Greetings guys. My agency wants to use Feniex for one of our new 2019 Tahoe AWDs. We have everything figured out accept the back of the rigs. Historically we've used the Whelen Outer Edges which work well for any time the tailgate is open. The Feniex LB is very low profile, so I need to get aux lighting to the back of the vehicle what doesn't get covered or realigned once the tailgate is opened. I need ideas and suggestions. Do the Cannons work well in the Tahoe taillights? Can you recess the Fusions in the interior trim so they come on when the gate is open? Any help with this is greatly appreciated!
HELP with Tahoe bid
- Thread starter cbratt
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pdk9
Member
I wouldn’t go too crazy with a lot of warning lights intended for when the rear lift gate is open. Yes, I definitely think they’re important, BUT if you’re doing a lot of reaching into the rear of your vehicle (with you back to traffic and no other EV behind you), then you should probably reposition your vehicle for your safety ;-)
Yes, you can recess the fusions and cannons under the tailgate, but I prefer the larger footprint of a fusion (preferably the wide angle 180 optic).
This is just my opinion, but the newer gen Tahoe brake/turn lights are not ideal for mounting LAWs b/c there isn’t a good place to mount the cannon where it truly fills up the reflector (due to the design of the current housings), unlike older designs where there was a lot more open space and reflector surface area to reflect the LAWs off of. We have LAWs mounted in all of our Battalion chief tahoe brake/turn lights, and they are pretty weak IMO. The reverse tail lights are a smaller housing than what I’d prefer to mount LAWs in. That being said, if I’m gonna mount LAWs anywhere in the rear, the only place I would mount LAWs in the newer Tahoe’s is in the tail lights by replacing the reverse light bulb with dual color cannons (clear for reverse, safety color for warning) because they seem to fill the entire housing with their footprint when flashing.
Some other food for thought....u can mount T3’s in the trailer hitch area and you can mount cannons on the vertical rear pillars like a poor man’s vertical outer edge (if you insert them from behind the pillar, then they’re less conspicuous since they don’t require the surface mount flange on the outside). These are just ideas for you from what I’ve seen, but I personally hate surface mounting LAWs and think it’s often a waste (unless it’s a super covert unmarked vehicle, which this does not sound like)
When spec-ing lights, I would use linear optics for ALL exterior mounted lights (lightbar and perimeter warning), such as the 180 fusion optic and widelux), and use TIR 40 degree optic for all interior mounted lights that are mounted behind tint (rear headliner, rear side window, etc). Also, the overwhelming majority of our members here will agree that you should avoid flashing clear/white to the rear because it’s blinding at night....stick to the traditional safety colors for rear warning (blue, red, amber). Feel free to PM me if I can be of any help
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pdk9 - Thank you for the reply!
You have cleared up the debate on the taillights since we have not mounted them in the newer Tahoe taillights. I was looking at the dust cover / 3rd brake light / wiper housing.....and unless you know of anything different, it looks like we'd have plenty of room to hang the Fusions on the L brackets in this location. If mounted so they actually touch the glass, they'd have very minimal vibration and they may last the entire service life of the Hoe. I'd use the 180 degree on everything I can.
It looks like we can easily recess additional Fusions on the interior bottom edge of the hatch door that come on when the door is open.
I am a big fan of keeping the lights as far apart as possible. This helps the viewer's eyes determine the width of a vehicle - and thus the distance. (we had a patrol vehicle rear-ended once by a person who thought the lights were further down the road as they thought they were looking at a full size lightbar off in the distance.....minor crash....but could have been fatal if the scene had been on one of our highways).
These rigs will start to come together in the spring. I'll post photos of the install for all to see. Try to get some videos too.
Thanks again for the input!!!
You have cleared up the debate on the taillights since we have not mounted them in the newer Tahoe taillights. I was looking at the dust cover / 3rd brake light / wiper housing.....and unless you know of anything different, it looks like we'd have plenty of room to hang the Fusions on the L brackets in this location. If mounted so they actually touch the glass, they'd have very minimal vibration and they may last the entire service life of the Hoe. I'd use the 180 degree on everything I can.
It looks like we can easily recess additional Fusions on the interior bottom edge of the hatch door that come on when the door is open.
I am a big fan of keeping the lights as far apart as possible. This helps the viewer's eyes determine the width of a vehicle - and thus the distance. (we had a patrol vehicle rear-ended once by a person who thought the lights were further down the road as they thought they were looking at a full size lightbar off in the distance.....minor crash....but could have been fatal if the scene had been on one of our highways).
These rigs will start to come together in the spring. I'll post photos of the install for all to see. Try to get some videos too.
Thanks again for the input!!!
pdk9
Member
Yes, I’m also a big fan of keeping a wide footprint (instead of keeping them in the center of the vehicle). I’ve never seen fusions mounted on L-brackets to the tahoe spoiler (except for the Feniex full size rear spoiler bracket) .... just ions/m powers on the Whelen/SOS brackets, since they’re smaller and can sit snug against the spoiler.
I hope you guys will consider some 6x4 or 7x3 Widelux for the grill (on L-brackets on the PB, if u have one) & exterior tailgate for a large footprint. If not a PB, then 4 fusions fit nicely on the sides of the tahoe ribbon
I hope you guys will consider some 6x4 or 7x3 Widelux for the grill (on L-brackets on the PB, if u have one) & exterior tailgate for a large footprint. If not a PB, then 4 fusions fit nicely on the sides of the tahoe ribbon
Doyle257
Member
I've heard the Fusions in the flush mount buckets fit nicely in the bottom of the tahoe tailgate (For when it is open)
I believe the Reverse light bulbs can be replaced with Cannons, wiring Mode 3 into the Reverse light circuit
I believe the Reverse light bulbs can be replaced with Cannons, wiring Mode 3 into the Reverse light circuit
pdk9
Member
Sorry for the confusion, I was suggesting 4 fusions on each side of the tahoe ribbon on the front grill, if you don’t have a pushbumper. I would mount them horizontally (not double stacked) since they will fit perfectly in the 4 grill slots. On the other hand, if you do have a pushbumper, ideally, then I’d mount my front and intersection lights on the front & sides of the pushbumper (and the siren speakers beneath the lower crossmember so that they’re not muffled/obstructed).
