FHP Lightbar

The bars are bulky and once the lense start to haze over they look even worse. Although it is nice to see that a government agency invested time and money into this study and are using it. instead of conducting it, purchasing this equipment then not following through and scrapping it.


I personally am not a C3 fan. We ran edges and patriots and libertys and then swapped to the defender.d its a bright bar but lacks features, 600 or 800 series programming. My current department vehicle was fully supplied with c3, mastercom, defender, hide-a-blast. I have finally swapped everything over to whelen minus the bar, thats the one thing i cant change.


here in GA Georgia State Patrol was true to Whelen for decades. running edges with the speakers on the bars, then patriots and libertys. Now they have gone to all C3 defenders, wingmans, mastercoms. I'm just not impressed with their products.
 
zacmtz7 said:
The bars are bulky and once the lense start to haze over they look even worse. Although it is nice to see that a government agency invested time and money into this study and are using it. instead of conducting it, purchasing this equipment then not following through and scrapping it.

I personally am not a C3 fan. We ran edges and patriots and libertys and then swapped to the defender.d its a bright bar but lacks features, 600 or 800 series programming. My current department vehicle was fully supplied with c3, mastercom, defender, hide-a-blast. I have finally swapped everything over to whelen minus the bar, thats the one thing i cant change.


here in GA Georgia State Patrol was true to Whelen for decades. running edges with the speakers on the bars, then patriots and libertys. Now they have gone to all C3 defenders, wingmans, mastercoms. I'm just not impressed with their products.
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They used alot of Federal signal Cj184 lights also. Back in the Smokie and the Bandit days..
 
chono said:
They can override the pattern to what color they want. They usually do it so they have r/b in the day though.
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not quite. If I recall, they can override the blue to be red for foggy conditions, however that's not likely.


The R/B alternating flash is for when the car is moving.
 
Got to check out a brand new FHP charger tonight with a brand new bar, and confirmed the new bars do not use linear heads. They are the exact same now as the originals with a couple minor changes in programing. During the daytime the outer modules still flash red, but the center flashes blue, and at night the outers blue and the center red (at least on the one I saw). Response is still R/B. Also, when the T/D's are activated, the front of the bar also goes into an "all light" flood/scene mode, in which all forward facing lights (red and blue) steady burn along with the takedowns. That was about the only feature I liked. Still not a fan....
 
stationary It seems that all there cars are set to different configurations mostly all red during the day blue at night.. some troopers in my area added lights to the front of there cars. When the car is moving all colors are on Red and BLue
 
The ones around here have always had the center modules switched so they are flashing the opposite color. Say what you want, but when you see the bars in person, they are effective. They are ugly as hell, but effective.


FHP absorbed FDOT and will phase out the white cars as they get deadlined. Everyone will be driving the black and tan cars.
 
They used to retire vehicles at 100k. That's certainly not happening in the current economy, I know of troopers driving 150k+ vehicles now, with no end in sight.
 
Dave-O said:
The ones around here have always had the center modules switched so they are flashing the opposite color. Say what you want, but when you see the bars in person, they are effective. They are ugly as hell, but effective.

FHP absorbed FDOT and will phase out the white cars as they get deadlined. Everyone will be driving the black and tan cars.
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Which sucks because FDOT has a great setup.
 
Folks should keep in mind that the FHP study was completed in 2004, with the new warning system instituted in 2005. Many of the multi-colored, low-profile lightbars available today were not available at that time. I remember Whelen's first attempt at a multi-colored lightbar. It was a Liberty entirely equipped with lightheads in red-and-blue split combination. It was not an effective solution, especially compared to what they offer today.


Also, during the course of the study, in order to achieve the effects it required, dual-level lightbars were essential. That's why Whelen used the Freedom and C3 used the Javelin. FedSig had the single-level Raydian (with Solaris modules). The Raydian was repeatedly defeated by the Freedom and Javelin during this study. Interestingly, the Freedom was performing better than the Javelin, but the car it was mounted to broke down; and that particular car did not complete the study. I wonder if that played a part in the Javelin ultimately winning the competition and subsequently the bid.


All three manufacturers currently offer products resulting from this FHP study. Most notable is the low-frequency siren. I believe the multi-colored lighting systems available today were the results of R&D related to the FHP study. Although C3 no longer offers the Javelin, this lightbar is still available for the European market--it's known as the Lomax, and it's available through Premier Hazard (part of the PSE Group, parent company of C3).


In related news, it appears that Premier Hazard revamped their website (and it's more user-friendly). There's a product called the Sovereign, an LED lightbar with eight offset corner modules. It's a rather nice-looking product. I'm wondering if C3 will introduce this to the US market. Here's the URL: Sovereign LED Lightbar | Premier Hazard - Lightbars, LED Lighting and Mobile CCTV | A member of the Public Safety Equipment Group of Companies
 
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