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Getting ready to add some red strobes to my grill so I don't have to use my windshield mounted emergency light anymore. Just curious what the rest of the firefighters here are using. I plan on using an up fitter switch so a harness isn't important. Thanks for the input.
Not a firefighter but I'm very well versed in emergency lighting and upfits. Are you asking about lightheads themselves? Brands? Or installation? Whelen products (Ions) are always popular among first responders. Feniex Industries (Fusion surface mount) are also high quality US made products. These are popular LED products. I know you said strobe but LEDs are the common place nowadays. You could buy a million different off-brand or less expensive lights for sure, but water intrusion, quality, etc are obviously issues. You can absolutely tie all your lights into your upfitter switches with no need for extra harnesses. Happy to answer any questions you might have.
Thanks for the info! Just looking for a couple pods to stick in the grill that come with a flashing relay (sequencer?), sorry, still learning here. Being a line officer I go to the scene quite a bit instead of the station. I'll look into the brands you mentioned.
Thanks for the info! Just looking for a couple pods to stick in the grill that come with a flashing relay (sequencer?), sorry, still learning here. Being a line officer I go to the scene quite a bit instead of the station. I'll look into the brands you mentioned.
I don't recall the brand as I didn't switch from my 2016 to my 2017, and now I have a 2019 but I bought some programmable pattern LED pretty cheap at an Advance Auto. Mounted them behind the grille, set the pattern where I wanted it and zip tied the controller to something on the inner fender so everything was out of the elements. I powered it via an upfitter so a flip of the switch from inside the cab and they were on. Changing pattern required opening the hood, but I never bothered once I found a pattern I liked.
It's been awhile but a search turned up these Alpena lights. They sound very familiar to me. I used one set white and one set amber. I may even have them buried in the garage somewhere. I recall splicing both colors to a single controller. I didn't check to see if they were available in red.
Thanks for the info! Just looking for a couple pods to stick in the grill that come with a flashing relay (sequencer?), sorry, still learning here. Being a line officer I go to the scene quite a bit instead of the station. I'll look into the brands you mentioned.
Sure! So current LED warning lights are typically all self-contained - meaning they have flash patterns built in! If you were to buy a pair of Feniex Fusion lights for example, you could synchronize them via their wiring pigtails and they would flash any one of several patterns in sync without any external controller. Nearly all lights out there work this way for folks that aren't running whole-vehicle systems (such as a Whelen Cencom). Another great budget friendly set of options would be surface mounted lights of the Strobes N More brand. Check out a link below. Nearly all will have built-in flash patterns for ease of installation. All you need is power and ground.
Ford has the factory option now for amber warning lights mounted on the hood. They are actually soundoff signal ghost lights. They are good quality lights and they clamp right onto the hood. Other options if you wanted to go with hood mounted lights are whelen ions and feneix fusions. Take a look at the link below. As for me I just have a full size bar mounted on a backrack. Cant beat the visibility!
@19SuperDuty May we please see some closeups of how your LED light bar is attached?
On roof or on headache rack?
If roof, through third brake light mounting bracket, or via holes drilled in roof, or by "hugging hook" brackets inside rear doors?
If headache rack, then how is such a wide (front to back) lightbar balanced and secured onto headache rack? Gussets? Brackets?
What is wind noise, before and after light bar installation?
How are wires from the light bar brought into cab? Floor penetration? Back of cab penetration? Existing grommet or new hole? 3rd brake light penetration?
@19SuperDuty May we please see some closeups of how your LED light bar is attached?
On roof or on headache rack?
If roof, through third brake light mounting bracket, or via holes drilled in roof, or by "hugging hook" brackets inside rear doors?
If headache rack, then how is such a wide (front to back) lightbar balanced and secured onto headache rack? Gussets? Brackets?
What is wind noise, before and after light bar installation?
How are wires from the light bar brought into cab? Floor penetration? Back of cab penetration? Existing grommet or new hole? 3rd brake light penetration?
Please post more pics!
I will take some more pictures as soon as i get chance. The lightbar is a 49 inch Whelen liberty. I mounted it right to the backrack using the backrack full size light bar mounting brackets. The backrack itself is plenty sturdy to support the bar. There is no wind noise, although this could vary depending on what model light bar you end up using. I ran the wires down the backrack to the decompression air vents on the back wall of the cab, behind the rear seat. You have to leave a loop in the bottom of the wires before routing them back up into the vent so rain and water doesn't ride down the wire into the cab. This way there was no holes drilled in the truck and I can remove everything if I ever decide to. As for the lightbar itself, I used my upfitter swithes to control everything. aux 1 turns on the rear of the bar, aux 2 the front of the bar and my dash light, aux 3 is an opticom (traffic preemption, legal in my state) aux 4 is alley lights, aux 5 is a left traffic adviser on the rear of the bar, and aux 6 is a right traffic adviser.
@19SuperDuty May we please see some closeups of how your LED light bar is attached?
On roof or on headache rack?
If roof, through third brake light mounting bracket, or via holes drilled in roof, or by "hugging hook" brackets inside rear doors?
If headache rack, then how is such a wide (front to back) lightbar balanced and secured onto headache rack? Gussets? Brackets?
What is wind noise, before and after light bar installation?
How are wires from the light bar brought into cab? Floor penetration? Back of cab penetration? Existing grommet or new hole? 3rd brake light penetration?
