Disclosure: I bought the light bar new in 2022 and the switch controller new about two years later, both at full price with my own money. Lasfit did not send me anything and is not paying for this review. One honesty note up front: Lasfit no longer sells the 8-gang controller in this review, it has been discontinued. The bar is still sold. I am reviewing both anyway, because the controller half of this setup is the part people ask me about, and what replaced it on the market is covered at the end.
- Quick verdict: 5 out of 5
- Time in service: Four years
- Tested on: 2008 Lexus GX470
- Would I buy it again? Yes, and when the black truck died, this bar was one of the first things I pulled off it.
- Bottom line: The Lasfit 32 inch bar is the best lighting money I have spent on either of my GX470s.
My setup
- Lasfit 32 inch LED light bar (their V-series single row): 90 watts, Osram OSCONIQ P 3737 chips, 6000K white, spot and flood combo beam, IP67 rated, rated 15,700 raw lumens (8,560 measured). It currently lists at $109.99 on Lasfit’s site. Mine has been on a truck since 2022.
- Lasfit 8-gang switch controller (discontinued): one control box under the hood, one cable through the firewall, and a small panel in the cab running everything. Five of my eight gangs are used: the roof bar, two sets of forward-facing pods, a set of rear-facing pods, and the 20 inch bar in my front bumper.
- The panel sits on a 3D printed mount I bought on Etsy (I cannot remember the shop name) between the sunglasses holder and the moonroof, wired behind the headliner. It looks almost factory.
- All of it rides on my 2008 Lexus GX470, the bar mounted to my Victory 4×4 roof rack (the rack’s sibling bumper is reviewed here: Victory 4×4 Strike front bumper review).
Two trucks, two very different mounts
This bar has lived two lives. On my first GX, a black one, it bolted straight to the factory plastic front bumper, which is what a slim 32 inch bar is really sized for. When that truck hydrolocked, the bar was one of the parts I saved. On my current red GX it moved up to the roof rack, mounted with T-slot bolts, and that is where it has stayed. Same bar, same wiring job at its core, two trucks and about four years. Not many budget lights get asked to do that.
Why my brightest light sits up high
People assume the roof bar is about looks or about throwing light the farthest. Distance is part of it, but the bigger reason is the opposite of what you would expect: I run my brightest light up high because it makes me easier to see. On tight wooded trails, a bright light at roof height shows over brush and around bends long before the truck itself does, and I run it in the daytime for exactly that reason. Oncoming traffic on a two-track sees the light first. That is a safety feature nobody puts on the box.
Install and wiring
I installed everything myself at my buddy’s barn, with help splicing wiring when I switched over to the 8-gang. The roof mount was easy, it bolted right up with T-slot bolts. The bar’s wiring runs down the side of the windshield in a wire-hider strip, and you barely notice it is there.
The controller is the part I would not give up. Before it, every light needed its own switch fished through the firewall. The 8-gang replaced all of that with one box and one pass-through, and the panel wiring runs behind the headliner so you cannot see any of it. Cable management is the whole reason to buy one of these, and it delivers completely.
How the light actually performs
Fantastic, and I do not use that word much in these reviews. It punches way above its price point. The distance is amazing and the spread across the front of the truck, spot and flood sections together, is great. When this bar is on, I honestly do not need any other light on the truck; it overpowers all of them. I run it constantly off road and on empty back roads at night watching for deer.
There is a bit of glare on the hood, and I will not pretend otherwise. It is not bad, and it helps that the bar sits slightly behind the roofline instead of right at the front edge, so the hood is not lit up like a stage. Aim and placement matter more than the bar here.
Where it honestly fails: rain, snow, and other people
Three limits, no sugar on them. In heavy rain the bar is useless: the light bounces off the moisture in the air and the glare makes it miserable. Snow is the same story. And it can never, ever be on around other traffic, oncoming drivers will be dazzled and unable to see. This is a trail and empty-road tool, full stop. If your night driving is mostly highways and towns, a roof bar is the wrong purchase no matter whose name is on it.
