Underbody Compartments & Lights

[BlitzfireSolo]

For those of you who have underbody storage compartments on a heavy rescue or rescue engine, what have you done for the under-body lights that should be mounted in this area?

We have underbody compartments (slide-out on one side, fixed on the other) that span the length of the body from the back of the cab to the front of the wheel well. We had previously specified one set of under-body illumination lights in this area (there is another set beneath the rear cab doors), and we are trying to figure out how to compensate for this loss of mounting location.

Any suggestions or past experiences?

[Chauffeur6]

Hmm, yeah the loss of ground lighting in that area could be an issue. Obviously the standard lights we normally use for perimeter lighting would hang down way too low if mounted to the underbody compartments, but what about some type of low profile steady burn LED? Something like these Code 3's. They're only 1" mounting depth, so I would think if you surface mounted them on/under the compartments just near the edge, they would acheive the desired effect. They come in directional, wide or vertical optics, so I'm sure you could find one that projects the light at just the right angle. I'm definitely thinking that if you're close enough to 1" to the bottom of these compartments where you're worried they'll tear off, you've got bigger things to worry about!

http://www.code3pse.com/productdtl.a...ilyid=2&id=166

[Res343cue]

What about something like "rope lighting"?

Or how about some of the flat 6x6 halogen lights that they use for scene lighting on most ambulances? They'd put alot more lighting then the LEDs would too.

[RFDACM02]

I'd think the LED strip lighting that we're seeing in compartment could fit almost anywhere.

Blitz: How have you liked the underbody compartments? No issues with curbs and frost heaves? Having just returned from our Rescue Pumper Tour 2006. We saw many apparatus with underbody compartments....damaged! We're were thinking of maybe only doing the drivers side to reduce the risk of the inside turn damage, which is where we saw the most issues.

[BlitzfireSolo]

Res343cue,
Rope lighting might be a possibility, but I'd be concerned about how it would hold up in that environment and possibly catch. The scene lights you mention (like a Whelen 810 or 900 series) need to be recessed, so that wouldn't be an option.

RFD,
I'll let you know about the compartments once we get it. We're kind of expecting them to get damaged - they weren't part of our original spec, but we had to add them after they screwed some of our compartment layouts. We'll see...

The compartment lighting might work - I was thinking of possibly using the Whelen Striplite (see below), but I'm not sure how we would work that with the slide-out tray.