Devon 4x4 Off Road - Lightforce Lights

Lightforce Lights - A real shootout !

It’s all too easy for a manufacturer to ‘big-up’ their product with superlatives and fanciful claims when they know full well that no one is ever going to be able to bother to put those claims to the test. When LRW received the blurb on a new range of spotlamps from Lightforce claiming they were ‘bullet-proof’ and that if we were in any doubt about the companies claim we should: ‘just take our word for it’, not surprisingly, eyebrows were raised. Bullet-proof spotlamps? Surely not. But how are you, the punter, supposed to disprove their claim? You’re not exactly going to go out buy yourself a £120.00 set of lamps and fingers crossed, shoot them up in the hope Lightforce are telling the truth are you? You might not be willing to do that, but we were…

We had our pair of sacrificial pair of lamps, all we needed now was a gun… I don’t hold a firearms licence, but thankfully I know a man who does. Adopting a scientific approach, the LRW test facility, enlisted the help of not just any old Sunday clay pigeon shooter, but one of this countries leading experts in gun related matters. Colin Greenwood is the retired ex Chief Inspector of the West Yorkshire Police force, the former editor of the Gun Review and the author of the definitive piece of test on .

Before Colin loaded up his guns though, we thought we ought to test another of Lightforce’s impressive claims, that although not quite as extraordinary as ‘bullet proof’ is something that will be of more practical use for the most of us. Lightforce claim their lamps are waterproof. Our test facility (my garage) used the highly sophisticated controlled immersion test, utilising a bucket of water and a lamp weighed down with a house brick.

After leaving a lamp overnight in the bucket I can report that the following morning no moisture was present inside the lamp. Lightforce uses its own unique method of attaching the lamp body to the bulb holder/lamp bracket assembly. The whole of the lamp/lens body screws onto the threaded portion of the bulb holder, sealing itself using no less than three neoprene seals incorporating within the threaded section of the bulb holder. The wiring into the lamp is also sealed effectively within the lamp bracket to create, as far as our tests found, a truly waterproof lamp.

Okay, so we proved the waterproof claim was 100% genuine. So what? What we really wanted to put to the test was their resistance to a speeding bullet. Contained within the Lightforce press-release were full details of the original Lightforce tests carried out with help from the Australian Police. Using this information, we were able to replicate the same tests, even down to the type of firearm and ammunition used.

Lightforce don’t use glass for their lamp lenses, but a lightweight polycarbonate material called ‘Lexan’ that looks and feels just like plastic. On a purely touchy-feely level, Lightforce lamps are so lightweight to the touch, they feel almost too cheap and plastic, to warrant the £140.00 asking price the cheapest model in the range will set you back. However, as we were about to find out, making them from Lexan is equally, what makes them so strong.

The lamp lenses are protected by a clip-on filter that although available in a range of colours for different driving conditions or emergency vehicle applications comes as a plain clear filter as standard. We clipped the filters onto our RDML 140’s and took cover at a safe distance while Colin trained the telescopic sight on his Ruger rifle on the lamp positioned 100metrres away.

Up close, a .22 shell doesn’t the look the most fearsome piece of ammo in the world but as the substantial impression in our home made steel mounting bracket from Colin’s first low shot proved, you definitely wouldn’t want one to hit you between the eyes. Colin’s second shot was spot-on. The bullet passed straight through the filter and the lamp body, creating a small entry and exit hole. Read the blurb carefully, and Lightforce actually claim their lamps are ‘Shatterproof’. Where the bullet passed through the back of the lamp reflector, a split had appeared, but true to their word, it hadn’t shattered. The filter and lamp body had barely a flesh wound.

Next up, Colin swapped the Ruger rifle for his Winchester over and under shotgun and moved up to the much closer distance of fifteen metres. Once again, we emerged from our hidey hole to find the lamp had survived. The filter was peppered with small indentations from the round , but not a single pellet of number seven shot had managed to penetrate the polycarbonate filter.

After having being drowned and shot at, we rigged both lamps up to a 12v power source and whadya know, they still worked! Are these the best off-road spotlamps you can buy? On the evidence of our own test results; we’d have no option but to say ‘yes!’

Available in a range of sizes (140mm, 170mm, 240mm) Lightforce prices start at £115 (ex-vat) for a pair of the compact 140mm units.

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