New ride!!! 2011 Escape Upfit

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
i just had the tint guy match the rest of it... i figured he'd charge me a lot to go around all the lights so i made it easy on him...
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
So after 90 minutes this got done....
KIMG0171.JPG
Didn't have time to get wire harness in and it won't quit raining so maybe a next weekend project.

Another item off the list.


I have bought 4 ferite beads for coaxes so I can mount them on the roof. I also didn't like the 3/4 wave 220mhz antenna I already had so I bought a 1/4 wave that's black... I don't know where it's coming from but it has a 5 week lead time on it....

also looking into a console bracket for the 220 rig.

So until then.....
 
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Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
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The 220 antenna is mag mounted... Hard to tell with the street lights but there are 3 antenna's on roof...



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So I ordered what we're supposed to be direct fit brackets but since this is for a HAM rig of course it didn't fit.

I had to drill out some holes for the second screw to fit....KIMG0246.JPG
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
I went to set it in the console and strike 2....

The brackets mounted on the radio we're about 1/2 inch to wide.....so off to the grinder wheel I went... After many trials and tribulations I got it to fit even but then the screw holes were no longer right....

Bring in the drill and a bit and a vice... I have now hacked it up enough it looks like crap but does fit... Hopefully the screws will cover up some of the crappiness.... I did touch it up with paint.....KIMG0247.JPG

One of these days I need to get the nmo mounts in...
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
Just need to find my spare 2 inch face plate and it's good to go...KIMG0250.JPG

And I had another ham friend make this for me to power 2 radios off one connection...20180328_193320.jpg
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
i may need a Feneix 4200 soon... have to hit the lottery for that
 

Carlos SpicyWeiner

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 3, 2012
5,233
Lakeland, Florida
can always just add some regular rocker switches to the overhead console. We did that for a client.
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
my "overhead console" has all my id's... LOL plus the sun roof switches, lights, etc... I tried to fit the mini 4200 in there when i first got it but its too big...

theres room around the gear shift for more stuff...but the 4200 is about what i need. Except i guess the new feneix sirens wont work with the 4200 because they already have control heads?
 

Carlos SpicyWeiner

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 3, 2012
5,233
Lakeland, Florida
well the Storm Series will work with the 4200 mini. The typhoon is essentially the Storm and the 4200 mini in one.
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
yea, but i want the "new tones" and that probably cant happen. i could go that route and loose the mini 4200 and regain 4 switches on the sw400 but since this is the J model with a 2 way momentary i dont have a use for them once i get the other siren... to many choices.. ive got another sw400 in the pile but its not as purdy as this one... and dumbing this one down is just pointless
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
Well because I needed MORE to do and because this will help with a few other things I started ANOTHER project...

As I've stated in a thread in the beginning, I will eventually be adding a separate ham rig that will do APRS, I have a found a setup that is an 8 watt transmitter that not only will beacon location etc, it also acts as a digipeater...

Also, I have decided to add some led off road lights surface mounted to my rear bumper, I have a guy near me that can do the surface mount work...

So, when it came time to add the last console plate, which turned out to be 2 inches, I bought a plate that has 4 Carling switch cutouts in it...
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
I don't know why Havis thinks Carling switches are gold or something, I didn't buy my switches from them... After digging around a few different websites, I noticed alot of people only sold red white and blue switches...

Since all my other switches are green, that's what I wanted.. I finally found d a place in California that sold green "Carling" bodies...

I also found a website www.rockerswitchpros.com that will customize switch heads .

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Attached heads, to bodies, and inserted into faceplate...KIMG0358.JPG

The grounds for both the switch and the backlighting are separate so i made a jumper to jumper...

Backlight

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And switch activated..
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Now to get this in the console... And wait for more $$$$ to do the rest..
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
KIMG0380.JPG

In the console all wired up. I also bought some wire wrap and wrapped the 4 plug harness for trailer wire..

While adding the console something had been putting pressure on 12v outlet wiring.. (cough me cough cough) and it broke the negative off so now to order another.
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
always in need of more projects, didn't want to make a new thread for this so ill add it here...

ive been looking at cargo carriers, found one on FB marketplace for $35 bucks... i had it on the vehicle from the time i left the guys house i bought it from, to where i spent my weekend camping, and then back home... in that time it almost got hit 3 or 4 times because it only had reflectors on it... so whilst i was in the Boro i stopped at northern tool and picked up some clearance lights... wasn't it just my luck that these lights already fit the holes on the carrier... (it also didn't help that the rack stuck out like a sore thumb because the tongue was too long


i mocked up the lights in series to see if they would work with my handy dandy test battery


KIMG0411.JPG



and here's all 6 off the battery, ambers on the side and reds in the back

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after about an hour and a half of wiring, looming and checking all the connections, i wired it up to a trailer side 4 pin harness... Here is where i was making the final connection and i couldnt reach this with carrier on the ride... battery is connected to harness connector.

