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Raxiom 3-Inch 8-LED Cube Lights
The Info:
Dirt Road Magazine was kindly supplied with a set of Raxiom 3-Inch 8-LED Cube Lights: Combo Beam
from Extreme Terrain that we could install on Stubby and review for our readers! These lights replaced Stubby's FET Catz Fog Lights and finished our complete LED conversion!
Don’t want to read the info? Skip to the review
Why Upgrade?
LEDs have a few benefits over incandescent bulbs, lower energy consumption, higher brightness, different colors, and much longer lifetime. When we started repairing Stubby we found that a good amount of the bulbs were burnt out or otherwise broken, so we decided to just switch everything out for LEDs. We swapped all of the internal and dash lights a few months ago, so these off-road lights were the last thing that needed replacing. LED off-road lights are an excellent addition to quality headlights if you do any night riding at all, they can light up the trail very well and help you see obstacles.
This article focuses on the Raxiom lights we're reviewing, but if you want to convert your TJ to LED, these forum topics are a great place to start:
Replacing The Interior Lights Of Your TJ
TJ LED Headlight Upgrade Options
The Kit:
These lights come neatly packed in a foam lined box, and come with the tools you need to aim the lights or get into them.
The Tools We Used:
The hex wrenches included with the lights, and a 14mm wrench for the mounting bolt are all that you need for mechanical tools, you will also need some general electrical tools for the wiring, we used a pair of automatic wire strippers with built in crimper and some crimp connectors for now, but we plan to solder them in more permanently soon. Unless you're using a heavy duty switch and check the ratings, it's usually a good idea to control off-road lights with a quality relay.
The Teardown:
These lights come with the tool to remove the face plate and take a peak inside, so of course we were going to! The screws were tight, and we had to replace one that stripped, so be careful if you want to try this yourself. These lights boast an IP68 waterproof rating, and they have a nice thick gasket under the glass, we'll test the rating a bit later, but we like the gasket.
Under the protective glass, gasket and lenses, we can see the board and the 8 Phillips LEDs
The only thing behind the board is the beefy alluminum heatsink, so that's really all there is to "teardown"
The Test:
The hefty gasket and IP68 rating have us excited for this bit. '00 TJ has some low-quality fog lights from the local part store, they work fine, but they're kind of cheap-y and the gather a lot of water inside of them during the rainy season.
They aren't supposed to be waterproof though, so we expected this, and it hasn't had an impact on them yet. If these perform better, we'll probably look into swapping those out with a set of these too. We compare these lights more in the actual review,
so lets get to the test! A rating of IP68 means that these lights should be able to tolerate at least 30 minutes under 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) of water, we don't have a 5 foot deep container, but we do have a five gallon bucket. If it can't survive this, it's
certainly not IP68.
Dirt Road Magazine Doesn't Reccommend Parking Your Jeep Underwater!
We used the light that we had not taken apart for this test, but we don't think it would have changed anything.
We tried the light before the test to make sure it worked, and then let it sit in our bucket about 12 inches below the surface. We let it sit for 25 minutes before taking it out, wiping off the excess water on the outside, and inspecting it for water ingression.
The Results:
After spending 25 minutes 12-inches underwater, there was some water inside, but the light still worked immediately out of the bucket, before we even dried it off. (Water and electricity don't mix well, don't try this at home.)
We took off the face plate, and dumped out the water onto the front lens so you could get an idea how much got in. The board still had a few small drops of water on it too
Overall, we wish no water had gotten in at all, and had higher hopes after seeing the nice gasket used, but not much water got in and the light still works without any issues, and we consider this a passing grade.
The Install:
All we had to do was remove the old off-road lights and put these on with the one bolt. We had to use extra washers because his light mounting holes were larger than normal, but it was very easy. Once tightened to the bumper, you can aim them how you want and snug the screws on either side of each light
Before and after:
It's hard to take a picture of the lights head-on that acurrately depicts how bright they are, so this image is only supposed to show that they work even after we took them apart and dunked one in water, and that they look cool. We'll upload some pictures of how well they illuminate the path ahead soon, which will give a better idea of their brightness.
The Review:
After initial tests and comparisons, we're pretty impressed with these little lights, and we think they look really nice on Stubby. They seem plenty bright for us, and they'll be a welcome addition on the trail.
The Breakdown:
Now that you've seen the install and heard some of our thoughts, lets break down our rating:
Price: These lights are the same size as '00 TJ's from the part store, but are cheaper, have twice as many LEDs, and are brighter! 10/10
Sturdiness: These lights feel very solid, and the alluminum case seems very high quality. The polycarbonate front lens should protect the lights very well too. We were pretty happy with how the lights performed in our water test. 8.5/10
Quality: Everything seems well made and we couldn't find any quality issues on the lights themselves. The hex wrenches that come with the light are a bit soft, and stripped during the tear down, but they did the job. 9.9/10
Installation: It's one bolt, just about the easiest install on the Jeep so long as you have a spot for them. If you don't, you might need a bracket or to drill some holes, but that shouldn't be hard either, and is expected with any light. 10/10
Warranty: This product is protected by Extreme Terrain's standard 30 day limited warranty. This is unfortunately below average for these products, and well below what we like to see here at Dirt Road, however,
many online retailers don't offer warranties directly at all, and we find this just a little below average: 4/10
Support: Extreme Terrain has been very willing to help us and answer our questions in our dealings with them: 10/10
Overall, we're really happy with these lights, and think they're a bargain for the price compared to other lights we've tried, and they earn 4 Gears from us. If you want some lights that don't ruin your wallet but still do a great job,
we think these are worth considering.
We'll be sure to update you as we continue to use these lights, and let you know if anything develops.
This review was supported by our friends at:
