Lighting question

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Mrgoodwrench35

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Messages
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Location
Missouri
RC Driving Style
  1. Bashing
  2. Crawling
I run at night a lot and wanted some lights, mainly for orientation purposes. I see proline has a bumper with an LED light in it and traxxas has some factory upgrade options for front and rear bumper lights. My question to anyone that has experience with lights in the bumper, Do they hold up to impacts very well? I was concerned that frontal impacts would destroy the light bars.

I jump a lot. That was the purpose for the X-Maxx. After a few months of bashing, I'm impressed with how well its held up. The only thing I've broke so far is one of the front hubs (bad landing). I did replace the rear hubs with the rpm upgrades but only because the factory bearings felt rough and they are so tiny (what was traxxas thinking?).

I do notice a lot of impact marks on the front bumper, all around where the light bar would go. Thats why I was concerned about damaging the LED's. Any input would be appreciated.
 
I have zero experience with lighting on RC - I've wondered if it draws from the same power battery as the motor or if there is a separate power supply?
 
Most of the systems you buy are powered from the receiver. In the past I've used custom made 4cell AA packs to power the lights just so they dont draw from the cars power source. Led's are super low current draw so there's not much of a run time change but dangit, I want that extra 2 minutes the LED's would take away, lol.
 
As long as the led's are recessed far enough not to make direct contact and are secured in place you should be fine. I have a polo creations light set in my Typhon and hit a light pole dead center doing about 35mph with no damage to the lights. Wish I could say that about some of the other parts. ;)
 
The light bar is recessed a fair amount into the bumper. I was more concerned with the shock of impacts. Just got back from the local hobby shop and they had the proline bumper with the light bar in it so I'm going to give it a shot. Also got some tail lights. I'll post some pics when I get them installed.
 
@Mrgoodwrench35 With a light bar you shouldnt have to worry. On individual led's some folks put a drop of hot glue on the backside to secure them, and protect the wire connections.
 
Just wanted to do a quick update. I installed the proline front bumper with the LED light bar. The light was great! Very bright and survived multiple moderate impacts very well. The bumper itself, however, leaves a little to be desired. It cracked on the first impact and broke completely in half after landing a moderate jump. I'm pretty disappointed In the durability. I lightly modified the factory bumper and bolted the proline light bar to it. After 5 or 6 hard bashing runs its holding up very well.

I've always considered proline to be a decent option for replacement parts/upgrades but it seems recently, their quality has declined. I had the same luck with multiple slash upgrade parts that broke early on with light use. Maybe its just my bad luck. Anybody else have similar experiences?
 
Eh, I have never used the proline ligting, way too overpriced. I have a set of proline tires, 2 premounted and 2 I glued myself, so far so good. Also overpriced. I prefer MyTrickRC, they are affordable lights, and my 5" light bar has survived lots of rolls on my TrailBoss(proline body) SCT. I dont really do crazy jumps though. MyTrickRC swears to only run the light bars on 5V but my hobbywing Max10 has 6V BEC, the light runs a little warm but hasnt been damaged yet. It sucks your bumper didnt fair too well, sometimes you gotta cobble stuff together yourself.
 
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