Gear Head RC Trail Torch LED Light Bar Review

Auxiliary lights are nothing new to the full-size or RC off-road scenes. What is still new is the use of LEDs for the light source. These super bright LED lights have many advantages over traditional lights such as longer life and less energy consumption. They also happen to look cool. As such, as soon as I saw Gear Head RC’s Trail Torch LED light Bar, the “have-to-have-it” switch got flipped.

FEATURES
The Trail Torch body is machined out of lightweight black Delrin plastic. The main body is essentially a three-piece design with two end caps bolted to the main channel. Four small M2 screws hold on each end cap. The overall width of the Trail Torch is 4.3″ and its 0.6″ tall.

The end caps feature tabs off the back for mounting purposes, but note that no mounts are included. The Trail Touch does mount directly to the Gear Head RC Trail Rack roof rack.

Inside the main body are 13 white LEDs that are spaced close together for a realistic end result. Gear Head states the total output is 156,000 mcd. To put it in perspective, that more light than you’d get if you strapped a 60 watt light bump to the hood of your rig.

The Trail Torch is wired with  a generous 12-inch long 2-wire loom that plugs into a receiver for power.

PERFORMANCE & FINAL CALL
After fishing around in my parts bin, I found a suitable way to mount the Trail Torch to the roof  of my Pro-Line Jeep Wrangler Unlimited body that’s on top of my Axial SCX10. I used body mount posts and the end result was clean looking and has thus held up fine.

There were two qualities I was interested in testing: durability and brightness. The first time I used the trail Torch was in competition. It survived and has, likewise, survived many excursions since. As far, as brightness, I’d say it has met and exceeded my expectations. The Trail Torch doesn’t just provide the effect of lights, it provides real usable light. The only thing that would really improve the Trail Torch would be the inclusion of small mounts.

If you want to get a Trail Torch head over to RPP Hobby. They sell the setup for $59.99.

Links

Gear Head RC

Axial

Pro-Line

RPP Hobby