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Bryan Irons
Rigid Scene LED lamps
The Scene LED’s spread just the right amount of light under the rig to find the way through a tricky trail without blinding onlookers.
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Bryan Irons
New Rigid Scene LED lamps
The template makes installation a snap.
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Bryan Irons
New Rigid Scene LED lamps
The compact package fits well tucked up on the frame out of harms way.
Review & photos by Bryan Irons
The off-road enthusiasts who venture off the beaten path under the cloak of darkness garner our respect as it can take a sixth sense to make your way through rugged trails with minimal lighting. Being born and bread a “four eyes” and a full patch member of the “Ray Charles Driving Club” makes me a less than adequate pick to be behind the wheel when the sun goes down. Although this may seem like a total downer, the silver lining is that we know what makes good trail lighting, and what cash we’ve burnt in the past on substandard illumination allows us to appreciate quality light.
For low speed night crawling, I discovered Rigid’s new “Scene” lighting. And like the name implies, they’re designed for lighting an area wherein action happens. Typically, when people are looking for more useable light, the first trigger pulled is for a massive lightbar with a “death ray” intensity level that is only good for reproducing solar flares and making jerky at 1,000 m… if you’re not catching the hint, there are better ways. The “Scene” cast a useable working light that covers a much wider and broader area then most driving style fixtures.
The Scene series from Rigid was originally intended for area lighting on camping rigs and heavy equipment, and come in a wide array of sizes and light patterns from a respectable 65° pattern to a massive 115° horizontal spread pattern. We have always marveled at Rigid’s ability to produce a very efficient fixture (watts/lux) as well as a wide spectrum of white light that illuminates all the surroundings. This is something we can’t say for all the lights we have tried in the past, and have had issues with dark areas, or light that only made certain coloured objects appear.
As we scrolled through Rigid’s website we came across the Scene 1x2 65° surface mounted fixture. What we were looking for was a rugged fixture we would mount under the rockers or on the side of the frame rails to illuminate the side of the rig and ahead of the tires for night time adventures on the trail. The 1,100 lumen output and 9 w draw would be perfect without blinding any spotters and the electrical system wouldn’t even feel the amperage draw.
As with any purchasing decision, we were cringing at the prospective price and mentally prepping for the presumed gut kick. We know that Rigid doesn’t build “junk” and have clamored in the past in these pages that the price is well worth the quality of the product. It turns out that we needn’t have worried, at under $130 each… we waved the magic “it’s for our safety, honey” wand to our better half and got the reluctant nod of approval we were hoping for. VICTORY! Now we needed to decide what light colour output would be best… amber or white? Our night wheeling rarely involves foggy conditions so a set of the white variant in a black housing was chosen.
Installation is straightforward and easy; with the low power draw, there was no need to run a relay in the system as we’re talking about a pair of lights that draw under two amps total. Some basic wiring, tie wraps, heat shrink connectors and an inline fuse was all that was required to connect the fixtures to the Daystar Rollbar-mounted switch console. Rigid includes mounting hardware for both wood (think RV and motorhomes) and metal surfaces along with templates. With a drill, tap, centre punch, tape measure and the supplied ¼-20 SAE stainless mounting hardware, we were done in about an hour.
After we were finished with the hook up, we awaited the venomous fingers of night to scrape the sunlight away. A single flick of the “rock light” switch, showed a pattern that fully illuminated the area between our tires and completely under the rig. The pattern then stretched out from under the confines of the low slung rig on 37’s and dispersed into the cloak of darkness five or more metres away. “Pleasantly surprised” is an understatement as the colour rendition and pattern made for easy spotting of objects hiding in the shadows. No longer will we have to night wheel by braille!