Oracle Vega 7 vs. Baja Designs LP6 test comparison review

[swamp2]

Thieves are yoinking taillights off of F-150s in damn hotel parking lots. Even in front of houses. Completely brazen as they have no fear of being shot.

I always find a way to get OT in @SierraBronco's threads.... Here it's only partially OT .

I'll post tomorrow (I guess in the lighting section) a security&upgraded Baja Designs LP to SPV to Modular bumper bolt kit that thieves almost for sure ain't gonna get past. The bolts need to be upgraded anyway as due to the double thick SPV mount the nylock nuts (light bracket to SPV bracket) don't get fully threaded.

The kit is based on Torx Security bolts, all stainless steel of course, with the nice little center pin that stops a regular Torx or regular Torx Plus wrench from removing the fasteners. The light, light bracket and the SPV brackets will ALL be protected.

Security bolts highlighted:

So, it's really 3 for 1, one will get proper length bolts, full security bolts and both security wrenches!

Sorry, totally not applicable here for @SierraBronco , with your cool stealth behind the grill mounting.

Sponsored

 

[SierraBronco]

I always find a way to get OT in @SierraBronco's threads.... Here it's only partially OT .

I'll post tomorrow (I guess in the lighting section) a security&upgraded Baja Designs LP to SPV to Modular bumper bolt kit that thieves almost for sure ain't gonna get past. The bolts need to be upgraded anyway as due to the double thick SPV mount the nylock nuts (light bracket to SPV bracket) don't get fully threaded.

The kit is based on Torx Security bolts, all stainless steel of course, with the nice little center pin that stops a regular Torx or regular Torx Plus wrench from removing the fasteners. The light, light bracket and the SPV brackets will ALL be protected.

Security bolts highlighted:

So, it's really 3 for 1, one will get proper length bolts, full security bolts and both security wrenches!

Sorry, totally not applicable here for @SierraBronco , with your cool stealth behind the grill mounting.

OT is what we do here!

 

[swamp2]

Bolt kit available for purchase here: https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/thre...gns-spv-brackets-modular-front-bumper.126047/

 

[Brian_B]

I always find a way to get OT in @SierraBronco's threads.... Here it's only partially OT .

I'll post tomorrow (I guess in the lighting section) a security&upgraded Baja Designs LP to SPV to Modular bumper bolt kit that thieves almost for sure ain't gonna get past. The bolts need to be upgraded anyway as due to the double thick SPV mount the nylock nuts (light bracket to SPV bracket) don't get fully threaded.

The kit is based on Torx Security bolts, all stainless steel of course, with the nice little center pin that stops a regular Torx or regular Torx Plus wrench from removing the fasteners. The light, light bracket and the SPV brackets will ALL be protected.

Security bolts highlighted:

So, it's really 3 for 1, one will get proper length bolts, full security bolts and both security wrenches!

Sorry, totally not applicable here for @SierraBronco , with your cool stealth behind the grill mounting.

Coming soon to a Bronco near you

https://www.harborfreight.com/security-bit-set-33-piece-68459.html

 

[swamp2]

Coming soon to a Bronco near you

https://www.harborfreight.com/security-bit-set-33-piece-68459.html

I almost think that if someone who is enough of a dirt bag to steal nice off road lights AND is creative and prepared enough to go buy security wrenches/bits, then they deserve the bounty.

Let me emphasize the word above, "almost".

I also use little cheap pin style locks that go through my bike rack and wheel on my pricey bikes with a lot of confidence. They just prevent crimes of opportunity. Any thief with a battery powered angle grinder would have my bike in an instant... And they would equally have a bike with a lock 10x better too.

 

[NoloBronco]

TLDR – I’m taking the LP6’s off and putting a second set of V7’s on.

Introduction - Part of the requirements for what I do includes driving extensive distances on pretty horrible dirt roads. Washboards, large g-outs, moon dust, and deep holes are part of the journey. Lighting does indeed make a difference for these conditions, maximizing efficiency and likely preventing those surprise hits that result in coffee all over the inside of the windshield. We like to joke that just on my drive to work I subject my bronco to harsher off-road conditions than 99% of Bronco owners. I suppose I could slow down…but…efficiency…

Up until the bronco, all the cars I bought for work were F-150’s with the dinosaur trim. They have the suspension that can take the hits, and plenty of aftermarket support for mounting lights behind the grill, my preferred location to keep a subtle look and protect the lights from thieves. On those trucks, I always ran @Baja Designs. There was no question as to running anything else as they were the market leader.

