Thrunite Archer 2A Flashlight Review
Kevin Felts 03.16.17
The Thrunite Archer 2A is the big brother to the Archer 1A. As the name implies, the 2A uses two AA batteries while the 1A uses a single AA battery.
First impressions were very good. The flashlight was packaged in the typical Thrunite cardboard box and came with an extra o-ring, spare on/off cap, belt clip, and lanyard.
There was no carry pouch included with my test sample.
Specifications
Lumens and estimated run time
- High: 500 lumens / 96 minutes
- Medium: 75 lumens / 11 hours
- Low: 17 lumens / 4 days
- Firefly: 0.2 lumens / 28 days
- Strobe: 500 lumens / 140 minutes
Weight with two AA batteries: 3.5 ounces
Length: 6 1/16 inches
Body diameter: 11/16 inch
Thrunite Archer 2A Torture Test
Hammer – The Archer 2A was taped to a framing hammer and used to drive two 12 penny nails through a pressure treated 2 x 4. The outside of the light suffered some damage, but functioned as it was supposed to.
Drop – The flashlight was then dropped several times from a height of around 4 feet onto a railroad crosstie.
Water – To simulate a real world situation, the Archer 2A was tied to a piece of cord around 15 feet long, and then tossed into a creek. The other end of the cord was tied to a small tree.
Two hours later the flashlight was retrieved and there was no water inside the light.
Road – The Archer 2A was placed on a dirt road and ran over several times with a Massey Ferguson 231 tractor. There was a nice imprint in the dirt from the flashlight, a few scuff marks, but no serious damage.
Dropped from truck test – Several years ago my children and I were at the deer camp. My youngest son set his flashlight on the bumper of the truck and forgot it was there.
I told the kids to get in the truck, we were going to a country store to get a coke and maybe a bag of chips. After we got back to the deer camp, I asked my son where his flashlight was at. He said something like “Oh no, it was on the bumper of the truck.”
We slowly drove back to the store looking for the flashlight. My son spotted it, got out of the truck, picked up the flashlight, only to discover it no longer worked.
To simulate that type of situation, the flashlight was dropped from the truck while driving down a country road.
The Thrunite Archer 2A worked perfectly.
Beam
I do not understand why the Archer 2A would go from 500 lumens to the next setting of 75 lumens. That seems like a large jump. Also, 500 lumens seems like a lot of draw from two AA batteries.
For what this flashlight is supposed to do, it would appear that 200 or even 150 lumens would be plenty. In my opinion, 500 lumens is tactical flashlight territory. The small size of the Archer would make it excellent for camping, backpacking, and hiking. With over 30 years of outdoor experience, 100-150 lumens is plenty for camping.
The beam is not adjustable. However, it provides a nice center area without too much of a flood.
Final Thoughts
Here is what I would like to see different about this flashlight:
- Larger lanyard holes: The holes for the lanyard are rather small. The provided lanyard works fine, but I like to use trotline string. Even small string was difficult to get through the holes.
- 150 lumens: For a truck, backpack, hiking, camping, boat.. etc flashlight, 150 lumens would be plenty. If you want something brighter, go with the Thrunite TN12.
The Archer 1A brightest setting is 200 lumens for 115 minutes, which is great. Instead of going for 500 lumens with the 2A, why not go for 200 lumens for 230 minutes?
The overall quality is great, I am just trying to figure out what niche this flashlight is trying to fill.
