I had an off brand Chinese 30"" light bar in my truck for about 3 years. It was bright, but wasn't all that helpful. The pattern was very center heavy, the spread wasn't great, the throw (distance) didn't seem to match the brightness, and the very bluish white color seemed to fatigue my eyes when using it. I enjoyed having the light at my disposal, but it felt like I was driving with a spotlight attached to the front of my truck in all the wrong ways.I'm a dirt bike racer and have BD lights on my bike, and have been steadily adding BD lights to my truck as well. So I am very familiar with the quality of Baja designs products. When I saw a deal on this S8 30"" bar I jumped on it. It would be an easy swap with my existing bar. And hopefully improve the quality.After I got it installed I took it for a drive. Wow.At first the raw output didn't really impress me, because it didn't have that hot center spot of my Chinese bar, nor was it as blue.But wow. The spread of the bar was amazing, and instead of having a center spotlight, it covered the same spread as my headlights.Then, the distance... THE DISTANCE. This thing throws light waaayyy further than any China bar I have used. Wow. And this isn't even their long range racer edition light.Thirdly, the color of the light is amazing. This is what I feel so many people overlook. The Baja designs led color is so natural on the eyes, that it makes it more useful in seeing what's ahead of you, while also preventing eye fatigue.I am very impressed in this bar. So much so that I came in from installing it to get my iPad and write a review for it. I have no complaints on it. There are some complaints on the lack of harness. But I had existing wiring so I didn't mind. Plus they offer so many different harnesses based on your application that it would likely be more helpful to purchase one rather than get a free universal one.For the amber backlights, I currently have these wired to come on with my fog lights (Squadron SAE in amber) but I may change that to have them come on with my parking lights. We will see. I really like the backlight feature, and wish that their Pod lights had something like this.Many of the questions and reviews are debating between this product and one 1/10th the price. Here's my case for BD:- Light quality (see above, but the quality and usability of light is far superior to a cheap bar. If you are getting it to see better at night, this should be your first priority)- Light throw: I have owned 3 different Chinese bars and have been in vehicles with many others. None of have thrown light as far as this one. Again, if adding a light bar. Don't you want great throw?- Light spread: this may be debatable, since I have seen some Chinese bars with a super wide pattern. But this has a very smooth, very wide spread of light. Need it wider? Exchange the two side lenses for wide/cornering lenses. Need less? Convert all the lenses to spot lenses.- Durability: while you can buy many many many Chinese bars, having to replace and work on things and have failures is annoying. BD offers a lifetime warranty for a reason. It's good stuff.- Support: need a replacement part? Having trouble with install? Call or email them and get support from someone who knows what's up and speaks normal English. Try that with your Chinese bar.- Manufacturing: this may not matter to many, but I am becoming increasing interested in supporting stateside manufacturing and jobs. Hike some BD parts are sourced oversees, many of them are made in the US, and all their lights are built and assembled in Southern California with high performance desert loving folks possibly just like you.Only you can decide if the above points matter enough to shell out the coin. It took me many years to bite the bullet. But I won't go back to cheap LEDs ever again. If you want useful light, look at BD, even their smaller lights if you are tight on funds. If you want a light bar because you want your car to look cool, and you want to be ‘that guy' driving around blinding everyone, find the cheapest one you can, and the rest of us will hope that it fails your first time through the car wash so you stop blinding us on the highway.
