EDC - Flashlight Addition Edition

[Kommander]

Glad you guys could spend my money for me. I just finished getting a light on my AR so now I am down a light for my big BoB.

[Greg]

Or you may just be too sane to be a proper flashaholic. It can get pretty bad, what I've been posting is just child's play.

Streamlights are great value, but a plastic body isn't desirable when you're dealing with an order of magnitude more output than that light has.

The deepest I have ventured down the flashlight "rabbit hole" is a Fenix TK41. Great light if you want a "thrower", I can light up a stop sign 500 yds away. Requires ni-mh batteries to actually give the 800 lumens, though; alkalines can't supply the required current on turbo.

Yeah you're sane. Me, I'm still hanging on but it's a struggle- only my natural cheapness continues to save me.

That's a sweet light. I'm very partial to nimh batteries, aside from being safe, shelf stable, etc, they're good for at least 2A.

The Streamlight Polytac is a great little flashlight to throw in your car. The CR123 lithium batteries stand up to summer heat much better than regular alkalines.

Very true. Alkalines, well they're cheap. But they don't like hot, they shut down in cold (maybe not an issue for you, but some places that matters), and they *really* don't like having to provide more than a trickle of current. So for low current draw applications at room temperature like remote controls, they're great. Otherwise? Leaky caustic spewers that don't work well and will be dead when you need them, and probably take your light with them.

Every once in a while a store will have lithium AA's and AAA's on sale, I think it's worth picking some up. My oldest lights are on car duty- each car has 3 Maglites in it, a Solitaire in the glovebox, a Mini in the gear bin in the trunk and a 4-d under the passenger seat. All have LED conversions, and the Solitaire and Mini have Energizer lithiums. I test the 4-d's regularly, while the others... well it hasn't been 10 years yet.

[Weetabix]

Yeah you're sane. Me, I'm still hanging on but it's a struggle- only my natural cheapness continues to save me.

Quoted for truth about so many areas of my life.

[Greg]

Yeah you're sane. Me, I'm still hanging on but it's a struggle- only my natural cheapness continues to save me.

Quoted for truth about so many areas of my life.

In your copious free time, I can recommend having a look at:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com (THE place for flashlight enthusiasts, covers LED, incandescent, HID, anything else)
http://www.budgetlightforum.com (for people who like 'budget' lights and finding the many gems among the generic Chinese crap)
http://www.edcforums.com (related to everything 'EDC', what to carry, how to carry it, why, and related skills)
http://www.bladeforums.com (has its flaws, but it's a great knife site. You're here and you like flashlights, you like knives too)

I also ordered some more stuff that hasn't arrived yet, will likely provide fodder for a future post.

[Weetabix]

Free what?