When @ORACLE Lighting started the thread on the newly released Vega7, I wasn’t initially interested. It kept popping up on the unread threads and eventually I ran out of other threads of interest and clicked on it. The specs seemed awfully similar to the LP6’s I currently had on wifey’s Bronco, and seemed like Oracle very clearly had a target in mind for what they were developing. Nothing really stood out until the powered cooling fan being mentioned. Interesting. Is this just a gimmick meant to sell to people that have a variation of “Overland” in their username? I never really paid much attention to the temperature of the lights what with them being LED, but clearly Oracle thought there was reason enough to integrate them into the platform. Could be bullshit gimmick marketing, or perhaps…it’s useful! After doing more research I wanted to test these lights out. And since I already had the LP6’s, why not do a comparison? The LP6’s are a year old, but they weren’t even mounted for a few months and they rarely get used. (In all honestly I only put them on there to cover the panel gap created by the body lift. We took them off when we deleted the body lift) We haven’t popped the lenses apart, and the amber backlights have never been hooked up. With all things considered I was able to convince myself that they were still new enough for a fair comparison.

I sent Oracle a DM explaining the conditions I would be subjecting them to is slightly more abusive than looking cool at cars and coffee every third Sunday and wanted to compare them directly against the LP6. They were very confident their lights would have no issues holding up to scrutiny and a comparison. They didn’t hesitate to take me up on the opportunity, sending me invoices for each type of light between LED+LED and LED+Laser, and I ordered a set. I want the comparison to be as fair as possible, even down to the wiring. More on that later.

Packaging - Yep. They came in a box. Actually a really nice box with some kind of velvet lined packaging, but still a box that has since been thrown in the trash. Moving on.

Aesthetics - Without hesitation I would say the housing and lenses seem every bit as good as the LP6. I’ll give them bonus points on the looks as they took the time to incorporate the fans nicely into the housing. The lens face is angled slightly, while the LED’s are pointing straight ahead. Not sure if this is for purely aesthetic purposes or if maybe that helps to keep rock damage down, but it did make initial alignment with a level slightly more annoying. It does look good though! If you’re someone that pays to advertise for a company by adorning your body and car with their logos, you’ll be more interested in the LP6 than the Vega7. V7 has one small logo. That’s it. And it’s easily covered. This branding approach is very much appreciated, whereas it seems that Baja Designs is worried that you might forget who made the lights. Who approved FIVE logos AND an additional illuminated ad instead of a seventh LED?!? Absolutely cringe, completely ostentatious, and just comically bad. Overlanders will love it. I had to get custom stickers made that is a…variation…of their logo (now db instead of bd) to get reprieve from the advertising.

Installation/wiring - We built our own light rack that would nestle the lights in nicely behind the grill and position them in such a manner to minimize how much structural cutting would be required of the grill mounting shroud. Active shudders are gone. The relays are set up to where the initial relay comes off of Aux1 as a master switch and sending power from the battery to relay 2. The second relay is activated by the fog lights turning off, so that power is sent when the brights turn on and fogs turn off. The third relay is tripped by Aux2. When Aux2 is off, the BD lights are on. Flipping Aux2 switches the power, turning the BD lights off and the Oracle lights on. And yes, I took about 40 minutes staring at the relays then wiring them from the lights back to Aux1 to make certain I had it right in my brain. This setup is easy to flip the lights on and off with the OEM signal for the brights, but also uses the same relays for both sets of lights, eliminating the possibility of a faulty relay affecting the results. The power for all four backlights comes off of Aux6. None of them have an appreciable draw and it hasn’t been an issue. Neither sets of lights come with wiring, only pigtails with a few inches of wire. Baja Designs uses 2.0 mm wiring while Oracle went with 1.35mm. Both are tinned copper and sufficient for 20 foot runs, though, as your typical basic bitch, I always prefer the girthier option even if it can be harder to handle. The mounting brackets on both options are robust. The V7 uses a carriage bolt with a slot that allows the light to be adjusted forward/back as needed, which was very useful for mounting behind the grill. LP6 is simply a hole with secondary holes to allow the bracket to be rotated for aiming before being tightened. Both options have their advantages as the BD will be more secure, but the secondary holes are useless if your mounting bracket has a slotted hole for side to side versatility. The V7 has an insulation pad under the bracket which should help isolate vibration and prevent it from rotating, LP6 does not. T30 bolts are used to secure the V7 light to the bracket. LP6 uses 11mm bolts. I guess you could say that 11mm will deter theft, but…when I grab a 10mm because everything is a 10mm and it’s an 11mm that doesn’t come with any portable toolbox ever made. Mother effer. (Edit-7/16, not 11mm. Thanks @swamp2) Dimensions are almost the same, with the V7 being a tad deeper at the top.

