Baja Designs OnX6-Hi Power 10" Review

nighthawk285

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Well this seems like an appropriate place to write my review. First off, it's Dan at Carli's fault that I wanted to spend more money since he and I got to talking about these a couple months ago and he told me about Baja Designs. I had been doing some reading and looking for reviews with pictures, reviews without pictures, heck anything to see what they were all about but only found a few and none with good pictures. So, I bought one of the new OnX6-HiPower Combo 10" bars for my bumper about 3 weeks ago and even still today, I'm very impressed with the product and the service. For anyone reading this, Bailey and the team at BD were great in answering my questions and getting things out to me in a timely manner. I told them I would like to write a review for the bar once I had my thoughts together, as all too often it seems that people start to think that "an LED bar is an LED bar is an LED bar" with everything on the market today and I've seen first off that that's just not true, there's differences in all of them. I drive a lot during the wee hours of the morning in prime deer country, and I love having as much light as possible; especially now with fall and winter upon us and days getting shorter and nights getting longer/darker.

We all kinda "know" that the cheap Chinese ones from fleaBay work, and they're cheap as dirt, so why spend the extra money?? It can't be that much better right? Well, to start with yes, they are that much better and some companies have made a great name for themselves making quality bars. The light is much brighter, usually the optics are better, and the lenses don't cloud or yellow over time. I ran one 2 years ago for about 6 months, then happened upon a Rigid Industries 10" combo bar for a great deal and hopped on that and was blown away by how much better it is.........and now this bar from Baja Designs is such an improvement over the Rigid, it's almost like switching from the Chinese bar all over again.

The initial look of the bar is different than what we normally see and at least with what I had associated with a "high output" bar. After all, it only had one row of lights and large reflectors, so it was different to think that it could put out more light (and more USABLE light) than my current bar. I do apologize that this picture isn't as clear as I would have liked....seems something went wrong with the re-sizing. I'll update this one later but for what it is you can see the difference; 6 LEDs with large reflectors and lenses vs. the 20 LEDs with smaller lenses.

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The first night I used it I was very impressed, but unless it's just a huge failure we're usually almost always impressed with something new and shiny......almost like a placebo effect...but that has not been the case with this bar. Every time I turn the lights on it's like having the "rolling daylight" that I've always wanted out of my lights and even now 3 weeks later, I'm just as impressed. The biggest thing I noticed right off was the light color. The lighting industry as a whole has geared lights more towards the "cool white" side of the spectrum with a light temperature around 6,000 Kelvin on the color scale. This makes an intense, bright white light that is naturally brighter, but it actually leads to some eye fatigue after awhile if used for long periods of time. The BD bar is a warmer 5,000 Kelvin color, or more of a warm white. That little bit of yellow in there does wonders keeping eye fatigue down after a long exposure, and it mimics daylight very well, almost like having the sun right off the front bumper. The second, and best improvement over the Rigid bar though is the light pattern where not only does the light shine bright directly in front of the truck, but the amount in the ditches is amazing as well. There is so much more usable light with the BD bar....even in this small 10" package, it's like having a bar 3 times the size. Comparing it to a 30" though is an apples and oranges discussion, though I'm sure it would hold it's own. Words can only do so much, so it's time to get some pictures up here to show you guys the difference and to really show where this bar shines.

The camera I'm using is an Olympus Tough. All pictures were taken in manual with the same White Balance, shutter speed, and with no zoom from the drivers seat with the camera sitting on the dash, trying to give the best impression of how the light looks from the drivers seat. For a sequence, a picture was taken, one bar was removed, the other installed and aimed, and another picture was taken. The Lightforces in my bumper were covered as well so the only light you're seeing is from the LED bar. For a base line, here's what it looks like with my LED headlights. Anyone who has ever tried to get good night shots knows that it always seems like you fight forever trying to balance between a picture that either is blanked out because the shutter was open long enough to absorb all the light, and to not look like utter darkness because it was so quick. That being said, this baseline is a little darker than it seems in person, but now we have a standard to measure the rest off of.
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Here's the light from the Rigid E-series bar with the headlights off.
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And the Baja Designs OnX6 Hi-Power bar with the headlights off
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Not only is the distance improved and you can almost see the third telephone pole clearly in that picture and the fuzzy outline of the tree next to it, but look at how much better you can see the sides of the road as well, and like I said....the color difference is amazing!

Another location
Rigid E-series bar
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Baja Designs OnX6 Hi-Power bar
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Big difference no?

In this location, I climbed up on a stack of haybales and tried to get an accurate representation of the light from outside the truck. These high-end companies always post their lighting maps where the light is efficient and how far it goes, but actually seeing that from a birds eye view is much more relatable.

Rigid E-series bar
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Baja Designs OnX6 Hi-Power bar, now looking at it I even had it aimed a little off too low in this picture but again, the difference is huge.
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I had one more set of pictures, but by the time I aimed the second bar and was getting ready for the next round of pictures, the sun was coming up over the valley enough to where it wasn't giving a great representation of the light anymore. I can take more comparison pictures if anyone would like, just let me know what you'd like to see. All in all I'm very, very impressed with the new bar from BD. Yeah most people are going to see the price and shy away, but in my opinion you get so much more value with these guys. The light output is excellent, the customer service so far has been outstanding, they have the best waterproof rating out of 90% of the bars out on the market today. The waterproof rating is something I always look for being that this is a daily driven truck that sees salt and winter use in Oregon. Most quality bars carry an IP68 rating, these actually carry an IP69. Probably the coolest, unique feature to BD's bar that I really dig on is that the optics are built into the main lens......and that lens is end user serviceable. So not only is it replaceable if it ever breaks, but if you were inclined to do so, you could have a couple different optic options with the same bar! Just for the OnX6 that I bought, there's options for a straight spot, driving/combo, wide driving, and an amber version of the wide driving. Having that kind of versatility to the bar really adds value that I haven't seen elsewhere yet, so an extra kudos to you guys for that. If you're looking for a light bar that has everything you need, a solid customer service team behind it, and the versatility of having different functions if you need it, the Baja Designs bar is an absolute home run winner. Again if you'd like to see more pictures, or want some daytime pictures to reference how far the light is going just ask.

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KTM300

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I know this a little older post, but thanks for posting it. Great review!

I just had a bumper build with room for a 20" light bar, 2 -5" rounds, and 2 - 4" rounds. It is tough trying to decide which Baja Designs lights to go with, since they have such a vast selection of choices.
 

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