Baja Designs OnX / Squadron Review

UTVUnderground.com and Baja Designs have a long standing relationship. One that goes back to the first year we were ever online and the first build we ever did. If you have been in or around the off-road racing / recreation scene for a while then you know who Baja Designs is. They took high-end HID (High Intensity Discharge) lighting to a level that pushed the entire off-road lighting industry to up their game. If you weren't running Fuego's or LaPaz HID's then you weren't using the best, and that was just the fact of the matter! The introduction of the LED (Light Emitting Diode) has certainly forced everyone, including Baja Designs, to move into an entirely new direction in how they build and produce lighting for the off-road industry. Lighting in general, weather automotive, architectural or whatever has been forced to adapt and while many out there claim to be producing long life, bright LED's, only a few are truly using products that are superior to others. Now, I am no expert when it comes to lighting, but before I became the "Golf Cart Guy" I just happened to have spent 12 years in the outdoor lighting industry where I was able to experience the introduction of LED's into the market place. At the time, I was still very much an avid off-road enthusiast so I also paid close attention to how the off-road industry would adapt. Baja Designs, much like the high-end lighting company I was working for at the time was very weary of the new LED market that was emerging. China was on the forefront of producing majority of the LED's on the market and it was very difficult to tell who was building quality, and who was purely building for quantity. So while companies like Rigid Industries began to emerge as the leaders in off-road LED lighting, Baja Designs was slowly and methodically looking at how they would be able to transition into the LED game while not sacrificing the quality name they had worked so hard to build with their other HID and Halogen lighting products. [caption id="attachment_10932" align="alignnone" width="640"] The FATROD used Baja Designs Soltek Pre-Runner HID lights[/caption] Fast forward to today and Baja Designs has been able to maintain their quality standards all while introducing new and innovative LED products to the off-road industry. Selling on quality is a strong point for Baja Designs and clearly separates them from the "knock off" LED market that has invaded our sport selling purely off of price. Sure, Baja Designs products are not going to be the cheapest lights you buy, but the old saying "you get what you pay for" plays huge in the lights they design and sell. We as consumers sometimes fail to acknowledge and appreciate the costs associated with running and building a business in the United States. By supporting those import knock off lighting companies over  a legit company like Baja, or Vision or Rigid you are essentially shunning all that it takes to provide quality products to us as consumers. Its easy for a guy to get on Ali Baba and order up a container of copy cat lights that someone else spent time and money developing, and then sell them to you in the same box they were shipped in from China. While companies like Baja Designs are spending lots of money in designing, developing, providing quality control, packaging, marketing, race / customer support, contingency, etc etc etc. Not to mention, the people they are employing here in the USA to do all of this. So before I break down the products we just installed on our last build, I ask that you all think of that before you make your next purchase. Don't take the guys word that "its the same light THEY sell" "ours are CHEAPER and BETTER" or "we get them from the same company that builds THEIRS" because I can almost guarantee you that is BS! You think the import guy in China is telling the dude over here that he stole a mold or diffuser design and is using inferior technology or drivers to power the product? You think the dude over here is actually traveling to China to verify anything?? Anyway, you get the point! So lets break it down! We just completed our 2014 Polaris RZR XP1000 build. We used a lot of quality parts which we will talk about individually over the course of many articles, but overall Magnum Offroad did a great job on the build for us and Baja Designs was the company we chose to light this build up! For the project we installed 2 - Squadron combo pattern driving lights mounted to Axia Alloy's pillar mounts. Up top we used the all new 30" Baja Designs OnX combo light bar mounted to a custom Magnum Offroad light bar mount. Inside we used a Baja Designs LED Dome Light. Both the OnX light bar and Squadron pillar lights were wired to custom UTVUnderground.com rocker switches from UTV Inc. and wired with Baja Designs wiring harnesses that can be ordered separately. The dome light is powered by its own buit in switch and was also wired up by Magnum Offroad through the top roof cage bar for a clean look! We have used a ton of lights over the course of the past few years. Most all now are LED and because we only stick to quality manufacturers