So you’ve decided to go for one of Lazer Lamp’s Linear lights but is it worth paying the extra for the Elite. In short yes.
We went out for a drive with both lights to try them back to back. When switching between the two there was a noticeable increase in both spread and distance of light.
We’d always recommend going for the Elite Linear, we’re always keen to have as much light as possible.
When Lazer Lamps hinted that they had a 7” version of their Sentinel lights coming I knew I had to get my hands on them. I tried out the 9” standard Sentinels and loved the light output but found them a bit large for my liking and style.
I’ve been fortunate (crazy) enough to have tried all of Lazer’s different types of lights. The Linear 18 Elite has been a firm favourite for some time, the width of the beam and even output are great for night driving on the Scottish country roads.
A pair of 7” Sentinel Elites have the same width of beam as the Linear but pack a lot more of a punch in the mid to long range. Lazer have done a great job of feathering out the hotspot so it doesn’t distract when driving. I’ve previously driven the Triple-R 750 standard and Elite models back to back and actually preferred the standard model as I found the hotspot from the Elites distracting, I found myself concentrating more on the bright spots than all around.
As much as the Linear 18 Elite was my favourite due to it’s beam pattern I preferred the look of the Triple-R lights, the Linear is a lot more understated and discreet. The backlights on the Triple-R look great as well. The 7” Sentinel Elite combines the light output and looks, they have the option of white or amber position lights.
For now the 7” Sentinel Elite are my new favourite. The combo of looks and performance wins it.
Jess came to us with her 2019 Toyota Hilux Invincible X initially looking to add a metal moustache and some driving lights. After having a chat and seeing our Navara Jess decided Lilith needed more.
We decide to add
Metal moustache
Lazer Sentinels on the front
Front Runner roof rack
4X Lazer Triple-R 750 on the roof rack
Wider arches
Tailgate lock
Alpine Halo 9 radio
30mm wheel spacers
Folding mirrors
Upon dropping Lilith off Jess asked us to make the Hilux look better/meaner and left it to us. We decided to dechrome as much as we could. The handles and badges were stripped off along with a strip down of the rear bumper for them to be sent off for painting. Jess had asked us to keep the side steps for access so we Raptor coated them for durability.
We had a few hiccups with getting parts but really enjoyed this one, especially being given the freedom to do what we thought best. Hopefully we’ll get the chance to do another one soon.
Here are some pictures to show the work carried out.
Having had a chance to drive our usual test road with Lazer Lamps Triple R 750 Standard and Elite lights back to back I thought I write a bit about why I thought as the answer to which I preferred wasn’t as obvious as I’d though.
I thought I’d have preferred the Elite lights right away, I’m always chasing more light. However after trying quite a few lights I’ve come to realise it’s not always about the amount of light and is often more about the beam pattern.
Despite looking very similar in appearance the beam pattern from the Standard and Elite is quite different. The Standard has a left to right spread of 19° whereas the Elite has a 42° spread. The up and down spread of light for the Standard is 18° compared to the Elite’s 13°, the 5° difference made more of a difference than I was expecting.
Standard top, Elite bottom
Standard top, Elite bottom
The Elite lights have a brighter hot spot in the middle while also lighting the sides of the road a bit more as well.
Look at the house to see the Elite’s extra width
Which should you choose?
I think most people would be more than happy with the Standard lights, I’m also a fan of the backlight function that they have as it looks quite good having the lights lit up all the time. My daily setup is 2x Triple R 750 Standards with a Linear 18 Elite, because of the width of the Linear the additional light that the Triple R 750 Elite puts out to the sides wasn’t really noticeable.
If I were only going to run a pair of Triple R 750 lights I’d go for the Standard, I preferred the smoother light and I missed the extra up and down spread.
As I said at the start, I though the Elite would be the clear choice. I’m always after as much light as possible but the more lights I try the more I learn about what I think works best. Massive lumen outputs are only good if the light is useful, I tried Stedi’s Type X Sport lights and while they had an impressive lumen count and boasted light to 1KM I really didn’t enjoy driving with them due to the focussed hotspot.
