First Responder Lights

[808Cruising]

Aloha All,

I'm always lurking but don't post much. I am at the point where I am going to start driving my truck directly to emergencies to save time and need to add lights. I know everyone calls them something different from "courtesy lights" to "strobes" and everything in between. I just don't want anything tacky and would like for them to not stand out against the beauty of the vehicle when not in use.

Does anyone else have lights on their tucks and had great luck with them? I wanted to check here before spending too much or buying a bunch of cheap ones to figure it out. I did try to GIS this and check around a few other ways before bothering you all about this. If anyone has any tips, ideas, or recommendations please lmk. I'm also going to post this to r/landcruisers if anyone would prefer to talk on there.

Mahalo!!

 

[shocktower]

I would get a magnetic one that you can pop on or off easy, maybe plugs into lighter IDK try amazon

 

[808Cruising]

I would get a magnetic one that you can pop on or off easy, maybe plugs into lighter IDK try amazon

There is that route. I will go that route if I can't figure other things out. I'm hoping someone might have a recommendation for a kit that's always on and maybe in the front grill or tiny guys right at the dashboard or something.

 

[retrofive]

Paging @AMMO
If recall he had a pretty cool setup on his 80.

 

[shocktower]

There is that route. I will go that route if I can't figure other things out. I'm hoping someone might have a recommendation for a kit that's always on and maybe in the front grill or tiny guys right at the dashboard or something.

I know where I live you cannot just install red or blue lights, I am not sure how Hawaii is, but I am sure amazon probably has them , or you can get some off a wrecked police car

 

[swankstar]

ECCO has some pretty cool stroby/strong LED lights that can be tucked away behind the grill, etc. Super low profile and whatnot. Check their products out for a start.

 

[Technician1985]

Get LED lights with some kind of controller, should be pretty low profile and bright.

 

[mitchbenson]

vlsusa.com

 

[inkpot]

Low profile strobes should just peel a wee bit above the crossbar on the factory roof rack?!

 

[Fj81]

Sirennet.com has lots of stuff, they are in the portland area, they also have a youtube channel. I bought beacons from them for my 18 wheelers. For beacons, I like Whelen because you can find replacement domes most places. For my Star systems beacons I ended up buying a whole new beacon when the old dome and a branch had a disagreement. They have all sorts of small lights and setups for stealth emergency lights. But those things are $$$ if you want to save some money you can get some small for factor LEDs and get a strobe controller. It just depends on what he laws/regulations are in your area regarding those lights.

 

[YMT]

I assume you've checked with your agency and local/state laws on whether a personal vehicle can have emergency lights, and whether those lights can be permanent mount or magnetic.

I like Soundoff brand, which makes a ton of different low profile, high output LED lights. Many are small enough to mount in your grille- you'd need to make a bracket for the lights to sit behind/in between the grille slats. Another idea is to get a license plate bracket, that allows your emergency lights to sit on either side of the plate, and use the license plate hardware.

Another option is galls.com.

 

[-Spike-]

Not sure what you're looking for, if it's just to get people's attention you could install xenon-type flashers in your turn signal housings. Not a replacement for the turn signal bulbs, this is more of drill a new hole in the housing kind of thing, and add a second bulb in each turn signal, then you have a controller for that system. A member of our group has them, they are attention-getters. I believe the type of flash pattern is controllable, iirc his did a double-flash every half-second or so, alternating sides. No idea where to get them, might be LED rather than zenon now.

 

[LINUS]

I had a pair of green strobe / Rigid lights up front & a single rear on my old Corrado. It was when Rigid was a new company, and LED's were mega-bucks.

1993 VR6 red Corrado. Not the normal rig you saw rushing to a MVA/rope/medic rescue scene. It needed it.

It was a car without strobes you wouldn't have thought a 1st responder / SAR type thing in the least (had springs, other perf mods normal for 1995-ish era). -- only other marker was a inside-the-glass snake/6pt blue medic symbol aside from the red paint matching fire trucks & the locals knowing my car.

Inside joke with LEO's/ Fire response was I had the EMS 'pace car'.

The Rigid setup is still around - mine was a 'paid for' install, had a pair in front grill & a single flasher in rear glass next to my rear 3rd brake light.

All were ~1.5"x5" housings, had a single row of bulbs - had to have same shop remove when I was selling car. That was B/C local LEO / Sheriff budget bought it & you can't sell privately with that installed. It was 'stealing' if you did.

IDK your area, mine was paid install but volunteers in SAR had their own setups I heard were their own $$ so they could sell a vehicle with it still in it. IDK & esp since rules vary from county to county, let alone state to state.

At least here in WA, we can't run either red or blue unless you're a LEO/full-time Fire Responder. Not even 1/2timer FF can run red/blue. The local fire commissioner/chief is only on red lights. Same with volunteer FF's - they run red exclusively.

So before you pick colors, you really should check what colors are allowed - yellow & green are the common ones I know, but my knowledge base is all WA state.

 

[artech]

There are some pretty cool new lights out for responders in all our colors. You have a ton of choices and it can get overwhelming. Here's some cool ones:

Strobes N' More E92 Hide-Away LED - StrobesNMore.com
These are cut-in LED's that you install in the existing light housings. The E-series lights are Class 1 light heads and very bright, but pricey and they do need to be installed correctly. They are virtually invisible when not using them.

18" Red/White LED Off-Road Light Bar - 24W - 2,750 Lumens | Specialty High Power LED Spot Lights | Off-Road LED Work Lights & LED Driving Lights | Super Bright LEDs
This is a neat new bar that combines red and white LED's in an otherwise normal looking light bar. They can be controlled independently with an external flasher. Very low profile (on our kinds of rigs) when not in use. Or;
Strobes N' More Tru-Dual EFlood50 Warning Flood Bar - StrobesNMore.com
is a larger 50 inch unit but more pricey. They also have 32 and 24 inch models. I like that these are dual purpose light bars that still put out a lot of white light.

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00KUQQU58/_encoding=UTF8?tag=ihco-20
A big honking lightbar that is pretty compact for the amount of light it puts out, but not as bright as some others. It comes in different sizes to fit different roof racks, and has traffic control patterns built in.

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B06XCVVCQ6/?tag=ihco-20
These are the kind that go inside the truck at the top of the windshield. Very bright, harder to steal, and weather does not bother them since they are inside the truck. Reflections can happen off the glass if they aren't fitted properly, and they do take up space at the top of the windshield- not great if you are tall.

Whelen SpitFire™ ION™ Super-LED® Series - StrobesNMore.com
Whelen makes many dash lights but this one is small but bright and at a reasonable cost. Or an old Code 3 Dashlaser M if you can find one- those are old school but still bright as hell. They do take up a lot of room though, and they are kind of noisy when running.

Of course, you can spend a ton of dough on lights and all, but all these seem to have pretty good bang for the buck and I expect since you are in public safety that budget is an issue. None of the above will break the bank.

Stay safe out there. Hope this helps.

 

[ERG80]

98 snake eater put some whelens and a train horn in his cruiser. That would help get people out of your way real quick. I dont remember a build thread but he did post some funny videos on here.

Anyone install srob lights on their 80?

 

[TXBruiser]

A friends father was a state trooper and had strobes on his Toyota Tacoma: red blue strobes on the sun visors, so he would flip them down and flip the switch and had front lights, and had a red and white strobe bar on the back glass

 

[DirtScaresMe]

I had some that went between my rear view mirror and the glass, if that makes sense. Plugged into the cig lighter. Was pretty easy and got the point across.

Something like this: Strobe Lights