FD EMS Chase Vehicle - Dead, Transmission Died

bullfrog4ever

bullfrog4ever

Member
May 29, 2014
336
120
Indiana
We recently had a 1999 Suburban come back into possession of our department.  Back in the day, this was our Chiefs vehicle, but now she stands as a basic EMS chase vehicle to save wear and tear on our other apparatus.  Now, keep in mind, this is only a temporary vehicle!  This was a vehicle that our department had already paid for long ago.  We decommissioned it and loaned it to our town for use and it was returned to us after the town no longer needed it.  She is still in great running condition and works fantastic as a basic chase vehicle.  I was the one who volunteered to repackage this vehicle for use.  The stipulation was I had to use the lights from our old ems chase vehicle, which had recently died, any other leftover lighting we had at the department and it had to be slicktop. (not my decision, I wanted a lightbar on top, but I got shot down) No new lighting was to be purchased.  So I went to town decommissioning our old ems chase vehicle, and re-installing into our new-old ems chase vehicle.  I kinda thought of

Front:

  Galls GR108 surface mount red strobes in the grille x2

  Whelen strobe tubes in the turn lights (left over from original installation) X 2

  Suburban Mirror mount/Whelen 500 series strobe Red X 2

  Whelen Dash King 2000 Red/White

Side:

  Whelen DSML2 Red/White 1 each side

Rear:

  Whelen DSML2 Red/White in rear window X2

  Whelen Strobe tube in tail lights (left over from original installation) X2

Inside:

  ICOM FC-5061? Radio

  Federal 6 switch box

  Carson SA-441 Magforce Siren amplifier

  Custom wood console with vinyl cover.

  2 Handheld Streamlight flashlights

  Motorola 1250 portable radio charger

  Whelen SSP660 Strobe power supply X 2

  Whelen CSP690 Strobe power supply X 1

  Fused Terminal Block with Ground Buss

  Terminal Strip

Both the radio and flashlights come on with the ignition through the upfitter switch under the drivers dash.  Considering I didn't have much to work with and the stipulations I was given, I thought I did pretty well.  We didn't have that much equipment in reserves, so I tried to do the best I could.  Also, I measured the console a little to large, so it a little tight in front.   Again, this is only temporary, until we can get a new chase vehicle, so maybe 1 or 2 years tops.  I will say, I love driving this truck, took me about 3 weeks in my spare time to get done.  She has alot of giddy-up and go in that old 5.7L V8.  Anyways, just wanted to see what you all thought.  Thanks!!

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Id drive it. Im not the biggest advocate for strobes overall, but they are 'period' correct for OBS Chevy and GMC trucks, and work very well. The only thing better would be an MX7000, Excalibur, or Edge on the roof!

Also, the Vortec 5.7 is my second favorite fuel injected engine, I loved mine in my 98 Silverado, a couple simple little odds and ends tricks and the back of that truck always made it through the turns before the front did. Good times, good times...
 
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That looks fantastic! I wish they happened to have a loaded strobe Edge laying around to top it off, but that is great as it sits.


The one thing I'm not a fan of (& this has nothing to do with your work) is the liftgate...for that era of Tahoe/Suburbans, I I thought that the vertical liftgate was less ideal for


fire/EMS flycar/chase vehicle use than the 2-door trunks
 
It's a nice reminder of how great strobes looked coming at you on the road. Good job.
 
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7d9_z28 said:
Id drive it. Im not the biggest advocate for strobes overall, but they are 'period' correct for OBS Chevy and GMC trucks, and work very well. The only thing better would be an MX7000, Excalibur, or Edge on the roof!

Also, the Vortec 5.7 is my second favorite fuel injected engine, I loved mine in my 98 Silverado, a couple simple little odds and ends tricks and the back of that truck always made it through the turns before the front did. Good times, good times...
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Thanks!! That was what I was going for, period correct!  They wanted to slap a crappy small led bar on the inside and I refused!  One, it's not that great of a light, two, just didn't fit in!  That was about the only extra light not used.  That 5.7, for having 150K miles, really moves! I love it and this truck is affectionately known as my truck at the station, ha ha!

pdk9 said:
That looks fantastic! I wish they happened to have a loaded strobe Edge laying around to top it off, but that is great as it sits.


The one thing I'm not a fan of (& this has nothing to do with your work) is the liftgate...for that era of Tahoe/Suburbans, I I thought that the vertical liftgate was less ideal for


fire/EMS flycar/chase vehicle use than the 2-door trunks
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Thanks!!  If only!!  I was dying to mount a real, old school strobe or rotator bar up there, but we didn't have an extra one to use.   :cry:

Steve0625 said:
It's a nice reminder of how great strobes looked coming at you on the road. Good job.
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Exactly!  As much as I'm a LED fan and advocate, there is just something about strobes and rotators that the youngins or anybody not interested in history will never appreciate!

Thanks for the complements guys!  Really means a lot to me. I may not post a lot on here, but I read a lot.  I learn more and more every day.  This site even helped me tackle a radio problem with one of our tankers (which required ripping the cab apart!).
 
