2010 F150 FX4 Fire/EMS POV

[sheazle]

2010 F150 FX4 Super Crew


Volunteer Fire/EMS POV


Missouri POV law is blue lights with siren, 360* coverage. A grey area in the law allows for red to the rear for POVs, I haven't heard of anyone getting in trouble for it but I opted for all blue anyway.





Modified Pegasus bar in windshield


B/A Cannons in front turn signals


B/A SnM E6 Duals on front bumper


SOS 200 Series Siren with 100w Speaker


Whelen UHF2150a HLF


B/W Cannons in Reverse and Cargo Lights


B/R Cannons in CHMSL


B/W Cannons on inside of toolbox lid


Blue LIN3s on sides and back of toolbox


ULF-44 Flasher with 2 modes - one for responding and one for on scene


Custom Switch Panel on headliner


Control box under passenger seat has relays to control ULF-44 modes, turn signals, and pegasus modes.


"Responding" mode is half-half accelerator random on pegasus, and action flash on ULF-44, "X" pattern in front and "Big X" pattern in back


"On Scene" mode is center-out on pegasus with takedown steady burn, and progressive single flash on ULF-44


Headlights and "On Scene" switch override HLF


"On Scene" switch kills siren also


Turn signals kill LAW's and activate directional pattern on pegasus





I wasn't happy with the off-axis of the pegasus, especially with the dot-matrix sunshade in the middle of the f150 windshield, so I moved the takedowns to the middle of each side, and angled the inner modules out a little. Also swapped takedown wires so half/half pattern flashes blue on one side and takedown on opposite side.





I have a buddy that works at a sign shop and they have a laser cutter, so I had a switch plate cut out of ABS plastic to fit in the headliner between the sunglasses holder and the sunroof. Master switch kills power to all emergency lights and siren. Light bar switch controls pegasus only, flasher switch controls ULF-44 and HLF. Wail switch activates siren tone 1 and yelp switch is momentary for siren tone 2.





Front close ups showing turn signals and E6 Duals. My original plan was to use all hidden lighting, I bought the E6 Duals for the side mirrors to use the amber as a turn signal full time, but after bench testing I decided that they were WAY too bright for that, and I didn't like the Cannons in the fog lights because they didn't work very well as actual fog lights, so I moved the cannons to the toolbox lid and put the E6s on the bumper.





I didn't have enough side warning with all hideaways anyway, and didn't want to put lights inside the side windows since I roll them down a lot, so I put some LIN3's on the sides of the toolbox.





The Ranch Hand rear bumper came with grommet mount lights, so I put Cannons in them as well. This model of F150 has very poor stock reverse lights. I always had trouble seeing behind me before. With 4 cannons in the back that particular problem is a thing of the past.





The Cannons are also great as cargo lights, I've got 2 B/W and 2 B/R in the CHMSL assembly, blue overriding white and red overriding blue, so when I step on the brakes the center 2 go steady red, no CHMSL flashing here.





One issue I've had on scene several times is having to get dressed in the dark. I live on the border of 2 fire districts, so I volunteer for both. On one of them we respond POV quite a bit because it is quite spread out and rural. I got tired of trying to find my shoes etc. when putting my gear away after a call, so I wired up a switch in and some LED lights inside the toolbox lid. I also wired it to a relay so it turns on the reverse lights as well. I'm very happy with the way it turned out. I also have the cannons surface mounted and wired to the switch for the white mode, and to the ULF-44 for the blue mode, since the toolbox lid blocks my CHMSL from view. That way there is still upper-level warning to the rear with the toolbox open.


Here's the demo video:

 

[5309]

That look very good.

 

[sheazle]

Thanks!


Oh, here's a night-time shot of the rear flood lights:

 

[JM6402]

I very often don't comment on installs and just lurk, but I do have to say this install is phenomenal.


Just reading the description, you can tell a lot of work and thought was put into this one, and I give you kudos for that. Just one quick question:


You mention that the Pegasus is set to "directional" patterns when turn signals are activated. I am going to assume that is only for responding to runs, and not actual street driving, but I was interested to find out how you wired that up, and whether you find it to be effective, or confusing for other drivers?


JM

 

[proudfirefighter]

Definitely a great looking install, you have everything covered.


