If you haven't been to Flagstaff, Arizona, you are sorely missing out. Great weather, skiing, snowboarding, excellent night life when the local college is in, and more off-road trails than we rightly know what to do with. While last year's trip was a more about fun and games, this year's little adventure had some business thrown in. Namely, yours truly fumbling around in the cold and snow with a Lux meter taking measurements from Rigid Industries Off-Road LED Light Bars and their cheapo eBay counterparts while Dylan took notes. The good news is we got some excellent quantitative data out of us freezing our asses off, so it all worked out. Other than that, we had a jolly good time horsing around with our 2012 F150 EcoBoost FX4 Project Truck, 2007 F150 XLT 4WD Project Truck, and our 2005 F150 4WD XLT Project Truck out in the woods, mountains, and snow.
Dylan, Bill, and myself headed up to Flagstaff Friday afternoon to scout some trails out and hopefully find a place to do our light testing after the sun went down and the rest of Stage 3 crew arrived. It also gave us an opportunity to show off some of the parts on our 2012 EcoBoost Project Truck, including our 40" E-Series Off-Road LED Light Bar, C-Style Projector Headlights, our grille-mounted D-Series Dually Spot Lights, and our brand-spanking new 2009 to 2014 SMD LED Taillights from The Lighting Firm.
Because the snow was getting deep, and the quality of underlying trail was questionable, we stopped short of doing a full run until the other guys showed up with their trucks, just in case we got stuck. We turned around and headed back to the cabin Bill rented to grab some dinner before we got our light testing and trail running done in earnest.
Once the rest of the office showed up an we all got some grub, and then headed back out into the woods to get some work done. Given that we have three trucks decked out with light components, we had plenty of photos to take and work to do.
Here's an image of our 2012 F150's AMP Research Powered Side Steps and their included LED lighting that have also been paired up with a set of Rigid Industries A-Series Rock Lights to increase light output.
We also managed to grab another shot of TLF's new F150 SMD LED Rear Taillights, that shows the bulb pattern a little better.
The pitch blackness of the forest and a moonless night made grabbing images of our lighting parts a breeze, and our 2007 F150's Recon Smoked LED Halo Headlights, Recon Illuminated F150 Badges, and it's rear-facing Rigid Industries Dually Diffused Flush Mounts looked absolutely at their best.
Our 2005 F150 4WD XLT Project Truck was recently fitted with Diode Dynamics 510 Lumen XP80 reverse bulbs, Diode Dynamics LED Turn Signal Bulbs, and a pair of Rigid Industries 6" E-Series Combo Off-Road LED Light Bars mounted in its lower bumper fog light openings.
One of the items that came in most handy out there in bush was the TruXedo B-Light mounted in our 2005 F150 XLT. With taking camera equipment, ladders, firewood, light bars, light meters, tools, and flashlights in out on our little adventure, the battery-powered B-Light made things that much easier.
The real reason we went out to the middle of nowhere, in winter, and froze our asses off was to compare Rigid's Light Bars with some "equivalents" that we grabbed off of eBay. We'll get into more detail about what we found out on a later blog post, but I can say that standing in 20° F weather while holding a Lux meter while retina-boiling light bars were pointed more or less at my head. But hey, at least we got out of the office.
After we finished our light bar comparisons, it was time to go screw around, and we had a great time doing it.
With out gas tanks low and it getting late and very cold out on the mountain, we headed back to base to get some rest. The next morning, we headed back out. This time, we made our way over to the East Side of Flagstaff near Sunset Crater for some trail riding. No work this time, just play.
Of course the first thing we had to do was a hill climb, where our 5.4L-Powered 2007 XLT got farther up the hill than any of our other trucks, proving that all the power in the world can't help an EcoBoost with tires worn down to nubs by Bill's driving.
With the hill climb out of the way, it was time for donuts...for science...and stuff.
While we didn't discover anything ground-braking, our Fuel 20x9" Trophy wheels and our Fuel 20x10" Lethal wheels did look pretty good caked in snow and grass.
Our Husky Liners Rear Wheel Well Guards also performed admirably, and made cleaning up later that much easier.
We then set out to see what kind of other trouble we could get into.
