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OPT7 C2 Series: 22" LED Light Bar Unbox/Impressions

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4.2K views 18 replies 10 participants last post by  silentbravo  
#1 ·
Here are a few unboxing pics of the OPT7 C2 Series: 22" LED Light Bar.
Ordered from Amazon.com for $58.49 with supplied harness
You can see their specs here, http://www.opt-7.com/c2-series-led-light-bar/

Just going to go through pics and give my first impressions of it.

Box as shipped to me, not to bad of shape
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Seems to be packaged pretty securely, good foam clearance all around
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Harness looks to be quite nice. Relay is fully heatshrinked. All wiring is covered in a plastic shroud. I really like the way they have created a quick disconnect system for the harness and light bar that use a weatherpack type of connector. The brackets seem to be aluminum and likely powder coated. Nice little bag of tools and fasteners.
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The light bar itself. A few small imperfections as far as the bezel goes, didn't look at it super closely but overall looks to be solidly built.
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Side of the bar with power wire. Here is where I have immediately noticed a problem. The grooved circle where the brackets mount to are coated over. I did a quick test fit with a bracket and nope, it didn't want to align very well. The brackets have the same issue really. I'm not sure how big of an issue it will be, maybe they will tighten together and rub the paint off, or I may have to sand off some of the paint to get this to actually work. Also seems to be a serial or model number here, no other markings on the bar (unless I missed something).
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Some silicon coming out of the wire area. Fine by me at least I know it is sealed there. Also some very small amounts of silicone visible around the polycarbonate lens but nothing out of hand. Really enough to just let you know it was done.
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Pretty generous heatsink for this bar.
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Other side of the bar, has the same issue with the paint/powdercoating on the adjustment as noted above. Also this side has their Moisture Evaporator Valve (MEV) which was a really big selling point for me. Hadn't seen this on any other bars. Supposedly it is a one way valve to let moisture out of the lens area but not back in.
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Overall it looks great. I intended to use this as a fog bar, but now with further research it seems like that would be a poor choice. White light and to much of it will just become blinding, even if I mounted it very low. I am going to add to this thread some mockup ideas for how to mount it to my truck with some photoshopping to discuss where this will end up. If you want any other pics just let me know, it will probably be a while before this gets installed yet.
 
#4 ·
Comparing what I have to the pics on their website, there are quite a few differences. Hopefully it is just a bit of photoshopping and/or model updates between them but I have sent in a support ticket anyway just to be sure it isn't a fake (plus i had another question). It really shouldn't be though because the seller on Amazon had tons of reviews at 100% and was listed as Opt7 Lighting. If you go to their actual website and look at the bottom they have a link to Amazon which goes to that seller.... so more than likely they just have outdated pics that make it look a bit fancier than it is.

I'll get mockup pics tomorrow (I hope).

Maybe I'll hook it up with a computer PSU and test it out tonight :D
 
M
#5 ·
I took the risk a year ago, and I'm super impressed. Just as good light quality as RIGID just a little less durable, but super pleased. everything on the roof rack is OPT7 and the front bumper is a RIGID one.
 

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#6 ·
^ looks like you have no problems in the dark :lol:

So last night I went to test out the bar with a spare computer PSU. It's an old OEM junky psu, claims 17A on the 12v rail (these are typically overstated on junk PSU). I didn't want to catch a wiring fire instantly with the tiny 18 awg aluminum wires from it so I soldered 2 sets of wires together. Got everything tested and hooked up, flipped the harness switch saw a flash of light (from the bar) and click, PSU shut down instantly. haha, well it was a shoddy PSU to begin with so that was a disappointing failure. At least the bar came on, switch and relay seemed to be working fine.

Ok here are couple choices I came up with. Now I'm thinking to buy the lower valance with fog cutouts and get some nice amber LED pods to place in those spots, and then I have 2 good locations for the bar itself to use for whatever. Since I don't want to use the bar for fogs anymore the lower position wouldn't be as useful and more prone to damage, but I'm not sure how dumb the license plate will look sitting so low and halfway flapping in the wind... the pics give me an idea but may as well get some thoughts from everyone else.

Pros: "Stock" mounting, very little trimming needed to fit this way. Cons: the opening is slightly to small, very low to ground, prone to damage, less usable light due to angle
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Pros: Bar is mounted higher, better light usage, less damage potential. Cons: Extensive bumper mod (have to cut out behind the stock plate location), new Lic. plate position might look goofy
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I don't want to mount it behind the grill I'm not sure it would even fit with the auxiliary trans or oil cooler my truck has there, plus that's a huge heatsoak area, couldn't be the best for the light AND if I ever ate a deer from the front, that would just be one more thing to smash into the radiator. The grill could get demolished and not take out the rad but if you put a big solid bar up in there, that's going to push right into it guaranteed. Huge "what if" but still a possibility.

I'm not really to keen on mounting it outside the bumper either, easier to steal and make it harder to work in the engine bay from the front. Probably wouldn't line up very well with the grill either and I like the stock look or instead I would be looking into some type of huge aftermarket bumper or brush guard which would make these mounts moot anyway.

(It was surprisingly hard to find pics of my body style head on so going to leave some tags for the internetz) Tags: 2000, 2001, 2002, NBS, Sierra, Silverado, Chevy, Chevrolet, GMC, front clip, front end, bumper, bumper lights, led lights, led bar, led mounts, fog lights, fog valance, mounting, placement
 
#10 ·
I didn't make any valance, this is how It came as far as I know. (other than photoshopping in the fog lights AND moving the plate lower, in reality behind that plate is covered up by bumper :D )

I guess they had 2 options for the lower plastic valance, one with fog lights/openings and one without (mine). The replacement fog version is fairly cheap on ebay here http://www.ebay.com/itm/200544104583?ss ... 1436.l2649

2nd choice I like as well, cutting the bumper out and rolling the edge to make it look factory/good will be interesting. Hopefully the whole bumper assembly comes off fairly easy since that's going to be the way to go here. I'm going to have to at least take off the license plate and see what's behind it to check this for feasibility. Pictures look good but reality may be different. Probably mess with it this weekend
 
#15 ·
Some good news back from Opt7 Support

Thank you for your inquiry.
Yes, from what I saw in the photos it is definitely our product.
The reasoning why the logo is not present,
is because the logos are water marks in our website so that our competitors don't steal our images.
The operating voltage is about 12-24V.
You are also able to dim it to your liking.
Here is a link that might interest you:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0172IYSF0/
If there is anything else you need help with, please let us know.
We are glad to help.
Click to expand...
 
#17 ·
Never installed it down there. It would have very little use and I'm not sure what kind of light output I would get below the bumper like I was considering.

I was thinking about it the other day though. If I ever do a custom bumper I would definitely want to work it into the design or some type of light bar at least.
 
P
#18 ·
I hear ya. I like ranch hand style bumpers, but I don't have or want to spend the money on one for my '02 truck nor do I want the added weight on the front end. I've held off on mounting one on the front because I've seen others surface mount to their bumper and inevitably it gets damaged or stolen. I liked your photoshopped pic of the light in the bumper where you moved the license plate down. I may continue to explore that some.
 
#19 ·
Ya that's a nice looking spot inside the bumper but you would have to cut out the strip of bumper where the plate goes and apparently cutting chromed items has its issues. I had thought about using some C channel weatherstripping stuff to cover the bare edges if I did cut into it. That would hide the cut edges and you could go around the entire opening to make it uniform.
 
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