we have been pleased with all of the products we have used. But there is something special about the Baja Designs products. One thing you notice is how robust they are. The 30" OnX light bar we used here weighs in at about  7.5 lbs. Its aluminum, powder coated extrusion is designed to be durable and withstand all elements all while still being able to be fully serviced by YOU without needing to be returned via their uService replaceable lenses and optics. Why is this important? Well not a lot of people consider the lenses. Baja Designs uses hardocated polycarbonate lenses that are designed to last, but so are our car headlights and we all see what happens to those after years of exposure. When you have a light thats rated to last almost 50,000 hours, you want to make sure you have lenses that are able to still produce that crisp bright light. Being able to change them out over time, or simply change your beam pattern by applying other filters is a huge plus for us using them in off-road conditions. (We were very happy when we opened the box to find the Baja Designs Rock Guard protection sleeve so when the light is not used the lenses are protected!) Optics are customizable when ordering, spot or flood are both options you can use in one light bar or you can have them all be flood or spot. We have used the combo in ours with outer diodes being flood and the inner being spot. Baja Designs ClearView® Multi-Form Optics direct the light exactly where it needs to be. Lumens are not lost, rather meticulously aimed to cover specific zones. The light output is amongst the brightest we have ever seen and the intensity of the beam is that of which most 50" bars don't put out! All Baja Designs lights use Copper Drive Technology. They use copper over the aluminum boards because the copper allows the lights to shine brighter, run harder, cool faster and live longer. Baja Designs MoistureBlock® prevents water from wicking its way up the cord into the light. This is a common problem. But the best part about this light is, its LIFETIME WARRANTIED! That means you buy this light ONE TIME! You can't beat that! Pillar lights have almost become standard on most every build we do. In some builds we don't even use a top light bar, just a lower bumper light and lights on the a-pillar like the Baja Designs Squadron's. Lights mounted in this position give you a great beam right at eye level. I tend to aim mine out a bit to help fill in those dark spots you get when making hard turns in the dark. So in the case of this build we mounted 2-Squadron lights on Axia Alloys mounts. We love how these lights not only look and feel but also work. Just like the OnX, and just like all of the products we have used from Baja Designs, the Squadron is robust and just feels like quality when you hold it. Each squadron weighs about 12oz or 3/4 lbs. Its light yet still feels like it could take a hard hit and not get destroyed. The Squadron's are available in four configurations; Combo, Spot, Wide-Cornering & Flood. We went with the Combo, and in our next build we would probably go with the Wide-Cornering just to give us that much more spread. However, I say that because we have our big OnX up top to provide that big punch of light in front, so a softer, wider spread would be perfect. With that said, the Combo is still totally adequate and puts off a ton of light. In high dust situations we can shut off our top bar and just run our Squadron's and stock headlights and its still plenty of light to maintain speed! I made mention to the mounts. The Axia Alloy mounts we used are amazing. I highly recommend them. They are are lightweight billet mounts that are universal for all types of lights or products. They worked perfectly with the Squadron's! Interior lighting is often ignored, but if you are like me, you have dropped your phone or glove or something at night and then spent all kinds of time fishing for it with the use of a lighter or a flashlight. I vowed never again to not have a dome light years ago and the Baja Designs LED dome light has been our solution on numerous builds. Its small but bright and its weather proof built in switch makes turning on quick and easy. It comes with the wiring and hardware you need to mount and came with a nice concave base kit which is perfect for mounting on a tube. These lights can also be ordered without the built in switch and then wired to be used as rock lights in fender wells or under the hood of your machine for night time service. Overall we are extremely happy with the Baja Designs products and while this wasn't our first go around with their lights, it certainly won't be the last! We fully intend on using more Baja Designs products in the future and we can't wait to see what kind of innovation they perform next. If you have more questions on the products we recommend you take the time to call the "Scientists of Lighting" at Baja Designs and learn more about the products and the technology they employ. You won't be disappointed. Until next time, Joey D. Baja Designs OnX 30", Driving/Combo PRO SERIES 4 Cell LED Light Bar

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