Red/blue left or right?

[solidamber]

My new lightbar is half red half blue with red on the drivers side, would normally the mirror beams and grill lights, be the same or opposite?

 

[cory y2.0]

same.

 

[Sparky_911]

Agreed. Same colors same sides. Check your state's emergency light laws. It may require red driver, blue passenger although I've seen it mixed. Just be sure to sync the reds together then blues together or you'll end up looking like a purple blob going down the road.

 

[Nolines]

I oppose this form of lighting, you need splits of colors to be most effective when rolling down the road, moving a color filter or LED light is the best thing to do so the same colors may flash but should be giving you a wider stance.
Say you are half blue and half red, you need to look like this in some fashion or another

Brbtdtdrbr

Or

Brtdbrtdbr

In frontal view so your bar looks as wide as the car giving you a larger footprint to eyes ahead of you

I have found for my own lighting colors required that splitting and interleaving the takedowns between them works better then solid color side to side, also that your rears should show the opposite colors flashing not same side front and rear at the same time this does nothing but give you limited side protection.

Front left blue left rear red, right side red front right side rear blue, allowing the blues front and rear to light at the corners at the same time and the red corners the same gives the appearance of wig wag flashing but better visibility.

 

[solidamber]

Thanks.

 

[cory y2.0]

I oppose this form of lighting, you need splits of colors to be most effective when rolling down the road, moving a color filter or LED light is the best thing to do so the same colors may flash but should be giving you a wider stance.
Say you are half blue and half red, you need to look like this in some fashion or another

Brbtdtdrbr

Or

Brtdbrtdbr

In frontal view so your bar looks as wide as the car giving you a larger footprint to eyes ahead of you

But still only have one color flashing at any one time per level?

 

[pdk9]

I vote for red and blue (spread out) on both sides (provided that you’re allowed to do so). Red is more visible than blue under certain circumstances, and blue is more visible than red under other circumstances, so I’m personally not a fan of having all red on 1 side and all blue on the other side.
However, I do believe in syncing colors when possible (is all blue flashing than all red flashing)

 

[solidamber]

I vote for red and blue (spread out) on both sides (provided that you’re allowed to do so). Red is more visible than blue under certain circumstances, and blue is more visible than red under other circumstances, so I’m personally not a fan of having all red on 1 side and all blue on the other side.
However, I do believe in syncing colors when possible (is all blue flashing than all red flashing)

That's a good idea, it's a whelen liberty, so I can easily swap around the modules.

 

[Nolines]

But still only have one color flashing at any one time per level?

Well if you want to mix it up then do so, the bar I have was 4 corners Amber I'm going to have Wilson change 2 corners to green, I'm going to adjust the inners and see what goes best color wise, otherwise it is one color at a time flashing, each set to a different pattern.

 

[solidamber]

I'm in the UK, and have an ex livermore CA PD, p71, I can drive it on the UK roads but not allowed a blue lens so I put on a whelen edge in all red, but it looks wrong so have just swapped to a liberty led bar rr bb as it shows clear on the road, and looks more original, though livermore use a code 3 but it has a blue and red top.

 

[Whiskey 6]

Back in the day..red was always driver side and blue on passenger side. When I was young Officer 30 years ago, I was told this configuration was so you could determine if the police car was approaching or going away from you. For example: From a distance...if the red was on the left side and the blue on the right...the police car is going away from you. If the blue was on the left side and the red on the right...the police car is coming towards you. Nowadays it seems all jumbled up...what ever looks cool and individualized. Just sharing what I learned a long time ago.

 

[Nolines]

I wish that they would change the degrees of the lenses or lights, cause when you look at them( due to wavelength I'm told ) the blue is always pointing lower then the red or any other color. They could easily change the degrees of the lense to reflect a more central ( straight left to right ) view of the lights to give a better visibility and lower reflection issue.

 

[John Hearne]

We run red/blue but in our area all blue is more common. I run the lightbar with red on the driver's side for the big punch and the supplemental light on the driver's side is blue. We run a lot of two lane roads and this allows you to get some blue into the center line area.

For a vehicle in-motion, I generally flash all the blue and the red together. This naturally creates an "X" pattern.

Which letter is easiest to read on the eye chart - the big "E." Why because it's big. For this reason I flash all the red on the light bar and all the blue together as it is more visible over longer distances. I've never found interwoven red/blue to work well at distance. There's a lot of stuff that looks cool standing in front of the vehicle that doesn't hold up 1/4 mile down the road.

 

[cabunty]

I wish that they would change the degrees of the lenses or lights, cause when you look at them( due to wavelength I'm told ) the blue is always pointing lower then the red or any other color. They could easily change the degrees of the lense to reflect a more central ( straight left to right ) view of the lights to give a better visibility and lower reflection issue.

One of the reasons for this that the "degrees of the lenses" would never fix is chromostereopsis. It is a chromatic aberration. Short/easy version, your eyes have about 2 percent blue receptors and 60 percent red. The differential refraction of light due to the wavelengths of the light makes some of them converge in your eyes before others. This is even more pronounced when there is a dark background (such as at night). This is why the farther you get away from say a red and blue light bar, the more the lights appear to no longer be side by side and seem to be over/under or one "in front" of the other. 95 percent of the population with normal color vision will see the blue underneath the red. Try it some night when you are bored! It is even more pronounced with LED light due to the pureness of the light source itself (vs a white light behind a blue or red lense).

 

[Nolines]

True I was thinking about the way the eyes see it but I've also heard of them setting lenses to a certain degrees and wondered if there was a way by adjusting the degrees of the lenses would affect your vision of the lights as to how they look

 

[roaddawg7]

My Dept just changed back to red/blue but the deck lights and grill lights are switched opposite of the bar colors. It looks good and gets your attention. The side fender lights are red driver's and blue pass but the front and rear corner recessed are blue white pass side and red white driver's side.

Patters change for the different slide switch modes.

Flash patterns should not be crazy or super fast. At night people look away from the fast (seizure) patterns and that's not good cause you want them to see you and keep driving. Low power is good too cause then they do not get blinded and can see where they are going.

 

[coop359]

I always ran Red on the corner lights of the Whelen LFL led bars. I could push an six button and have them flask like Adam12s. I would mix red/blue inboard. I agree about the difference in blue from red. Now with dual and tricolor light heads you have more options. Half blue and half red does not work for me unless you flash all together like Sound off. Slow when stopped. IMO. Also state laws have to apply. More red in daylight. More blue at night

 

[solidamber]

I have connected the snyc wire on the bar so It can flash alternate Red blue, if activated