The switch panel, day to day
It came with a huge sticker sheet, 100-plus labels for every accessory you can think of, so every switch is labeled for what it actually runs. The buttons have a nice tactile feel, I know which one is which without looking, and the panel sits right where my hand falls without stretching. In about two years it has never lost settings, stuck, or needed a reset. Not once.
My one genuine complaint about the whole setup lives here: programming the controller’s extra modes, flash patterns and the like, is tricky. I never figured it out, and I lost the manual, so those modes might as well not exist for me. The basic on and off has never missed, but if you are the type who wants strobes and programmed patterns, know that the instructions matter and I cannot vouch for them.
Wear and tear after four years
The bar lives at the highest point of the truck, which on Michigan trails means it is constantly getting whacked by tree branches. Four years of that: no dead LEDs, no moisture inside the lens, no broken anything. The finish is scratched up from the trees, because of course it is, but it has not faded. The mounts have never loosened. That is the whole report, and for a roughly hundred-dollar light bar, it is a remarkable one.
A note on the controller being discontinued
Lasfit no longer lists this 8-gang controller, and I cannot send you to buy the exact one I have. What I can tell you: mine looks identical to the Auxbeam 8-gang, right down to the dimensions, and my honest guess is these are the same white-label unit sold under different names. If you want this setup today, the bar is an easy buy, and the Auxbeam version of the controller is the closest thing to what is in my truck. Everything good and bad I said about the panel should carry over, because as far as anyone can tell, it is the same hardware.
The short lists
What I love:
- Distance and spread: the spot and flood combo lights the whole trail, not a tunnel.
- Being seen: a bright light at roof height warns oncoming trail traffic before they see the truck, day or night.
- It has not broken: four years, two trucks, constant branches, zero failures.
- The controller’s wiring: one box, one firewall pass, no switch spaghetti.
- The panel itself: labeled, tactile, perfectly placed, zero issues in two years.
What I do not:
- Rain and snow: genuinely unusable in heavy rain or snow, the glare bounce is that bad.
- Other traffic: never usable around other vehicles, it will blind people.
- Mode programming: the controller’s flash and pattern modes are a mystery I never solved, and the manual is gone.
- Hood glare: minor, and mostly solved by mounting it back from the roofline, but it is there.
Who should buy this setup
Buy the bar if: you run wooded trails at night or early, you want one light that does the work of three, and your budget is real. At about $110 it is not a compromise purchase, it is just a good one. Add a gang controller if you are running three or more accessories and are tired of wiring individual switches, the cleanup alone is worth it.
Skip it if: your night miles are mostly public roads with traffic (you will never get to turn it on), or you drive in a lot of rain and snow at night and need light that works in it (look at lower-mounted amber instead, which is exactly why my bumper pods are amber).
FAQ
Is a roof-mounted bar better than a bumper bar? For distance and for being seen, yes. For weather, no, a lower amber light cuts under rain and snow glare far better. I run both, and they do different jobs.
Why a switch controller instead of regular switches? One control box and one cable through the firewall instead of a new switch run for every light. It is a cable management purchase, and it is worth it the second time you add an accessory.
Can you still buy this exact setup? The bar, yes, Lasfit still sells it. The controller, no, Lasfit discontinued it; the Auxbeam 8-gang appears to be the same unit and is still sold.
How does it hold up to branches? Four years of constant branch contact, scratched finish, zero damage. It lives in the worst spot on the truck and has been fine.
Final verdict
5 out of 5. Four years, two trucks, one hydrolocked engine in the middle, and this hundred-dollar light bar has never once been the problem. It out-lights everything else I own, and the controller behind it made my whole electrical setup cleaner in one afternoon. Would I buy it again? I already know my answer, because when the black truck died, this bar was one of the first things I pulled off it. That is the most honest rating I can give any product.
About the author: Derek runs Mitten State Tours, a Michigan overlanding community, and wheels a built 2008 Lexus GX470. Everything reviewed on Mitten State Reviews is gear he owns and uses.