Bullfrog, I know this project was only supposed to use recycled products, but do you think you guys could pool a few bucks together for 2 extra HAWs? I usually recommend a HLF and a pair of LAW/HAWs up front, but (on that particular generation suburban/Tahoe) I always liked the look of 4 clear strobe HAWs coming down the road.


Also, please post vids of the other apparatus you guys have!
 
I wish we could, but I'm out of outlets in the whelen strobe packs. I could consider a hlf if I can find one for free or neXT to nothing. The department said we're pretty much done spending money on this truck, beside any basic maintenance costs. All of our money is being reserved for another apparatus project, which I'll be the lead of re-lighting and consolidating equipment of that apparatus. (Hoping this one comes through) I'll try to get some videos when I can of our other apparatus when I can! Thanks!!
 
Only thing I would of done different was to mount the dash light high up at the top center of the windshield ... there's no "front upper " warning at all.


That and the grille lights / mirror lignts are almost in line where the dash light is currently mounted. My only concern. All the forward warning is clustered along the same level more or less.
 
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This looks fantastic and I love the sync. Three things I'd recommend:

1: Get a HLF. They're one of the single most useful warning lights any apparatus can have. Give it park/kill so it doesn't wash out the strobes on scene.

2: Mount the front DashKing behind the RVM. You're compensating for no lightbar here, so having something up top can only help, and the mirror beams do a pretty good job with the mid-level lighting on their own. 

3: Get rid of the clear to the rear. It's not safe, especially at night. Change them to amber or blue, depending on what your state permits and what you think looks best. 

Those three things aside, it's one of the best installs I've ever seen on an all-strobe warning package. 
 
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+2 for a Patriot


and I second lotsofbars statement, clear to rear big hazard @ night, swap em for amber, even more effective IMHO
 
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For the headlight flasher is your town getting rid of any police cars?  I went to my town garage and got a bunch of strobe cable, strobe tubes and a replacement speaker for one of our supervisor trucks.  They were decommissioning a few older police cars and they usually leave that stuff in so I reused it.  

Also that truck is beautiful.
 
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Love the set-up. A HLF as suggested and changing your White lenses to Amber in the rear would be a wise addition/changes at minimal cost.


But above all else, this thing needs some reflective striping/markings. If your like most if not all Fire Departments that run medical, this EMS Chase vehicle one would suspect is running the most calls out of your fleet. To have only a Dept. Crest/seal on the door does very little to help with profiling/conspicuity.


If your department has intentions on running thist truck beyond 6 months tops I'd be looking for a couple bucks or why not try a donation (with the donor company name) for some reflective taping to outline the vehicle.


This is now a frontline piece that should be treated as such.


Nice job on the re-install.
 
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bullfrog4ever said:
We recently had a 1999 Suburban come back into possession of our department. Back in the day, this was our Chiefs vehicle, but now she stands as a basic EMS chase vehicle to save wear and tear on our other apparatus. Now, keep in mind, this is only a temporary vehicle! This was a vehicle that our department had already paid for long ago. We decommissioned it and loaned it to our town for use and it was returned to us after the town no longer needed it. She is still in great running condition and works fantastic as a basic chase vehicle. I was the one who volunteered to repackage this vehicle for use. The stipulation was I had to use the lights from our old ems chase vehicle, which had recently died, any other leftover lighting we had at the department and it had to be slicktop. (not my decision, I wanted a lightbar on top, but I got shot down) No new lighting was to be purchased. So I went to town decommissioning our old ems chase vehicle, and re-installing into our new-old ems chase vehicle. I kinda thought of


Front:


Galls GR108 surface mount red strobes in the grille x2


Whelen strobe tubes in the turn lights (left over from original installation) X 2


Suburban Mirror mount/Whelen 500 series strobe Red X 2


Whelen Dash King 2000 Red/White


Side:


Whelen DSML2 Red/White 1 each side


Rear:


Whelen DSML2 Red/White in rear window X2


Whelen Strobe tube in tail lights (left over from original installation) X2


Inside:


ICOM FC-5061? Radio


Federal 6 switch box


Carson SA-441 Magforce Siren amplifier


Custom wood console with vinyl cover.


2 Handheld Streamlight flashlights


Motorola 1250 portable radio charger


Whelen SSP660 Strobe power supply X 2


Whelen CSP690 Strobe power supply X 1


Fused Terminal Block with Ground Buss


Terminal Strip

Click to expand...
Awesome install. Curious as to how the rear Dashmisers are mounted. Would you mind taking a closer pic of the way you mounted those?
 
TritonBoulder47 said:
I'd change the clears in the rear to Amber, but thats just me...   Looks awesome
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That's the beauty of non-LEDs.  Don't like the color?  Buy a new lens!

There's a soft spot in my heart for strobes too.  When I get a chance to re-do my POV it will have a combination of halogen, strobe, and LED.  The trick being that I need a relay to kill everything but the LEDs when I turn the truck off otherwise I'm guaranteed to come back to a dead truck.
 
