Is this guy serious

bpollard

Member
Jun 13, 2010
422
USA, SC
"Station One - Stand by for emergency traffic..........."


<TONES>


"Station One respond to a vehicle fire, from cell phone, location highway 1234, cross road secondary 3456. Call from cell phone reporting a Ford Pickup with strange object on roof, fully involved. Respond Code 3, operate on Fireground Frequency One. Time 22:20"


"Engine 10, Engine 11 responding Code to vehicle fire"


:shock: Oh My God
 
May 25, 2010
7,072
Tunkhannock, PA, USA
And it looks horrible... He would have been better off using all those LED heads to make it all slick-top... IMHO
 
Aug 20, 2010
21
Not the best looking one, for sure. I do give'em kudos for building his own. Not one I would go for myself, but not bad I suppose..
 
May 21, 2010
1,591
Berlin, MI, 48002
LED project bars can make wiring look pretty bad too. I had a sho-me LED flasher in a project bar & had wires going all over everywhere. I switched to a whelen w/actual plugs & that cleaned a lot up.


Having to ground everything you put in can suck too.
 

Station 3

Member
May 21, 2010
3,395
Edinburg Texas
With all the money he spent on those lights and frame he could of just bought himself a used led lightbar from you guys on ELB :roll:
 

Boss429

Member
May 21, 2010
261
Pennsylvania
TritonBoulder47 said:
And it looks horrible... He would have been better off using all those LED heads to make it all slick-top... IMHO
Yes, I agree. But I do give him Kudos for building a bar on his own.
 
May 25, 2010
7,072
Tunkhannock, PA, USA
Boss429 said:
Yes, I agree. But I do give him Kudos for building a bar on his own.
Very true, I'm not bashing his effort or his initiative. Just the look of the final product. But if he likes it and it works for what he wants, good for him...
 

tnems7

Member
May 21, 2010
407
USA Nashville Tennessee
Being in Nova Scotia, I have to compliment his resourcefulness, and he may not have been aware of ELB as a resoure. As one member mentioned, he aleady had most of the light heads, and that probably explains his mixed use of Gen 3 and Gen 1 lights . (I am trying to sell some of my Gen 1 stuff, and so far, no takers from ELB members.


I can see several advantages of mounting the lightheads externally and not using them for a slicktop. And doing it yourself.


The weather in NS probably causes moisture and condensation in a bar like the edge or even a Liberty, so these light heads avoid that issue. Putting them inside may mean flashback, and if he needs fog lights and other vision aids, you wouldn't want that. He definitely figured in off-angle warning heads.


Also, since he built it, he knows how to troubleshoot it and can easily replace a head if it goes out. Several flashers also mean redundancy in case one flasher fails.


It is a good effort, and gives him an experimental platform as new lightheads may be introduced, and he has some space to add them. If it works to warn other motorists, that's the purpose!
 

tcfd823

Member
May 21, 2010
368
CENARK
SireLite said:
I know the guy who made this bar. He already had most of the lightheads before he bought the frame. So it cost him little to nothing to make.

I know him as well... He had been working on that bar for quite some time...

Station 3 said:
With all the money he spent on those lights and frame he could of just bought himself a used led lightbar from you guys on ELB :roll:

Did it ever cross your mind that maybe, just maybe, he wanted to build his own bar? I know I'd like to build my own, but I don't have the time, nor do I have the funds to contribute to such a task...


Keep up the good work, J.
 

JohnMarcson

Administrator
May 7, 2010
10,971
Northwest Ohio
It could use some cleaning up, but as far as output, it should be ok. It's not the sharpest looking build ever, but I'll bet it gets the job done.
 

jonny521

Member
May 23, 2010
300
mass
JohnMarcson said:
It could use some cleaning up, but as far as output, it should be ok. It's not the sharpest looking build ever, but I'll bet it gets the job done.
im with you on that one john. a little more love to this bar and would have been pretty good. could have def started with a neater wire system. the lights themselves arent bad but some things in my eyes could have def been changed. IMO :geek:
 

RL1

Member
May 20, 2010
1,649
Ga
Did he build it the way he wanted it: Yes


Does it work: Yes


Is he happy with it: I would guess though I don't know him


He is proud of what he made and that is what matters. I couldn't make my own bar and I give him props. It could have been cleaned up but as long as he is pleased, it's good.
 

Station 3

Member
May 21, 2010
3,395
Edinburg Texas
I made my own slicktop i bought a SVP frame/shroud from one of those interior bars and just added my own led lightheads in it added those little Code-3 takedown lights and alot of Whacker LEDs and one of those sho-me red white dashlight in the center and it looks very very good. It cost me around 250 or 200 bucks to make since i had most of the leds already and just added some traffic cleaners and the takedowns.
 

firemedic105

Member
Jun 2, 2010
235
East Coast of Canada
Hello folks, If I may be permitted to post on my bar, I can probably answer some things about it and why it is the way it is. I am sorry that it took me so long to reply but I was at work when the topic was first posted and on the road most of the 24 hours so please forgive the delay.