I'm jealous, but there's just one change I would have to make.


Please, please mount Whelen m6s in the middle of that brush guard, and it'd be perfect!

 

[Eric1249]

Definitely a great looking install, you have everything covered.
I'm jealous, but there's just one change I would have to make.


Please, please mount Whelen m6s in the middle of that brush guard, and it'd be perfect!

That was my first thought.

 

[sheazle]

The Pegasus directional modes are only activated if the master switch and light bar switch are on, and mode switch is set to "respond". I don't know how effective it is due responding in a mostly rural area, I'm not sure anyone but me has ever seen it happen! I have it set to a pretty fast directional pattern, so hopefully it won't be confusing to anyone, if they even notice that the pattern changed it should be pretty obvious what's going on. Missouri isn't a courtesy light state so usually people are pulled over and stopped long before I turn on my turn signals.


I had to get very creative with relays, it took a lot of thought and design ahead of time, hours of extra wiring. Basically the stock turn signal switch actuates a relay instead of actuating the blinker circuit. That relay has 4 poles, one activates the blinker circuit the stock switch would normally actuate. One actuates the light bar directional pattern, and the other two cut out the LAWs so the normal blinker can work, since Cannons are only 2 mode, and they are replacing a 2-filiment bulb as well as acting as an emergency light. I have blue set to override amber, and used diodes and resistors to get the parking/turn signal distinction. Canons are very good at dimming. All in all there are 2 relays for the turn signals, one for the mode switch, and a high-amp master relay.


I was excited because it was my first time wiring up POV lights, and the pegasus came with all these modes so I wanted to use them. If I knew when I started this project what I know as I finished it, I would have bought a "dumb" pegasus so I could use a ULF-44 and sync it with my flashers, not done the directional stuff at all, saved countless hours and hundreds of dollars. I probably would have skipped the B/A Cannons as well and done another set of grille lights towards the middle. When I started I wanted a completely "undercover" look. As I progressed through the project I realized that it wasn't feasible to get truly 360* warning that way with my setup, and that I really don't mind the few surface mount lights I have. Safety over style in any case.


Long story short, I would not recommend this method of wiring Cannons for the front turn signals, or the directional setup I have for the pegasus. It was a fun project and good learning experience, but it was WAY more trouble than it was worth.

 

[sheazle]

Please, please mount Whelen m6s in the middle of that brush guard, and it'd be perfect!

That is something I have considered, either that or a dominator style stick. The only problem I have is the M6 is so big!.


My next project is LineX-ing the front/rear bumpers, fender flares, rocker panels, and nerf bars.


I probably won't do anything else on this one for a while, I've already got other people on the department asking if I can help them with theirs!

 

[proudfirefighter]

That is something I have considered, either that or a dominator style stick. The only problem I have is the M6 is so big!.

My next project is LineX-ing the front/rear bumpers, fender flares, rocker panels, and nerf bars.


I probably won't do anything else on this one for a while, I've already got other people on the department asking if I can help them with theirs!

That's the point! Big truck deserves big lights!

 

[Marc M]

That is something I have considered, either that or a dominator style stick. The only problem I have is the M6 is so big!

M6s will look better than a dominator stick. There is no real way to hide them(not that I would anyway) but they are Insanely bright and worth every penny.

 

[sheazle]

M6s will look better than a dominator stick. There is no real way to hide them(not that I would anyway) but they are Insanely bright and worth every penny.

I'm not worried about hiding stuff anymore, that was a silly idea anyway. I'll keep the M6 in mind for future upgrades, I want to get a feel for how this setup moves traffic before I spend any more money on it.


Thanks for the advice!

 

[nerdly_dood]

This is pretty damn classy. I love how you've got the siren set up, and I love how much thought you've put into the lights. I personally would generally use larger lights, like 400-series or bigger with amber to the rear and an amber-only mode, but holy crap, you've got the rest perfect.

 

[Tom]

That bumper.... :salivate:


VERY nice work!

 

[JPolston]

Sexy... Yup.... Just a beautiful setup.

 

[pdk9]

That is a sexy truck!