Lighting – As far as backlighting, the amber backlighting on the V7 is brighter and more of a “statement” than the LP6, with an unconventional style and more crisp, if that is an adjective appropriate to describe photons. Between the two options I personally prefer the Vega, especially since they aren’t illuminating an advertisement. I’m undecided on whether I’ll leave them hooked up or not. Aiming both sets of lights was a painful experience. They’re both ridiculously bright and adjusting the light by looking at the spot on the wall is akin to mistiming a safety squint when throwing in a tac weld. They are both advertised as having the same color temperature, but the V7 is whiter while the LP6 is closer to what some could call “daylight.” I was skeptical of Oracle’s choice, thinking the whiteness was going to cause some pretty bad fatigue while on the highway, but it doesn’t bounce off the road badly. The V7 has more of a spot pattern compared to the LP6, and reflective road signs don’t hurt as much as the BD lights. The LP6 is a softer color and despite being behind the grill, they have more peripheral. If casting the beam further is your goal, the LP6 does have an option to swap the lens to a spot pattern. The V7 is brighter and whiter, with the laser projecting far down the road. We didn’t wire these up to use the laser by itself as we weren’t sure how useful that option would be. For simplicity’s sake the laser was wired in to come on with the LED’s. In hindsight it would have been useful to see what the laser was like by itself and I do plan on rewiring the lights to turn this feature on. The laser should be even better for reducing eye fatigue from reflective objects that are up close, and I would think it a great option for those that insist on the lights above the windshield as the laser won’t be glaring off the hood. Lasers by themselves might also be better in light dust and fog? I’m sure Oracle could provide some feedback there.

Heat management – As mentioned earlier, I had never really given too much thought about the heat created by LED’s. Certainly modern LED’s do create heat with the impressive amount of light they emit, but it’s nothing compared to incandescent lights and the temperatures can be so low that there is now a market for headlights with heating elements that prevent snow buildup. Looking in to how the lasers work, they can get quite warm compared to LED’s and it seems prudent to actively cool them to extend the service life of the entire pod. Still skeptical on how truly effective these fans would be while retaining the IP69k (nice) rating. Unless of course, that rating only applies to the housing. Anyway, I did some testing with an infrared camera iphone attachment, turning on each set of lights while the Bronco was idling in the sun. I left them on for half an hour, then checked the temperatures. The V7 lens/housing warmed up to 92oF and seemed to be fairly consistent. The LP6 was then checked with the same conditions and the lens/housing warmed to 130oF. Interesting. Also, the stationary test with V7’s had no ill effects on the air conditioning, which was being used at the time. With the temperature increase from the LP6’s, the Bronco no longer blew cold air. It was like the condenser was heat soaked. Took a quick spin down the road with both lights off, and A/C was quickly restored. I’m trying to put as many hours on the V7’s as possible, so anytime the vehicle is on, even idling, those lights are on as well. Never had an issue until turning on the LP6’s. And have yet to have an issue since. As for running down the road, the tests were performed in the morning and the lights are on as much as possible the entire way to location. About 25 minutes of dirt driving. The V7’s were about 48OF (slightly warmer than ambient of about 45OF) and LP6, when off, were at 47OF. The next day was slightly colder ambient and the LP6’s were about 43OF and V7’s are 35OF. The passive cooling that’s been used since the dawn of needing to manage temperatures of air-cooled devices seems to be effective and for the most part, what will apply to most people. Especially as most owners aren’t going to go through the hassle of putting the lights behind the grill. Silly placement, really. Cooks your condenser and nobody can see that you have lights, which is basically as useful as installing the UFDU – if nobody can see it, does the mod really count for anything?

