led vs strobes

[wizzer368]

Looking at changing our frontline engine over from strobes to LEDs but i can't find research about improved saftey any help will b e gratly appreciated.

[TC33FF]

Do a search on here. I believe I have seen someone who said a state did a study and found out which colors were brighter and easier to see between strobe and led. chris

[ndvfdff33]

I know here in ontario,canada someone said all new emergency vehicles are required,by law too have LED lights on them. I see why now too, because the brightness of them is so much better than anything I have ever seen. My old dept home just got a new utility truck and we put all LED lights on it. They're almost too bright too have the white ones on at night time.


Sorry for the s**tty photo quality

[firefighter105]

Hey there wizzer. LED's have a number of benefits but safety wise they are twice as bright i find then strobes. I find strobes aren't as bright during the bright sun or in hazy days. Whereas LED's have no real fade i find during these times. Now the one fault I find with LED's is with the clear ones. They are really bright, and with some makes of LED's, some have a purplish tint to them. If you decide to put the clear ones on your engine, you should have them connected to a switch on your park brake that will shut off the clear lights when you come to a stop. If not, they would possibly be too distracting while parked on a scene. But overall, they are brighter, and easier to see.

My 0.02 cents worth.

PS NDVFF, nice unit. Looks good. where did they get that one.

Jason

[ndvfdff33]

Hey there wizzer. LED's have a number of benefits but safety wise they are twice as bright i find then strobes. I find strobes aren't as bright during the bright sun or in hazy days. Whereas LED's have no real fade i find during these times. Now the one fault I find with LED's is with the clear ones. They are really bright, and with some makes of LED's, some have a purplish tint to them. If you decide to put the clear ones on your engine, you should have them connected to a switch on your park brake that will shut off the clear lights when you come to a stop. If not, they would possibly be too distracting while parked on a scene. But overall, they are brighter, and easier to see.

My 0.02 cents worth.

PS NDVFF, nice unit. Looks good. where did they get that one.

Jason

Hey Jason.

They got the work done at Lantz Fire-Rescue in Port Williams. The Chassis they baught new, but the box was the one from our old utility. But they did an amazing job refurbing and he added a few little things. Like the yellow warning light bar on the back. In the box with the portable pump in it, they put a pull out tray that basically allows the tray too go too the ground for easier lifting. I got more pics if you wanna see em. And we finally got a new set of jaws too put on our pretty little utility. All it took was them too not work at a scene. Talk about embarassing

Cheers

[firefighter105]

Hey Jason.

They got the work done at Lantz Fire-Rescue in Port Williams. The Chassis they baught new, but the box was the one from our old utility. But they did an amazing job refurbing and he added a few little things. Like the yellow warning light bar on the back. In the box with the portable pump in it, they put a pull out tray that basically allows the tray too go too the ground for easier lifting. I got more pics if you wanna see em. And we finally got a new set of jaws too put on our pretty little utility. All it took was them too not work at a scene. Talk about embarassing

Cheers

Hey. More pics are always a good thing. Do you have my home email address. My sympatico one that is. But Lantz Does one heck of a great job eh. A few departments down here went with them to do their new rescues, what a job. Totally top notch and really good attention to detail.

I will pm you with my home address.

Jason

[Bugle3]

I must personally say that LED's seem to be the way to go. The technology has improved so much in the past 4 or 5 years.
As for strobes, well I hate them. Our rescue has them and in a really hard rain, snow or fog all you get is extreme bounceback of the light into your eyes caused by the weather. In other words they don't penetrate

[Rescue101]

Oh,they still penetrate as anyone who ever followed a sand/plow truck knows.Your eyes will decieve you.Without a lightmeter you can't tell what the output is.Led's have some advantages.The biggest one being amp draw which is very low.The others is being able to set duration and patterns which most good led systems can be easily programmed to do.Plus they don't "bite"which anyone who ever worked around a crippled strobe system will probably be familiar with.And the Leds get better every year.Then again,so do the strobes.Choose wisely or get the best of both worlds. T.C.

[Eno821302]

One thing worth mentioning in the colder climates is that the LEDs don't tend to generate a lot of heat. This is an issue in the driving snow because it will tend to cake on your lightbar lenses and be less visible. Strobes tend to get warmer and don't seem to have this problem.

There is also substantially less power draw from the LEDs- which is a nice bonus.

Popular opinion used to be to have a mix of everything- rotators, LEDs and strobes but now it seems that LEDs are just so superior to everything else that having all LED machines is pretty common. I do like the customizable patterns and flashrates.