Hopefully the video will help you decide which light would suit you better. Please don’t hesitate to contact us for advice.
Which one do we think you should buy and why?
As soon as Stedi announced their new ST-X light bar we dropped them a message to ask how soon we could get one.
The ST-X is a well made light. The design is very clean looking. It has the option to be backlit in white or orange (neither are E approved). We liked the look of the orange but the white was a bit on the blue/purple side. The light bar has two modes, E-marked and full power. The modes are switched by connecting the blue wire on the harness to 12V, this makes it easy to have an in cab switch to change modes. Lazer have a similar dual light system but it requires removal of a part from the light.
Finally we had the chance to get out in the dark and test the Stedi ST-X and ST1K back to back. The ST-X is a warmer colour of white than the ST1K which we preferred. The ST-X has a more focussed beam with a sharper edge than the ST1K.
After driving our usually test road a few times with each light we came to the conclusion that we preferred the ST1K overall. It’s wider spread was nicer to drive with. We also didn’t notice a great increase in distance with the ST-X that we were running in full power mode. A roof mounted 40” or 50” ST-X would make a great addition to the ST1K but we’d certainly install it first.
ST1K left , ST-X (full power) right
ST-X (full power)
ST1K
ST-X backlights
When I was first drooling over Lazer lamps the Triple R was the obvious choice, the Linear range was still to be released. The decision became a lot harder once the Linear range came on the scene.
When you’re looking to spend £500+ on lights it’s good to get it right first time. Despite all the data available I found it hard to work out what each light was going to be like and what would suit best.
Fast forward a few years and I’ve ended up with both the Linear 18 Elite and a set of Triple R 750.
The Linear 18 Elite came first and blew me away. It’s even light distribution and massive left to right spread make night driving a pleasure. Later a set of Triple R 750s were added and if I’m honest I was a tad disappointed. I certainly wasn’t “wow’d” in the same way as withe the Linear 18 Elite. They did add to the overall distance.
Linear top, Triple R bottom
I recently ran both light setups back to back on the same road to really see what the real world difference between them was.
The Triple R 750s had more distance however I really missed the wide spread of the Linear 18 Elite, it almost feels as though you can see around corners. Despite the Linear 18 Elite having less distance there is more than enough to comfortably drive a country road at 60MPH.
If we were to only run one light it would be the Linear.
Check out this video of both lights that will hopefully help answer which light would suit you better.
We are constantly striving to find the best road legal lights available. It’s often hard to tell from the specs given what a light is going to be like. We are keen to test lights back to back so that we can compare the differences.
We recently took a night drive to compare the Lazer Lamps Linear 18 elite and the Stedi ST1K. We’ll be honest a fairer test would have been the standard Linear 18 but we don’t have one.
To test the lights we drove the same road back to back swapping between the lights.
What did we find out?
Beam: The Linear 18 elite has a very smooth wide beam but due to the amount of light it puts out it also has a good distance. The ST1K has a good spread of light but has a much more defined hotspot in the middle which we thought gave it a bit more distance.
Lazer Linear 18 Elite beam
Stedi ST1K beam
Colour: Both lights are a good colour of white with no blue tint to them. We found the Lazer to be a little warmer in colour.
Size: both lights are very similar in shape and size and look good mounted above or below a number plate.
Overall we preferred the Lazer Lamps Linear 18 elite, we found it’s warmer colour and smooth, wide beam easier to drive with. Whether it’s worth 2.5 times the price of Stedi’s ST1K isn’t as easy to answer. We don’t think you’d be disappointed with either.
If you want the best go Lazer. If you want a great light that’s easier on the wallet go for the Stedi.
Lazer top, Stedi bottom
Lazer top, Stedi bottom
Lazer top, Stedi bottom
Lazer top, Stedi bottom
When the customer came to pick up his L200 after we fitted the lights and first round of modifications we had a discussion of what was to come next. More front light was the main theme, however, there were a few other modifications thrown in.