Noise – Baja Designs is the winner here, edging out the V7 by emitting zero noise after the clunk of the relay. Or perhaps, it isn’t…As with the barely audible humming emitted by the V7 cooling fans, your badass credentials at Cars and Coffee will certainly be boosted when you say “yeah, I have frickin laser beams so these lights use fans for cooling. Hear that? Just sucks I can’t get the backlight in custom colors like the LP6 so that I can match my green accents and rock lights…”


Longevity – Obviously I can’t provide any legitimate feedback on the long lasting durability and reliability of the Vega’s vs the LP6’s. I’ve had three light bars from BD that never had an issue, but usually get rid of cars every two years, so keep that in mind. I’ve had four pods from BD, two LP6 and two Onx6, and one of the Onx6 lights fogged up then stopped working. It was replaced under warranty. The second Onx6 light actually stopped working two weeks ago. (could have been longer than that, I’m not certain. I’m not in the habit of getting out and looking at them prior to this comparison.) I sent an email to the warranty department and BD has yet to respond to the warranty request beyond an automated email. No problems so far with the LP6. As stated earlier I’m trying to put as many hours on the V7’s as possible to see how they hold up over time. Anytime the vehicle is running I have those lights on with exception of going down the road with oncoming traffic. I’ve made a basic attempt at tracking the hours and would estimate they have roughly 60 hours of runtime. Will update at periodically or after failure. The estimated life is not listed but they do have a five year warranty.


Conclusion - Now that the “initial” comparison is done I’m going to remove the BD lights and install a second set of Vega7’s. For the higher speed “desert running” that I use them for, the Vega7 turned into my preference. I certainly have enough light from one set, but I want to increase the chances of failure by running more of the new Oracle lights to test their durability, especially how these conditions have taken out two separate Onx6 lights. (all four lights are using the same relay that was previously powering the Onx6 set) I also really want to see how the fans hold up as that moon dust is absolutely horrible and gets into every nook and cranny it can find. I’m certain those fans are absolutely covered. What’s great(?) about moon dust is that it sticks to everything, even when rotating and bouncing. The fan motors are almost certainly working harder to push the additional grams of mass. I’ll do the temperature tests again and update the thread to see if placement contributed to the higher temperatures of the BD lights. For slow rock work you might prefer the LP6 with it’s wider spread, but in that case the OEM headlights work just fine unless you need to aim them at a thing. Either way you’ll be blinding your spotter. For the SEMA/cars and coffee crowd it’s a bit of a toss up. Fan cred or logo cred. Both are very important bragging points. Whichever brand you go with it’s important to get at least four lights and leave your suspension completely stock. Overlanders stopped reading this a long time ago and used AI to edit out the Prius parked next to them on the latest adventure, then got on Instagram to make an inspirational post.

Is this a kit for mounting or a home grown mounting solution behind the grill? Sorry if it’s in here. I did not see it.

 

[SierraBronco]

Is this a kit for mounting or a home grown mounting solution behind the grill? Sorry if it’s in here. I did not see it.

All good. It’s only four pages of reading to go through

This is a homemade mount. 1/4” plate attached to the modular mounting points under the grille fascia. It angles up and…I forget how tall it is, actually. Next time I have the grill off I’ll measure it. You’ll need to remove all the active shutters behind the grill, and shave away at the shroud. The BD lights have a more pliable plug and are slightly shallower, but not enough to save you appreciable trimming.

 

[crzyhawk]

I almost think that if someone who is enough of a dirt bag to steal nice off road lights AND is creative and prepared enough to go buy security wrenches/bits, then they deserve the bounty.

Let me emphasize the word above, "almost".

I also use little cheap pin style locks that go through my bike rack and wheel on my pricey bikes with a lot of confidence. They just prevent crimes of opportunity. Any thief with a battery powered angle grinder would have my bike in an instant... And they would equally have a bike with a lock 10x better too.

I view it the same way I would a lock; it's there to keep an honest person honest. Someone who's determined is going to succeed

 

[ORACLE Lighting]

 

[OracleLights]

@SierraBronco still going strong and looking good!

 

[SierraBronco]

@SierraBronco still going strong and looking good!

They are! Currently getting some cold temperature testing in Northern Wyoming. Very pleased with the performance.

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