There is a lot of discussion now about having "too many" lights, mainly while at a "stop." The recommendations I've seen seem to suggest that it's best to gear down your light display when you pop the airbrake. Whites, for example, should be shut off as mentioned before... other, higher lighting as well? Make sure you make the minimum NFPA spec and be careful to get too crazy. Also, if you don't have an arrow stick, I've seen that a lot of departments are starting to lean towards at least having 1 amber light to the rear.

Something to think about... though I'm certainly no expert.

[5alarmcooker]

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[35monroeffemt]

In a ****ing match LEDs come out on top no doubt. The only thing I dont care for in LEDs is that they are only bright when you look at them head on, also they are soo expensive especially for the new hideaways. To combat this I have a full size halogen lightbar, hideaway strobes in my brake lights and reverse lights, LEDS in the front, side, and rear windows. I wil add pics if and when I get time to. This light combo works GREAT, I have no problem at intersections, expressways, or back roads. I have not come across a driver that did not pull over for me yet. And I am on a 1,500 call a year dept.

[CooterRob]

2 words.... POWER ARC!!! They rock and they cover 2 zones at once there-for alleviate that LED problem of not seeing them on the side of the rig!!! We have them...

http://powerarc.net/

[ndvfdff33]

2 words.... POWER ARC!!! They rock and they cover 2 zones at once there-for alleviate that LED problem of not seeing them on the side of the rig!!! We have them...

http://powerarc.net/

Thats definately different. Very nice lights though.


Are people complaining about not being able too see the LED lights that are on the side. I've never heard of any problems in regards too this with both our trucks and other dept's that have LED lights on their rigs

[35monroeffemt]

2 words.... POWER ARC!!! They rock and they cover 2 zones at once there-for alleviate that LED problem of not seeing them on the side of the rig!!! We have them...

http://powerarc.net/

Neevr heard of or saw them. I will looking into buying them ASAP

[35monroeffemt]

Thats definately different. Very nice lights though.


Are people complaining about not being able too see the LED lights that are on the side. I've never heard of any problems in regards too this with both our trucks and other dept's that have LED lights on their rigs

I have LEDs in the front, rear, and sides of my vehicle and boy are they BRIGHT. The problem I am referring to is that when you are to the direct side of them Ie intersections LEDS are not visable unless they are pointed relatively close to that direction. Where as strobes and obviously rotaters are still visable.

[Rescue101]

The downside to the PowerArc is you're adding back in the very thing Leds were designed to minimise.Low electrical draw and long life with little maintainence.Now you add back in electric motors,gears,and pivot points. If that's what you want,fine. New rigs have enough maintainence issues,I'd just as soon not add to that. t.C.

[dmleblanc]

If the question is "What should we put on our new engine?", or if you sheared off a lightbar on a tree limb or something and needed to replace it, then I'd recommend the LED's. However, I don't know that the advantages of LED's are great enough to replace your current light arrangement "just because". Seems like a lot of money to spend for just a little improvement.

Consider it for future apparatus (or a combination of strobes and LED's like our new rescue truck).

[ndvfdff33]

I have LEDs in the front, rear, and sides of my vehicle and boy are they BRIGHT. The problem I am referring to is that when you are to the direct side of them Ie intersections LEDS are not visable unless they are pointed relatively close to that direction. Where as strobes and obviously rotaters are still visable.

Seen. Maybe you should stick some on the side of your vehicle then.

[Dave1983]

First let me say Ive never been a big strobe fan. Except for clear and to some extent amber, they wash out in sunlight. They are over-powering at night, which is a safety issue for crews working around a rig on an MVC for example.

Strobe reflectors degrade at a much higher rate then other light sources. Just see how quickly strobes develope a dark spot on the reflector. Thats the mirror finish burning off folks, and with it goes the effectivness of the light. It only gets worse over time. Sure, it happens with halogen too, but at a MUCH slower rate.

So for me its a no-brainer when comparing strobes to LEDs. And while IMHO LEDs are the way to go, they still have issues. They can cause the same problems at night, more so if set on some uber-warp flash.

But as others have said, the best is to go with a mix. Our '02 Pierce quint has a mix of all three types. Rotators on the roof, LED, strobe and headlight flashers on the front. LED on sides and lower rear with rotators upper rear. The only reason we have the one pair of strobes up front is for the off-center warning that you dont get with LEDs. It really helps when clearing intersections.

In my 24+ years, I have never seen a rig clear traffiic the way this quint does. The strobes, clear rotators and headlight flashers turn off on scene, and the LEDs are set on a single flash-type pattern (like old time halogen wig-wags) for safety at night.

Works VERY well.

[5alarmcooker]

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