For the rear, I suggested using feniex Widelux instead of the fusions mounted on the outside of the tail/lift gate. I think anything doublestacked looks tacky (aesthetically), & I like the larger footprint of a single Widelux lighthead (available in 6x4, 7x3, or 9x7) HORIZONTALLY-mounted on each side of the tail/liftgate. If u happen to choose red for both sides, you can also wire them as Aux brake lights (Feniex allows you to program them as STT)
Not sure what you have planned for front/sides, but back on the cannon topic, I don’t think there’s any good place to mount them in the front headlight/turn/DRL housings and would save your money by avoiding that.
Thanks again for all the great input. We have mounted our lower level, forward facing LEDs to the underside of the top cross member of the push bumpers. 1. Its easier for the shop to mount them. 2. It gets the lights a bit higher than the grill allows and over the trunk deck of most sedans when you are up close.
Our intersection lights are mounted so that they are cross-eyed on the lower cross section of the push bumpers. I'll include a pic below. But if you think about an intersection, and say a semi truck being on your right...completely blocking your view of a vehicle to its right trying to get into the intersection....as that emergency vehicle enters the intersection from behind that semi (or whatever blockage) its the passenger's side of the vehicle that is the first thing that comes into view. Thus, we have mounted our intersection lights (white lights) at about a 45 degree angle - facing the center of the truck - so they look cross-eyed when viewed on the push bumper. We set them to a constant flash rate. Currently we have the Whelen IONs mounted here, and they seem to work very, very well for this purpose.
The new Tahoe's (not the one in the photos....its due to be rotated out in February) appear to have a significant amount of room in the lower daytime running light area....I'm just not sure what is under that housing for room.
I have asked that the speakers me push bumper mounted. The speaker I have in this truck is 1/2 blocked by the grill . . . and while I can't scientifically prove it . . . it seems it would degrade the speaker's ability to push sound.
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Thanks for the reply Doyle. Just to confirm, we can probably put the Cannon IN PLACE of the back up bulbs and they will function as both the backup light and the flashing warning light?
As far as the rear is concerned . . . it looks like we can directly mount L-brackets on the bottom side of the new wiper housing / 3rd brake light housing. There appears to be plenty of strength to this unit that will hold 2 LED per side. This will keep the lights up high and on each side of the vehicle to help identify the width. I think Amber / Red and Amber / Blue will work nicely in this spot.
One of the largest complaints we get (and my complaint too) is that (as currently set up) there is no dead area for officers to stand in when conducting business outside of our rigs at night . . . to the rear or the sides. If you stand to the side, the back of the bar is wicked. If you stand to the rear. . . it's double wicked because you get the bar and the pillar lights both.
Mounting lights under the back of the wiper housing would mean we still have the back of the truck lit up, but you could stand to the side of the rig and not have the lights right in your face.
pdk9
Member
You can order the Setina PB400 with LEDs already recessed in the top crossmember of the PB or put fusions in those cutouts. It looks cleaner & it gets the grill lights higher up (I agree that higher up is ideal to be seen in RVM).
I totally agree that you need to have something at the very front tip of the vehicle for intersections (since the nose of your vehicle is the first thing exposed). CHP does the inward angled intersection lights too, but I think you lose a lot of output by mounting them inside the vertical pillars, instead of on the outside of the PB vertical pillars. Mounting them inside means you get no side output, while mounting them on the outside of the PB pillars (either side facing or on a 45 degree angle bracket...as long as you do it horizontally) means that you get intersection and side facing warning. A dual color fusion on a rapid flash pattern.
I agree about the speakers. I like having them out in front. To my knowledge, there isn’t a study that states the # decibels/how much output is reduced, but (from a layman’s standpoint) having a big plastic shell directly in front of your speaker will undoubtedly muffle the speaker to some extent. I like mounting them beneath the lower cross member of the PB so that I can leave the top side of the lower cross member for grill lights, scene lights, etc
Doyle257
Member
Correct.
In my vehicle, I have R/W and B/W Cannon 360's in place of my reverse light bulbs. Mode 1 is Red/Blue, set to Alternating Quad Flash. Mode 2 is Reverse, Set to Brake Pop White. Mode 3 is rear worklight/Flood, set to solid white.
Mode 2 overrides Mode 1, Mode 3 overrides Mode 2 and Mode 1
Agreed. The only concern about the placement of speakers is the amount of slush / snow build-up during the winter months. I've had it build up and jam into the speaker housing and completely muffle my audible tones.
pdk9
Member
I totally forgot about that white stuff you guys have called “snow” (I’ve been living down south for the last 8 years now lol).
What about having the speakers mounted on top of the lower cross member, mounting forward facing fusion 180’s on top cross members (ideally recessed b/c they’re better protected and look cleaner when mounted that way), & mounting the intersection fusion 180’s on the outsides of the vertical pillars?
Happy belated Thanksgiving. Not sure what they'll do (if they even order the dual tone setup). As it is now, mounting them inside the grill also provides some heat and keeps them cleaner than those that are mounted out front. That said, most of our guys know to watch the buildup.