1) when I first got the idea, I had all but two of the reds and 1/2 of the amber lightheads. I knew I wanted to build a bi-colour lightbar with these lightheads. That was my only requirement of what was going into the bar.


2) I had the frame narrowed down to either an Edge frame or the Tomar Heliobe frame that I used. I had asked around with people I knew and everyone had said the same thing that the Edges can draw moisture and quite a bit in my area. And I always did like the Tomar Heliobe bars. So I went with the Tomar.


3) This bar was a winter project to build and test. I made a few mistakes when I was working on it. I selected too thick of a aluminum plate as i went with 1/8'' and should have gone with a 1/16''s as it would have been just a lot easier to work with. Also, if you were to look closely, u will see that some of the lightheads are off level and that is some of the other mistakes.


4) I went with Gen1 as I still love the 5mm lights overall. If I had the money tnems7, I would probably buy any reds/amber you have. Personal preference I guess. For the corners, I went with TIR3s as I already had the red TIR3s and just had to buy the ambers and I couldnt find any 5mm lights that would fit the exact location. The same goes for the ends. For in the back where you see the 5mms and the Pods, I wanted a mix to help break up the look since I had done that in the front. I went with a 5mm white light for an alley light and that is one thing I wish I would have done differently now in hindsight.


5) All segments of the lights are separately switched. The rear ambers are separate from the front ambers, and so it is the same with the reds. This is the reason why you see the many flashers. Each section has it's own ULF44 flasher so depending on the circumstances, I can pick and choose the lights I want to use. (i.e. rear ambers and led arrow bar, vs front ambers and no rear etc just to name a couple.)


6)

tnems7 said:
Also, since he built it, he knows how to troubleshoot it and can easily replace a head if it goes out. Several flashers also mean redundancy in case one flasher fails.
Now being my first bar project, I did have one or two issues I did have to troubleshoot in which a wire was pinched or a lighthead wasn't working and a lot of the issues actually came down to having the thicker aluminum plate as it had pinched a couple wires. So a bit of modification to the bar to prevent the pinching and voila, problem solved in one case. Another case, I ended up running a new wire as one wire I had run wasn't conducting power. Turns out the wire was broke inside.


7) Yes the wiring may not look as good as I could have made it, but with it being my first project bar, I left some of it semi-open in case I have to open the bar up later in order to either add to or replace anything that crops up. The wires I had left semi-open were the ones that I felt would be the hardest to trace from the terminal strip to the end point if in a loom.


Yes I made mistakes and yes it may not look as neat as others, especially others that I have seen on here but I wanted a bi-colour bar with full functionality and separation of each section for switching. If I had of had to buy a bar built like this, it could have run into a couple thousand to get one set up like this. This bar cost me less than $500.00 to build and install, and while the looks aren't the best ( I will even be the first to admit it) my lightbar will outshine any lighting system out in my area.


Total number of lightheads - 30


Total number of flashers - 4


Overall cost -far far less than $600.00 USD which was the most I was willing to spend on the build.


I wish only one thing, that I had the skills of some of the folks on here in building and constructing lighting systems. However, being new at the game, I have a long way to go and my only way to go is up.


Thanks for allowing me the time to reply to some of your comments.
 

TCO

Member
May 21, 2010
808
Malvern,Pa
not to bad for your first bar,hell it is what you wanted and it works so go with it. other then that i would paint it and maybe get some plexi to cover the light heads
 

firemedic105

Member
Jun 2, 2010
235
East Coast of Canada
Coleman and TCO. Thanks for the kind words. It actually did surpass my expectations which I guess maybe weren't as high as I could have put them.


I am waiting for the bases and flat tops for my next project bar. I plan on doing a MX7K with flat tops with the same idea for its lighting. I am not sure yet how much easier or harder it will be. I like the Tomar and all that, but after having it on the truck for a couple months, it does catch the wind a bit more and I have noticed the fuel consumption has increased slightly. It isn`t too noticeable on my local roads in my town, but when I do highway driving, I really notice the fuel consumption.


I went with an MX with flat tops cuz the deal I had on the combo was unbeatable, and I kinda like the rounded bases idea. I think they look cool. Gonna be 6 reds to the front, 4 ambers minimum, 2 clear strobes, (including the corners) and 6 red and 6 amber to the rear including the corners, plus this time, there will be halogen MR11`s for my alley lights. The MR11 lights are to correct my one regret with this current bar


Just waiting for the bases.


As for those that were thinking it was a fire hazard, it isn`t a hazard except for the bloody weight of it. Even tho it isn`t as nice as some of the bars folks on here made I was happy with it for my first one, and with luck, the replacement will be as nice as some on here.
 

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