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I know i am WAY late to this post, its been a while since i was even on the site!!!!

I have an all red Code-3 Force4 XL ( I believe its a 55in) that works perfectly and the lenses are in great shape that i would be willing to donate to your department for use on that Suburban.
 

All i would ask for is that shipping is covered.

I think it would look great and its doing me no good collecting dust in my shop!!!

I also have a Vector lightbar is you are interested in that. same deal, i will donate it as long as you cover shipping.

I can take some pictures if you are interested, don't have any at the moment
 
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Woah, a vector! RCRRRCR with a pair of amber filters to the rear. Perfection!


Btw, this all strobe install is awesome
 
I had a very similar setup in a 1996 Ford Ranger with camper shell. It was the last time I had passenger side lights alone.


Like others here, I miss strobes when I see vehicles like this.
 
Thanks guys for all the input! I have been listening and using your comments to aid our progress. Some of the members and I are slowly making progress on getting stuff done to it. We at least for now have the unit number marked. We are working on getting decent reflective lettering for visibility. As for the roof mounted light bars, well that's an uphill battle we're losing, however, we may pitch in some money and get a led ILB. When the truck is done with service, we'll either buy each other out or sell it to the department. But I really want to thank everyone for all the help and suggestions. I really appreciate it!!
 
bullfrog4ever said:
Thanks guys for all the input! I have been listening and using your comments to aid our progress. Some of the members and I are slowly making progress on getting stuff done to it. We at least for now have the unit number marked. We are working on getting decent reflective lettering for visibility. As for the roof mounted light bars, well that's an uphill battle we're losing, however, we may pitch in some money and get a led ILB. When the truck is done with service, we'll either buy each other out or sell it to the department. But I really want to thank everyone for all the help and suggestions. I really appreciate it!!
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No need for a lightbar with just a little rearranging and possibly another couple lights. If you *do* get a lightbar, get a strobe bar because they're cheaper and go with the rest of the lights. With that being said, I'm really glad you're all taking the time to put together such a solid vehicle. If every agency did that, we wouldn't have split-fail and all those terrible knockoff companies would go out of business! 
 
Yeah but what about halogen? Slap an AdvantEdge up there.
 
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So, good news for me! I finally won the battle to put a full lightbar on this vehicle. :) It took nearly 6 months of fighting and complaining about safety to do it, but finally got everyone on board. So, I will be putting a Federal Signal Streethawk that we had in storage!!


I'm really excited. I will have to do some rewiring on the bar and replace both front and rear flashers units that are busted. Also need to find a strap kit for the suburban. But it's in very good condition.
 
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bullfrog4ever said:
So, good news for me! I finally won the battle to put a full lightbar on this vehicle. :) It took nearly 6 months of fighting and complaining about safety to do it, but finally got everyone on board. So, I will be putting a Federal Signal Streethawk that we had in storage!!


I'm really excited. I will have to do some rewiring on the bar and replace both front and rear flashers units that are busted. Also need to find a strap kit for the suburban. But it's in very good condition.
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Awesome! The Streethawks are some of the greatest halogen rotator lightbars ever produced. They also have a million different options to fit every application. I think it'll look great with all the strobes. 
 
unlisted said:
I'd change the grille and mirror strobes to be more of a x pattern (right grille flashes with left mirror, so on)
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I actually had it that way originally, but because the grill light and turn light strobe are so close, it looked more like an "L" than an X, so I flipped them.
 
bullfrog4ever said:
Here's a quick demo of from when I was testing it.
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Looks like you need a new bulb, but that aside, it looks fantastic! Add a HLF into the mix and you'll have a better package than 99.27% of the split fail abominations out there today! Have you changed the rear clear to amber or blue yet?
 
lotsofbars said:
Looks like you need a new bulb, but that aside, it looks fantastic! Add a HLF into the mix and you'll have a better package than 99.27% of the split fail abominations out there today! Have you changed the rear clear to amber or blue yet?
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Actually, thats going to be part of the rewiring process. That rotator works, the terminal strip is just not wired correctly. So I'm going be working on that. Whoever took the bar off the old truck, threw out the wiring harness. I'll have to rebuild that.


I actually have not changed the lenses. Not sure if I'm going to. I know everyone is against white to the rear. But, the strobes are so dim that even at night that it's actually really no worse than a pair of reverse lights.
 
if u need lower lenses for that streethwk i have a couple ambers i could donate to the department.

all i ask for is a patch lol, and i'll cover the shipping costs for the lower lenses (i think i still have some lower lightheads if needed)
 
I actually don't need any lenses at the moment. But thank you. I'm going to keep the red rears, but the rear work light will not be hooked up for 2 reasons:


1. Sitting so far forward on the truck, it's not extremely helpful.


2. I need to save some amperage. Adding this bar, we'll be tip-toeing right on the edge of the trucks amperage limit. So we plan to run all lights to a call and then shut off the bar and just run the strobes on scene to save the alternator and battery.


Hopefully I'll be able to make some headway on the bar this weekend. I'd love to get it all hooked up, but we'll see how much time I have.
 
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