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2008 Jeep JK

Search and Rescue Vehicle Buildup

My review on the Vision X

XIL-800 42" XMitter bar

Vision X is pioneering the use of LED's in the off-road arena. I first learned about these XMitter bars by talking to the staff of Vision X about their HID lights, which I ordered for a project. I was informed about the XMitter, however, they were in production at the time and didn't have any. Fast forward two months to March 5th. I got a call saying the XMitters were ready to ship. I ordered one, which appeared March 10th. When I first opened the box, I was amazed to see such a well-made and compact package. I was told these will put out the same amount of light as four of their off-road HID lights, so I was skeptical. Basically, it is a big aluminum-machined heat sink with 80 3-watt LED's attached. These LED's are waterproof, shockproof and have a life expectancy of 262,000 hours. An LED is a diode encases in epoxy resin. This fact in itself makes it impervious to almost any depth of water and any amount of shock. If you hooked it up and never let it turn off, this would amount to 29.9 years of continuous operation!!! Over the top of the LED's is a clear Lexan window to act as a barrier to prevent bugs and other debris from getting on the LED's.

One thing - I have the Vision X HID off-road lights (amazing) and they make a clear, removable Lexan protective cover to slip over the lens. I would really like to see this to make cleaning this massive window easier (hint hint).

Because I had no way to mount it, the first thing I did was take it to the dark garage, hook it up to the battery charger and turn it on. Holy crap! Everything was illuminated, like someone took off the roof. The light quality, too, was amazing. It was just the most pure light I've ever seen.

Next test - I threw it in my police car and headed out to the darkest place I could find. Around here, dark places are a plenty. I went out to a Sugar Cane field and put it on my push bumper. I hooked it to my battery and... WOW! I could see a sign over two miles away! The trees that I would have never knows were there with the high beams lit right up. The most incredible thing about this is the spread of light. It is perfectly even with no hotspots. It illuminates every ripple, dip and whatever else from immediately in front of the vehicle to the end where the light gradually falls off. Simply amazing!

My patrol car high beams                           XMitter Bar

The next test was to see what it would do to illuminate a building. I picked an industrial building that was across a large canal and a large road. Here was the result:


Without XMitter                                         With XMitter

Okay... Now I had to get this thing mounted to the 2008 Jeep JK. The XMitter comes with a really awesome flat-mounting system, however, I wanted to have it on the front of my Wild Boar roof rack. This means I had to find something that might work or make my own. I made my own!

I started with a piece of T-6061 Aluminum. I milled it to 38.5 inches long. I milled out a place for it to rest against the bar. After, I milled four 1/4" counterbore holes to mount the lights and five 1/4 counterbore holes to secure it to the roof rack. After clamping the mount to my roof rack with bar clamps, I centered it, made it level and used the existing holes as a guide to drill holes in the rack. I mounted the bar using Stainless cap-head bolts, washers, lock washers and nuts. It turned out perfectly and is insanely strong. You can grab the light and shake it hard... it simply rocks the vehicle and doesn't fluctuate even a little. I guess a lot of R&D went into these lights to make them rock solid. No other light I've ever felt even comes close.

Next, I mounted the XMitter bar on the new mount. Below are some photos of the install:

Nice. The installation went flawlessly. I ran the wire from the XMitter into the roof rack, down the driver's side down tube, and into a small hole I made in the pillar bracket. Note: I used primer after drilling the holes to prevent rust formation. I ran the wires to a relay I installed, controlled by the factory fog light switch. Now... it was time to see it work!

I fired this beast up... and holy cow, was it bright! Here are some photos of the beam pattern:

Jeep JK high beams, 42" XMitter light bar, two 6.7" HID off-road lights

For comparison, I put a shot of just HID lights I tool last week. I tried to be in the same area, however, I was a few feet off in the placement. No matter... to be honest, the advantage would have been to the HID's because that photo was taken at the top of a dip and was shining directly on the houses. The photos with the XMitter, however, was on the downside of the dip and the center of the beam was facing the grass.

You can see just how amazing this bar is - note how wide and clear the XMitter pattern is. Note how it lights up the houses over the lake (poor people, putting up with me).

Would I get another XMitter bar? Damned skippy, I would. These things are the best thing in lighting ever invented and, with the longevity and durability of LED's, is certain to be the wave of the future. The bottom line is this: Usually when someone tells you something about a product, you order it and hope it lives up to at least half of their claims. This is probably the only thing I’ve ever seen that lives up to all of them, and then some.


The left is a schematic for the mount I made. Click on it for a full-size view.