But 2 things:


1) trucks like this deserve M6/9 grill lights & (IMO) an exterior lightbar


2) the cannons look good at night, but I think you need larger blue lights on the toolbox b/c all the rear cannons aren't very eye-catching during the daytime

 

[sheazle]

Thanks for all the comments everyone!


I agree about the cannons, they are super bright, but they don't punch through the smoked lenses in my CHMSL and taillights as much as I would like.


As far as larger grille lights are concerned, I like the idea, but I don't want to overdo it. We don't respond POV all that much, and it's a fairly low-traffic area. It's almost a straight shot to the station from my house, one intersection and 6 miles of slightly windy road. I'll consider an upgrade if I have trouble moving traffic, but I think if I do anything now it will be to "downgrade" my pegasus to a dumb bar so I can sync it with the rest of the lights with a ULF-44.


It has made me reconsider my plan for our department brush trucks, however. I've been tasked with adding grille lights to our brush/medical trucks. Currently they only have Code-3 MX-7000 halogen rotators, and I personally have had several instances of drivers not yielding, especially in the daytime. I was planning on doing TIR-3's but after your comments about my POV I'm definitely going to go with M6's or M7's.


Thanks!

 

[Storm4200]

Truck looks great and I love how creative you got with the wiring.


I am however going to echo everyone else here and recommend M6s on the grill. That's a huge grill. Needs bigger lights. The SNM lights are TIR so they're very directional. Mounted to the angle on the bumper, it's hard to get the full effect from them. They have almost zero off-axis warning. The rear could use something a little bigger on the tool box. I currently have LINz6s but I need (want) something with a bigger foot print.

 

[Acarlisle]

you have a great set up. The truck is nice and Those bumpers are beautiful.

 

[NERT11]

I love the switch plate setup. I thought of trying to mount my 4200 there, but that looks even cleaner. Is that custom or did you find that somewhere?

 

[sheazle]

It's custom. I drew it up on the computer and had it laser cut out of 1/8" black ABS. I would recommend 1/16"

 

[NERT11]

I see now that you posted that in two different places... sorry about that

 

[sheazle]

I know I'm going to catch some hell for this, but here goes:














After taking the videos I posted when I started this thread, and reading everyone's advice, I've made a few changes. I replaced the LIN3's on the back of the toolbox with TIR3's and put the LIN3's on the angled part of the brush guard. The hideaways and E6's were doing nothing for intersection warning, and weren't much good otherwise except at specific angles. I mounted a pair of SNM E3's in the center part of the brush guard, and unwired the blue mode of the turn signal Cannons. I may wire them back up at some point, we will see.


I know it's not M6's, but the X pattern makes the footprint bigger, and I don't think I can take all the shit I would get for having the same grille lights as our engines and tankers.

 

[wrecker44]

Nice rig for sure! Hope you enjoy the TIR's and ULF44 I sent ya!

 

[Storm4200]

the upgrades look much better, and theyre all in the right places now.


i know what youre saying about catching shit for the M6s. I definitely catch shit from the guys at the FD. lol. But then again, it undebatable that i have the most effective set-up at my FD


any videos of the grill? and why disconnect the cannons? id leave em!

 

[sheazle]

the upgrades look much better, and theyre all in the right places now.

i know what youre saying about catching shit for the M6s. I definitely catch shit from the guys at the FD. lol. But then again, it undebatable that i have the most effective set-up at my FD


any videos of the grill? and why disconnect the cannons? id leave em!

It was starting to sprinkle as I was finishing up the wiring so I decided to save video for another day. Hopefully this weekend. As far as the Cannons go, It's a longish story.


But since you asked…


I use a multi-resistor setup to make the cannons function as a 2-filiment amber bulb for my parking light/turn signal. The parking light wire goes through a 30 ohm resistor and makes dim (for a Cannon) amber. The Turn signal wire goes through a 6 ohm resistor to make bright amber and avoid hyper-blink from my truck computer. Blue is set to mode 2 on the cannons so it overrides amber, that way when the parking lights are on the blue still flashes.


As I mentioned before I have a fancy relay setup that turns off the power to the blue when the turn signals are engaged, so that the bright amber can come on and signal my intent to turn. This relay also turns on the directional pattern on the Pegasus.


