to withdraw my foot from my mouth. 🤐

Hahaha it’s all good! I’m here to help!

While neither of these beams are SAE certified for on-road use you are correct in saying that the SS3 stands the lesser chance of blinding oncoming traffic. However, these are both very piercing beams, and I would not want to be the oncoming vehicle faced up against either. In terms of the color temperature I will be showing in an upcoming video the SS3s with the clear lens "mod" to get that warmer temperature which I personally like as well. However, I haven't used that variation yet as it isn't an option that they offer OEM. The price variation is certainly present here which certainly may deter some buyers.

And these comparisons are aimed to help folks in their purchasing/research journey 😊

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