Something Different from Whelen

[lotsofbars]

Today, I picked up a different bar with a good bit of history. As many of you may know, I work for a large ambulance company here in NYC. Another company that used to be in NYC was AMR, which is known nation wide. Years ago, AMR in NYC shut down and the company I work for bought a good number of their used ambulances to add to our fleet. Most of these trucks are from 2001-2003, so now they're slowly all being retired and I jumped on this lightbar. All the old AMR trucks have the same interesting lightbar, which is a Whelen 9000 series with 4 front-facing strobes (two red and two white), and 3 KKK-compliant flashers that are individually wired to flash with the rest of the truck's KKK-spec perimeter lights. I don't believe that I have seen this model of lightbar on any other vanbulance aside from old NYC AMR trucks. I'll polish it up and tear it apart when I have the time. This is the older version, which uses twist-lock helix type strobes and dual halogen flasher modules. The newer versions have linear strobes and single halogen flashers.

Pictures and a video of an AMR NYC truck responding with the same bar, years ago.

 

[firebuff17]

Today, I picked up a different bar with a good bit of history. As many of you may know, I work for a large ambulance company here in NYC. Another company that used to be in NYC was AMR, which is known nation wide. Years ago, AMR in NYC shut down and the company I work for bought a good number of their used ambulances to add to our fleet. Most of these trucks are from 2001-2003, so now they're slowly all being retired and I jumped on this lightbar. All the old AMR trucks have the same interesting lightbar, which is a Whelen 9000 series with 4 front-facing strobes (two red and two white), and 3 KKK-compliant flashers that are individually wired to flash with the rest of the truck's KKK-spec perimeter lights. I don't believe that I have seen this model of lightbar on any other vanbulance aside from old NYC AMR trucks. I'll polish it up and tear it apart when I have the time. This is the older version, which uses twist-lock helix type strobes and dual halogen flasher modules. The newer versions have linear strobes and single halogen flashers.

Pictures and a video of an AMR NYC truck responding with the same bar, years ago.

Like you said AMR is nationwide and they used the same bars here in CT as well. It is an interesting set up. Always was curious how they have them wired up. Internal power supply? Flasher light heads all come out with separate power feeds for connecting to the KKK flasher?
Please let us know internal workings as well.

 

[lotsofbars]

Like you said AMR is nationwide and they used the same bars here in CT as well. It is an interesting set up. Always was curious how they have them wired up. Internal power supply? Flasher light heads all come out with separate power feeds for connecting to the KKK flasher?
Please let us know internal workings as well.

Each flasher has a separate, labeled wire that is directly wired to the ambulance's main flasher. The strobes are run on an internal power supply.

 

[coop359]

Never saw that before. Funny they wouldn't have used strobes in the front corners. Cool set up

 

[EHFD_Tower_751]

interesting......the vanbulances that erway ambulance uses here in Elmira have the same style side lights, as well as above the windshield lights. Rear is the same but all the lights are halogen.

the lightbar that most of them run are code 3 XLs with force 4 rotators and cascade mirrors on the outer spots. I say most cause a few newer ones have the justice bars, and one has a weird looking one, not sure if its whelen or what.

i'll have to see if I can get a walk around video of one sometime. the scheme is also the same, but they all have a thin blue line running down the sides of them.

 

[kitn1mcc]

Still a few running around new haven

 

[SomeBloke]

Nice, it kind of reminds me of the Edge bars on the older Australian vehicles, with the full halogen setup. Also, it's synced!

 

[emtanderson51]

Yea, we had these bars on many different trucks here in MA. Ours had lamps in the alley position though that flashed on their own and were not tied into the KKK system. They developed into the 9M platform that was as follows:
700H 400s 400s 700h 400s 400s 700h with 400h in the endcaps. Same quad flash on the strobes with the 700 halos up front tied into the KKK and independent end flashers.

 

[tsquale]

Very cool setup. Didn't know something like this was around. It really stands out on the video of the response

 

[kitn1mcc]

I thinks Hunters Ambulance here in CT had this on a few rigs

 

[firebuff17]

I thinks Hunters Ambulance here in CT had this on a few rigs

The old Ford/AEV Hunters vans I have seen (before the switch to Chevy/Demers) were all red (4 strobe?) with 3M strobe Opticoms in the center.

 

[denko3]

Yes pics without lenses on it would be great to see internals.

 

[lotsofbars]

Yea, we had these bars on many different trucks here in MA. Ours had lamps in the alley position though that flashed on their own and were not tied into the KKK system. They developed into the 9M platform that was as follows:
700H 400s 400s 700h 400s 400s 700h with 400h in the endcaps. Same quad flash on the strobes with the 700 halos up front tied into the KKK and independent end flashers.

My bar actually has spaces, mounts, and plugs for alley flashers. Not sure why they were removed from this bar, but all others have them. The ones in these older ones were also tied to the KKK flasher, and flashed with the white center lights. I'm going to search for the alley lights and another mount later. We have the same bars that you described on the newer AMR trucks, too. This seems to be the earlier version with different internals set up the same.

 

[lotsofbars]

Yes pics without lenses on it would be great to see internals.

Good timing, I took it apart to clean it. Aside from the missing alley lights, the bar is entirely complete. Second pic is the empty alley holder.

 

[emtanderson51]

Dual halo/str/str/dual halo/str/str/dual halo

 

[lotsofbars]

I don't get the point of a dual halo when it's for a single color application. But it looks cool and that's what counts, right?

 

[kitn1mcc]

The old Ford/AEV Hunters vans I have seen (before the switch to Chevy/Demers) were all red (4 strobe?) with 3M strobe Opticoms in the center.

that maybe right been a while

 

[kitn1mcc]

I think it even used a remote strobe

 

[lotsofbars]

I think it even used a remote strobe

Not this one, it has an internal power supply.