Well I'm wanting to do away with all that business so I swapped the red/yellow wires on the cannons and changed the color modes for each wire. Now amber is mode 2 and blue is mode 1. This is all fine and good EXCEPT for a little quirk about cannons that I'm pretty sure most people don't know about: If you supply them with less than 12v on the mode 2 wire you will get your mode 2 color, only dimmed. They work from about 4.5v up. If you put 12v on the mode 1 wire with <12v on the mode 2 wire, you get the mode 2 color, only at full brightness! :bonk:


I was hoping for the blue to work when the parking lights were off and then just not work when they are on, but due to this issue, when the headlights/parking lights are on with the emergency lights, the turn signals flash AMBER from the ULF44 signal coming in on the red wire.


I don't mind some flashing amber, but alternating up front in the turn signal housings sounds like a terrible idea…


I am considering using the relays that previously controlled all the turn signal nonsense to make a "night mode" automatically come on with the parking/headlights. I'm thinking I would probably only have this mode turn off the cannons and flashing takedowns so I'm not sure if it will be worth it.


There's an important lesson in all this…KEEP IT SIMPLE :duh:

 

[Marc M]

I don't think I can take all the shit I would get for having the same grille lights as our engines and tankers.

i know what youre saying about catching shit for the M6s. I definitely catch shit from the guys at the FD. lol. But then again, it undebatable that i have the most effective set-up at my FD

The only shit I get about my M6s is when the others say HOLY SHIT! as the shield the eyes. Hahaha. I like the changes you made alot better.

 

[proudfirefighter]

While the set up looks really good, it still depresses me that you didn't get M6s .


That said, i still love the truck. :yes:

 

[sheazle]

While the set up looks really good, it still depresses me that you didn't get M6s .
That said, i still love the truck. :yes:

I really did consider it, but at the end of the day I already had most of these light heads, and the couple I bought from FEVER for the back of the toolbox were about 2/3 the cost of one M6. The wife (also a volunteer FF) has started to express concern with my apparent addiction to flashing blue lights…if I spend any more money on them I'm afraid she'll have me committed…


Little does she know that her car is next... :haha:

 

[Storm4200]

Her car is next.


That's what I said

 

[arsenal10]

Is it me or is the on-scene mode off-sync?

 

[sheazle]

It was a progressive pattern, starts in sync and goes 180 out of phase and then goes back in. I didn't like it so I went back to a 60fpm single flash. I'll try and get a video tomorrow.

 

[sheazle]

Did some more modifications today…I started the day off with the goal of putting in a foot switch for the air horn on the siren…but instead I took out my pegasus, cut a bunch of wires and wired it in to my ulf-44. I kept the flasher in it for the takedowns, wired the blues half and half to the flasher. Gone are the directional patterns and center-out modes.


Sync'd everything up and rewired the controller a bit. With the headlights (parking lights actually) OFF, the HLF works, and the takedowns do a crazy rapid flash. In the "on-scene" mode it's blue-only, no takedowns. With parking lights ON, no takedown flash or HLF in "respond" mode, but takedowns steady-burn in "on-scene" mode.


I was gonna take the video before it got dark, but my pager went off so I had to go test everything out real quick…


Also included a side view of the TIR3's on the angled part of the grille guard. WAY better side warning than the TIR lights that were there before.

…still didn't get around to putting in the foot switch….

 

[Storm4200]

Looks great! Love the sync!

 

[Eric1249]

Looks great. But those tiny grille lights........


I rewired my Pegasus to a ULF44 as well. Much better

 

[sheazle]

Thanks!


I was having some trouble with the front SNM E3's not staying at full brightness, especially on the slow pattern. Hooked up another ULF44 to do only the rear lights, and the front one to do only the light bar and grille lights. Now I've got the rear on Signal Alert 75 X pattern and the front still on Action Flash. All of them 60fpm single flash on-scene. The E3's still seem like they are a little dim when the light bar is on. I don't know why since I checked the amps with my fluke, and even with everything on one flasher it's below the 5 amps per channel the ULF44 is rated for…


I got some SNM E6 super-mini's I wanted to put there but I don't want to install them and then find out they do the same thing…I might put a pair of Whelen TIR3's there since they seem to be more tolerant of a slight under voltage…


Either way I need to do some testing and figure out what's going on.

 

[Storm4200]

I think it's time. M6s!