Good (cheap) Emergency Equipment

[FedRich]

Our Division is about (probably won't once I post this) to be authorized $ to upgrade/improve our emergency equipment. We drive unmarked cars/SUV's and have the "Federal" tint. We are looking to buy new lights (LED?) and just wanted to get some suggestions, especially from agents/officers in FL. The down side is that we are restricted to only $600 a vehicle.

Our current stuff is old school halogen red and blue flashers that use a cigar plug. Just looking for blue lights (everyone in FL knows what they mean) in the front and rear windshield and maybe some type of secondary warning too (brake light flashers, etc.)

I've put requests for quotes out to several companies, but want to know what works best or is cheap and still good.

Thanks for your suggestions. :huh?:

[Wick]

We just went through this not too long ago at my office. We purchased a lot of LED lighting and a lot of other stuff that I think is useless.

LED lighting is great. I'm not sure what the laws in Florida are concerning color of emergency lighting, but can you use red and blue together? Blue LED lighting can be more expensive than other colors. In some of the new LED units red and blue are the same price.

In my experience wig-wags are the single cheapest and most effective way of alerting traffic to your presence. Add that with a red/blue LED on the dash or headliner and you are in pretty good shape, adding a pair to the grille is also very effective. Same thing in the rear, tail light flasher and single blue/red LED unit. You can also buy the corner strobe kits that come with the power supply and 4 clear strobe heads, they seem to work well at intersections but I don't find the rear strobes do a bunch of good if the tail light are illuminated.

The biggest cost can be the installation.

Wick

[FedRich]

Thanks Wick. We have emergency equipment for basically two reasons: I.D. at crime scene and to respond to traffic accidents that we come upon (until state/local arrive). So we don't run "code" and really don't need wig-wags. Unfortunately, by policy, we don't do traffic stops (though it would be nice to be able to stop and inspect trucks carrying seafood). This won't keep me from backing up an officer though, and that is one of the primary reasons I want my G-ride well lit. We can have blue and red lights, but in FL, all state agencies and most SO's use blue lights. City police use red and blues. I have noticed that blue is more expensive, don't know why though.

Do you think the LED's are bright enough to go through the tint (15%)?

Stay safe.

[nwohsy]

15% is really dark. Not much is going to go through that, and still be effective at an extended distance. If you must work with tint that dark you might want to consider remote strobe inserts. At the rear, one blue strobe could be placed in each of the back-up lights. Up front, one blue strobe could be placed in each of the directionals or in the low-beam assembly. This would set you back about $350 including the power supply. Depending on installation costs, you may have to stop there. If you have $200, you could add a Galls LED visor light in double blue that would be flipped down when needed. Hold on to that halogen bubble light to throw on the roof, and you should be all set. LED's are really cool looking and state of the art, but $600 really limits what you can do when working in BLUE.
I once had 15% in one of my cars. When the sun went down so did the window, otherwise you couldn't see anything. Kind of defeated the purpose of having the window tint. After that I made sure to specify 25% before the car went off to the vendor.

[FastDak911]

15% is really dark. Not much is going to go through that, and still be effective at an extended distance. If you must work with tint that dark you might want to consider remote strobe inserts. At the rear, one blue strobe could be placed in each of the back-up lights. Up front, one blue strobe could be placed in each of the directionals or in the low-beam assembly. This would set you back about $350 including the power supply. Depending on installation costs, you may have to stop there. If you have $200, you could add a Galls LED visor light in double blue that would be flipped down when needed. Hold on to that halogen bubble light to throw on the roof, and you should be all set. LED's are really cool looking and state of the art, but $600 really limits what you can do when working in BLUE.
I once had 15% in one of my cars. When the sun went down so did the window, otherwise you couldn't see anything. Kind of defeated the purpose of having the window tint. After that I made sure to specify 25% before the car went off to the vendor.


I agree with the tint. I have 5% in my truck and backing up at night with the windows up doesn't happen. It is nice during the day but at night it isn't a good thing.

[FedRich]

We had a guy bring a demo car by today. He had 5% tint or less on his side windows. The LEDs were BRIGHT, even through the tint. When he put the window down, the light was intense. Very cool set-up and on GSA schedule. Just waiting on a few more quotes and it will be "Pimp my G-ride".

Like I said before, we have 15% and I don't even notice it anymore, even when driving at night.

[Sandles2Sidearm]

They go about any where on your vehicle and they, especially the clear ones, make your unit quite visible.

They run about 70-80 bucks a pair one set in front and one in back, along with your dash mounted steady red makes your vehicle unmistakable.

Another tip is to look into local pd hand-me-downs. So many pd's in our area are going to a new micro edge LED full light bar and getting rid of some newish stuff for very cheap.

The LED's are good for a number of reasons beyond the brightness, they give you alot of light for their size, making them inconspicuous when not illuminated, and they have a lower power draw. Which is very important if you are not running marine batteries or side-by-sides.

Find out who equips the local pd's, or security companies and tell them what you have to spend and what you want....they can make it happen for you for pretty cheap.

oh yeah, look into refurbished manufactured models. Contact Code 3 for a regional rep and they can often do pretty well for you. We bought lightbars for pretty cheap a while back this way....about .5 the price of a new bar.


I also have some inside mounted units I may be able to sell you for very cheap...they are just sitting in our spare parts locker...pm me if you are interested. They are the Whelen® Low Profile DashMiser® Plus II Strobe, one caveat they do draw some juice from your car though.

Anyway, let me know.

[FedRich]

Reid,

Thanks for the offer, I'll let you know after we get some more quotes. We are looking at the small LED units that you mentioned, very impressive. The sales rep said that strobes were getting cheaper due to LED being the cutting edge. However, since my Crown Vic is not a Police Interceptor, the battery would probably die with a bunch of strobes. Thanks again for the offer.

Rich