The list
Hella 500 halogen lights mounted on a number plate bracket
40” LED light bar mounted above the windscreen
6” HID long distance lights mounted on the canopy
Auto folding mirrors when the car locks & unlocks
Flip out keys
Bonnet struts
Twin LED rear fog lights
Anderson Jump Start Point
We had the the L200 booked in for a day to fit everything but as always there were issues that we hadn’t anticipated. In the end the customer was nice enough to leave it with us for a week so we could work through them.
We chose to go with the Hella 500 for a few reasons, they are relatively cheap, they are light as the mount did have a little flex and most importantly they are fully road legal so can be used on public roads with the main beam no problem. The issue we had when fitting these was that the bar on the front of the mount fouled the lights causing them to pint into the sky. Rather than use a bunch of washer we got some 15mm spacers.
The customer knew he wanted a few lights. Originally they were going to be LED lights fitted here but I wanted something that would work with the light bar. We chose to go with long distance HID lights as more LED lights wouldn’t make much difference when the LED bar was on. We used some angle aluminium and rivnuts to mount the lights to the bars already on the canopy. The problems we had when fitting these were down to us not accounting for the drop in voltage running from the battery all the way to the rear. Rewiring the lights with 30A cable sorted that.
This is the one light the customer knew he really wanted. At first it was going to be fitted on the canopy in front of the HID lights but it was to wide. We decided to go with some brackets that were for a curved bar. After swapping them over, a bit of bending, some new spacer and paint we got it fitted.
One of the few modifications that went smoothly. We fitted a module that folds and unfolds the mirrors when the car is locked and unlocked. I’m not sure why Mitsubishi didn’t do this as standard.
We’ve fitted bonnet struts to all our own vehicles and when the customer saw them he wanted them. We got a kit that was supposed to fit the L200. It did, except the first time we closed the bonnet the passenger side strut fouled a diesel pipe on the fuel filter and put a nick in it. After sorting the diesel pipe we removed the fuel filter bracket and, you guessed it, spaced it out,
We swapped the internals from the old keys to the new ones, had them cut, went to start the car and it wouldn’t fire. After a bit of head scratching we took the 9ld keys apart again, had a look around and found the immobiliser chips. Once we put them in the new keys it fired no problem.
we seem to have forgotten to take a picture of these so you’ll have to keep an eye out on our social media after we get the customer to send us a picture.
We’ve done a few of these now. The make jump starting more convenient and a little safer. This one is wired with 170A cable and Fused
That is all for now, however there may be more in the pipeline.
Our latest project was a 2014 Mitsubishi L200. The customer came to us after seeing the work we had done on a Defender. The L200 is used at night and the main theme was lighting. We replaced the battery powered light in the canopy with a much brighter LED one that is wired to the battery, in addition to that there were lights added to the canopy tailgate to light up the area behind the vehicle. We replaced the bulbs in the cab with LED ones and added an LED light to help illuminate the rear seat area. The front light originally only had one bulb light up when the doors were opened despite having three bulbs in the light (two for map reading). This was modified so that all three are used when opening the doors but still allows the map lights to be used induvidually. After buying the L200 the customer realised that the lower tailgate didn’t lock. He often carries higher value items so locking was a priority. We fitted Eagle 4X4’s locking kits and wired it to the cars original central locking. To help with parking we fitted a Pioneer reversing camera and double din unit. High mounted work lights were added that can be switched to come on in reverse to compliment the camera. A switch panel was made to house switches mounted in the headlining. Fitting the double din stereo came with its own challenges, mainly relocating the original display that showed mpg etc. Check out the pictures below and please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’re looking to make some additions to you’re vehicle.
Pioneer double din stereo showing the reversing camera and relocated display.
USB and aux in for the stereo
Discretely mounted reversing camera.
Replacment canopy LED permanently wired.
LED tailgate lights.
High mounted LED work lights that can be switched on with reverse lights.
LED lights added to the cab.
Switch panel and modified front light with LED bulbs.
Eagle 4X4’s lock kit