KIMG0415.JPG

zip tied connector to carrier frame and connected it to vehicle...
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final outcome.. you can see how far it was sticking out here...

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when i got home Monday night when i backed in the drive way the carrier bottomed out on my gravel driveway...

as of now i have taken a portable band saw and cut 7 inches of it off and its more flush with the ride... i however jacked up the pin holes for the hitch pin because we only have a 3/4 inch bit at work and i need an 11/16ths... so i will drive by a guy in town tomorrow with a shop and see if he can un FUBAR my mistake...



after this i will give it a new coat of paint...
 
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Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
So, I did this because too much chrome is too much..

received_539380329832797.jpeg

Makes an improvement...received_472932879875709.jpeg

Ordered the decals from a website... Makes it stand out a lil better.
 
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Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
I have also decided to add some LEDs to replace the stock halogen driving lamps. I bought a pair of opt7s off of Amazon..

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Just have to pop out the driving lights...
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Plugged in the new led
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Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
Driving lights only from the inside

KIMG0457.JPG

Lights up further down the road than stock, the leds are 5000k but are still slightly blueish, lights up road signs better, and has a rounded pattern that lights up the sides of the roads to where you can see in trees, but they aren't blinding to other drivers...

I'm thinking of doing headlights next.. I'll either do led for those, or Phillips headlights that are not yellowish...

Headlight flasher is next to be installed...
 

Impala9C1

Member
Sep 28, 2018
189
Arizona
I like your set up. The ability to use just amber and then just r/w is a good option. I think the video of when you had 2 lights side by side was very effective vs just one stack in the back side window.
 
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Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
I've thought about making the side windows dual lights, I would add another fusion, but this time it'd be single amber when ambers are on, single red with reds on and both on mode 3....

That is unless of course, feneix ever comes out with a 3 mode
 

Sparky_911

Supporting Donor
May 15, 2013
2,648
Central Illinois
I'm thinking of doing headlights next.. I'll either do led for those, or Phillips headlights that are not yellowish...

Headlight flasher is next to be installed...

Go led. I tried the Phillips bulbs that were pure white. Dark purple/blue package (silverstars?). They only lasted 100hrs and I replaced 3 within a year at 50 bucks a pair. I went back to old yella and only lost 1 in a year. Those are rated at 200+hrs. This was all on my old truck.
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
Yes, it says on the package that they last 1/4th the lifetime of a standard bulb... But they sell another kind that is half the lifetime as a.regular bulb and they are only a few bucks more... I've had the next up model in my f 150 for over a decade... But it rarely gets driven at night...

My main concern is if flashing led.headlights will make them burn out quicker..
 
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Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
Did an upgrade for the USB outlet in the console and while I had it partially apart did a lil cleanup...

KIMG0505.JPG
This new outlet is 3 amps, charges my phone quicker... And instead of the blinding lil blue led... It's a voltmeter ..

I've got 75% of the headlight flasher installed, I've got to get some larger gauge wire to run to passenger side high beams, and figure out a way to tap into the extension I bought... Need to see what the local auto parts store have...
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
Wired up so far...
KIMG0502.JPG

Headlight extensions
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Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
I'll post more tommorow at work but here's a teaser....
 
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Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
Looks like that went well!!! Any issues?? Or did it go according to plan?

Well, when I connected the first wire to the driver's side extension, I hadn't un plugged the passenger side... I watched both headlights flash at the same time... So apparently the headlights feed off each other... The blue wire is a flash/sense wire so it has to be patched inline... The passenger side I completely cut the passenger side wire from the harness and tapped into the cut and it worked flawless..

It's a good thing I went ahead and got the extensions cause the factory wire is like 14 gauge or something small...
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
These pictures loaded out of order so bear with me...

This is where i decided to mount the flasher. its next to the circuit breaker this picture should be rotated but its an up angle shot...




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This was at work the other night... Getting all the supplies ready to see what i could and pulling a boulder.. LOL

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this picture is out of sequence, but it is where i ran the passenger side wire through some loom.. this was done at the house Friday night

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Ok, we remember from the beginning of the install where i bought the color coded wire loom. the yellow was for grille light wiring, i used a 4 conductor wire harness, and the last conductor was for the headlight flasher switched power... i ran a wire through the loom to where this wire ended and connected it.. then connected the other end to the red turn on wire for the flasher...

KIMG0501.JPG


i dont know why sound off did this flasher's wiring like this it looks 8 up.. its also very hard to loom... they give you alot of wire to work with...

Green wire is ground. "it must go as close to battery ground as possible" when deciding on location , this is why i picked this spot as there were 2 factory grounds coming from the main fuse box here... i loosened the bolt and viola...

White wire, is primary power for the flasher... I attached it to the battery side of the circuit breaker... as seen with the wire coming form the battery and the wire that goes to the trailer harness sensor harness box in the back of the vehicle...

