EXCURSION PRO

Tektite Excursion Pro, retail $199.95 (http://www.tek-tite.com)
Manufactured by Tektite (http://www.tek-tite.com)
Last updated 02-15-07

EX60


The Excursion Pro is the newest child in the long-running Tektite family of bright and durable flashlights. It is milled from a solid bar of aluminum, and it features 19 bright white Nichia LEDs and a special new optics package to give it a little more "umph". The Excursion Pro is powered by three common D cells and is designed to provide a long useful life with good brightness.







The Excursion Pro is so new, it isn't even available yet (as of 05-01-02), but should be in just a few more weeks. You will probably need to install batteries, but once that's done, it's ready to use.

To turn the Excursion Pro on, just give the rubberized bezel a firm clockwise twist; to turn it off, turn the bezel the other way.

The light can be hand-carried, or stood on its tail to shine on the ceiling as a kind of "electronic candle".



To change the batteries in this monolithic monster, just unscrew the bezel & dump out the one-piece LED assembly. Dump out the dead batteries, and insert three new ones, button end (+) facing up. Place the LED board in the barrel with the LEDs facing up, and screw the bezel back on.



Business end

This is an uncommonly durable, heavy-duty flashlight. Being made from a solid rod of aluminum (except for the bezel) means you're going to have a devil of a time trying to break it. When thrown, it hits the ground with a loud, metallic clank and just rolls around. No damage done. The only thing I've been able to do is slightly flatten some of the knurling on the barrel by beating it against a steel rod. Clank! Clank! Clank! and it just keeps on going, until the neighbor below me starts banging on his ceiling with a toilet plunger handle because of the noise.

Although the bezel assembly is made out of clear Lexan, it is protected by a thick rubber shroud, and it would take a concerted effort to break it. It is almost inconceivable that any ordinary accident will be enough to do the job. Should this become broken however, it is easily replaced, and in an emergency, the bezel off any of the Tektite 3-C-cell lights will fit the Excursion Pro.

This light is water resistant, and submersible to 1,000 feet. So if it goes overboard, it can be fished out of the water and be none the worse for wear. Unless of course, you happen to be floating over Challenger Deep, in which case you're thoroughly screwed.

The barrel of the light is textured or knurled to help you keep a "grip" on things. Like most very large flashlights, no lanyard hole is provided.



Beam shot. Note the smooth, even beam emitted by this light.

The beam produced by the Excursion Pro is slightly modified by the use of a new Fresnel optic in the bezel assembly. This narrows the beam and gives the light a little more "throw" than would otherwise be possible using just the bare LEDs. The beam is soft and even, and shows no spotting or rings.

The Excursion Pro uses a twist-on mechanism which is totally non-destructive. Instead of a springy metal strip going up the side of the flashlight and contacting the LED board at one point, there is a lip or shelf milled into the body of the flashlight which contacts the whole circumference of the PCB at once, putting an end to any worries of the traces on the PCB being dug out and eventually becoming intermittent or failing alltogether. In my opinion, the twist-on switching mechanism of this light is the most reliable twist-on switch tested to date.



Beam profile analysis.



Beam contour analysis.

Charts made by the ProMetric system, on loan from Radiant Imaging.


Spectrographic plot
Spectrometer plot of the LEDs in this flashlight.
Ocean Optics USB2000 Spectrometer on loan from WWW.TWO-CUBED.COM.



TEST NOTES:
As of early May 2002, unit is in a late prototype stage, and should become available within the next few weeks.


UPDATE: 05-03-02
This is a very heavy light, made for very rough service such as search & rescue, utility crews, sewer workers, firefighting, etc. I was unable to break or crack the barrel despite very hard smacking against a steel rod - much harder than I would hit a plastic flashlight.


UPDATE: 09-22-05
I found this flashlight in the back of the van this morning - the van that was used when I moved here in early-October 2004. So it spent most of last autumn, all of last winter, all of last spring, and almost all of this past summer (all but four hours of it) outside in the back of this van, and it still works properly - as good as the day I received it.


UPDATE: 09-22-05
Yes, a same-day update. No, you aren't seeing things.
I also did something I should have done at least a couple of years ago - placed the Excursion Pro in The Trophy Case of this website where it really belongs. As they say, "better late than never".


PROS:
Extremely durable construction
Uses common, easily available batteries
Long burn-time
Submersible to 1000 feet
Does not appear to overdrive its LEDs by any substantial margin; will retain "like new" brightness longer.


CONS:
When fully loaded, it is a very heavy light.
Possibility of damage to the batteries (crushing of battery's (+) nipples) if dropped face-first due to sheer weight & mass.



    MANUFACTURER: Tektite
    PRODUCT TYPE: Heavy-duty flashlight
    LAMP TYPE: LED
    No. OF LAMPS: 19 ea. 5mm white
    BEAM TYPE: Narrow flood, soft falloff
    SWITCH TYPE: Twist-bezel on/off
    BEZEL: Clear Lexan with Fresnel lens & rubber shield to protect LEDs
    BATTERY: 3ea. "D" cells
    CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
    WATER RESISTANT: Yes
    SUBMERSIBLE: Yes, to 1000 feet
    ACCESSORIES: Batteries
    WARRANTY: Limited lifetime, including LEDs

    PRODUCT RATING:

    Star RatingStar Rating









Tektite Excursion Pro * WWW.TEK-TITE.COM






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