Red is the "switched power" that comes from the harness that comes from my mini 4200 in console

Black is "night time over ride" you can wire this up so the flasher will not work at night (kinda defeats the point?)

Red/Black is pattern wire

I got every thing but the lights done at work.. i tested out the wiring.

On my other flasher in my f150 you can here the relays ticking away as the lights flash.. i turned this one on and heard nothing... thinking something wasnt right i hooked a voltmeter up the the outputs and watched the display go all over the place from 0.09v up to 11v so that meant it was doing something...


KIMG0502.JPG

I was originally going to mount the flasher here... the diagonal holes have threads in them, lined up perfectly, and if i had had some screws i would have put it here, but it was all the way across from the "battery ground"


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ok i already had this pic posted, but its the extensions i bought for 10 bucks a piece from parts geek and were VERY needed... (because factory wire is tiny and thi swouldnt have permanently messed the factory wiring up...
KIMG0503.JPG

i was trying to find a device, or some way to "t tap" this connection.. since the blue not only flashes the light it also sense the headlights being turned on to over ride the flasher... in stead i bought larger gauged heat shrink connectors and made that work... (the blue going to yellow is the splice, it then gores to a red wire in the harness...)

KIMG0507.JPG
 
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Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
Ok here is the passenger side wire before i tucked it under the radiator cover just to make sure it all worked before i buttoned everything up...
I thought i took a pic of the passenger side harness but i simply cut that ones red wire, butt spliced the other wire and then capped the wire that was still cut because there is still power coming out of the factory harness...

KIMG0514.JPG


and here is the best i could do with loom giving what i had... loomed the power wire, the remote power went to the yellow loom, loomed ground, and tried to cover the over ride and pattern select the best i could...

KIMG0516.JPG

caught it mid flash, i have it set to slow single.. although i like the "q switch" pattern in the flasher.. it seems faster than the one in f 150...

KIMG0515.JPG


ill add a few more vids when i get them uploaded to youtube... but at night time the HLF wipes out all other warning including the dash light...

except i didnt try it with the T3's.. they might have a chance...
 
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Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
Simple yet highly effective looking set up! I always enjoy seeing your updates on this.

Thanks i try to be as detailed as possible in case someone not familiar with the "expertise" involved in doing this can kind of stuff get a "play by play" or slightly better knowledge than what they have to do this kinda stuff...
 
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Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
I guess I'm going to have to update the grille to fusions because the T3s blow the hlf away... +Sorry the vid is sideways lol

 

firebuff17

Member
Mar 28, 2011
774
CT
I like it because You can actually see the grill lights when the HLF is on. I prefer seeing color along with the white light.... I hate it when the front end gets drowned out by white light.
Don’t get me wrong... flashing white gets attention but you need the color as well
 
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Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
And i shot some vids tonight...


All amber,

Red/white

Red


I may need some red lights in the fogs now to help drown out all that white... LOL
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
I wont do an "install" for the new Phillips xtravision headlights i put in, but 20% more light out put atleast...


Yesterday

our parades usually last an hour or so and about 45 minutes in i noticed my sw300 backlighting was "twitching" wonder if its ground or power.. may do leds on those to reduce amp draw as well LOL

Also my first time to pull the R1 boat
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
Well, i wasnt planning on any more additions for the year but our parade was Sunday... I noticed the sw400JJ looked "dimmer" so i popped the labels off and one of the incandescent back lights was out... I was planning upgrading to led anyways so here was my excuse to go ahead and do it...
The Incandescents are 86 cents a piece plus shipping on some websites... I went to good ole Amazon and ordered some 5mm 12v LED's

A preview of what one led vs the incandescents look like top view....

KIMG0612.JPG


And from the inside...

KIMG0613.JPG



2 LEDS

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And all 3... I had to remove switch number 2 to get to that bulb easily, i could have taken out number one as well but it was in the 30's outside and was just trying to get it done as quickly and painlessly as possibleKIMG0615.JPG


I noticed having the LEDS point up made it "spotty" and insanely bright... I bent the LEDS at 90 degree angles to balance out the light output. Now i have an eery glow emitting from the box sides.. LOL



This is the top with LED bent and cover back on and back in the console... This made the back lighting easily 200% brighter....

received_591690317929226.jpeg


in hindsight probably could have gotten away with 3 mm LEDs and not been so bright LOL
 
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Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
Updated night time console pics... Not as bright as the close up looks... But brighter than before...

KIMG0621.JPG

KIMG0622.JPG

More on par with mini 4200 than the dead lighting bug stock...
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
Well I maybe getting new fusions free.. we'll see what feneix says. my apollos have lost their "minds"

My mode one is shot... The lights are flashing 2 times and alternate.. one light has turned pink because the white stays on... I hooked the pattern select up to + and nothing happens.

My mode 2 flashes red and pink cause the white stays on it as well even though the color isn't selected... I'll upload vids later...


With the ridiculous amount of rain we had last month I'm surprised anything lasted...

I'll post feneix's response when I get one...
 

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