The All New Whelen Legacy...
- Thread starter firedude
- Start date
Sigma Safety
Member
Put a Legacy DUO bar on one of our patrol cars today. All I can say is...damn.
Of course it's hard to compare, but it is as bright as anything I've ever seen. I'll be doing some bar-to-bar comparisons soon. My thought is it is at least twice as bright to the naked eye. I was seeing spots an hour later. And I've seen about everything currently on the market.
More info later, but highly impressed, easy to install, looks sharp, obviously bright, lots of features through WeCan programming, and no doubt it will increase the car's visibility.
I do like, and I don't think anyone can/will yet say for certain on the real pricing. Clearly Whelen's premium bar going forward. Super easy to maintain, less bulk, and just nice to look at.
Of course it's hard to compare, but it is as bright as anything I've ever seen. I'll be doing some bar-to-bar comparisons soon. My thought is it is at least twice as bright to the naked eye. I was seeing spots an hour later. And I've seen about everything currently on the market.
More info later, but highly impressed, easy to install, looks sharp, obviously bright, lots of features through WeCan programming, and no doubt it will increase the car's visibility.
I do like, and I don't think anyone can/will yet say for certain on the real pricing. Clearly Whelen's premium bar going forward. Super easy to maintain, less bulk, and just nice to look at.
arsenal10
Member
Storm4200 said:
It's ok... we've all had those "it sounded funny in my head" moments before. Obviously you simply didn't drink enough!
bluestinger90
Member
RyanZ71
Member
Carlos SpicyWeiner
Lifetime VIP Donor
Storm4200 said:
thats just what they programmed into the bar. You make your own flash patterns.
RyanZ71
Member
I am fairly loyal to the Edge 9000 Strobe bars, and have always preferred them over the LED bars but this one just might make me sway a bit.
SafetyLighting
Member
ff168577
Member
SafetyLighting
Member
ff168577 said:
Huge circuit board, many wires from the modules to the circuit board. Whelen seems to think people like dismantling the entire light bar to fix it. Also, the end module layout reminds me of the FedSig ROC products where if one diode goes out you have to swap the entire section of the bar instead of one module. In warranty: bar is out of service to send the bad module to Whelen, out of warranty: very expensive to replace.
Look, it's bright, it's cool, it's got some great features, but Whelen has been having lots of problems with both WeCan and Cantrol so I don't have a whole lot of faith in another complicated product from them.
Has anyone seen any real-world pricing on the Legacy bar? I'm curious how it compares to the other offerings out there.
Strobesnmore
Member
6 screws to access the entire inside seems like a pretty easy way to service the bar. About the easiest bar to access I've ever seen.
SafetyLighting
Member
Strobesnmore said:
It is a big improvement over the previous bars for access yes, but the components are what the issue is. I know they'll sell, and end users will love them until it comes time to start repairing them. Just my opinion.
ff168577
Member
SafetyLighting said:
I don't seem to understand your logic(no offense). It really is no different then the duo bar, or if something else happened to a bar from another manufacture. The components are essentially the same as other bars, wires, leds(in modules), circuit boards, lenses and screws. If anything it looks like it is easy to figure out the problem because instead of all the leds plugged into the center i/o board, it looks like they are all short cabled wires running to 2 i/o boards on each side allowing to diagnose quicker or sooner. Just my opinion.
SafetyLighting
Member
ff168577 said:
No Offense taken. I was a SOS dealer and spent a lot of time fixing failed modules, failed boards, having to pull the cover off the bar every time. I've worked on plenty of Whelen and FedSig bars as well. They were all nice bars until they needed service. Price aside I'll take a Code3 bar over anything else for the simple fact of easy and quick serviceability. The covers come off in sections with nothing but clips. The wiring is simple and reliable. The parts are reasonably priced and easily replaced.
Wattco - Brent
Member
I will happily disagree with the statement it is hard to work on as I actually have and it is not.
SafetyLighting
Member
Wattco - Brent said:
I'm glad to hear that Brent but you aren't the least bit concerned about the amount of wiring for each module?
Wattco - Brent
Member
SafetyLighting said:
Technically there is one connector per head - I think wiring in general is always a concern. The less of both wiring and connectors is always better, but preface that by saying if you want a lightbar to have cool features you need to have more of many things to include wiring and connectors and more or larger control boards. At least until we invent wireless control that is 100% error free.
This is new tech - as with all vendors everyone is trying to reach a new milestone in both engineering and technology that can be crammed into a lightbar chassis. Will issues sometimes occur, yes - we almost need to expect that not every product from any vendor will be error free, it is a balance of wanting cutting edge and failures in the field and how those failures might be handled.
I never just evaluate a product on one aspect or one product but on overall experience. I think when you look at the history of Whelen products and issues in comparison to other products they are doing pretty good overall. I have supported their products for over 19 years and seen it all. This bar has some great features built into the design. Time will tell as to how all the new tech holds up but so far I have many of these bars in service with no warranty issues to report.
I agree with Brent.
Most here should know I shy away from Kool-Aid flavors. I try to give fair play to all. Certainly, I've been vocal and opinionated regarding certain products and marketing hype.
RE the Legacy...I have a pre-production demo in service with my agency's fleet. AFAIK, it was among the very first in actual police service, certainly the first in the southeast region. It was provided for T&E and for a published product review. We quickly identified a design issue (I'll not get more specific) which resulted in an immediate fix to all bars and a minor change in the product. This issue would have certainly cost Whelen some dollars, as it was unexpected. They stepped up and fixed it, and we had our fix in hand in three weeks. Production bars all have the fix. Note, this is why quality manufacturers have solid reputations and are successful. It's also why they sometimes provide demo units. Quite simply, products need to be proven in the environment they are expected to be used in.
The Legacy is a substantial product for Whelen. It is the first real ground-up LED lightbar design for them; earlier products, like the Patriot, Liberty, and Freedom are all direct descendants of the Edge platform. What this means is that they designed the bar to work with the LED units in every way, from looks to thermal dynamics. It is thin because they designed the bar to fit the lighthead, not the lighthead to fit the bar. The entire bar is a major upgrade in construction, design, reliability and serviceability, IMO. Far easier to work on than a Liberty. I know, because we had it apart. I am not guessing here. The domes seal better than the Liberty/Edge's grove system...in fact, the only "trouble" I had with the bar was that the excellent sealing system makes sliding the covers back on a bit tedious. The endcap improvements are so significant that they are being carried over to the Liberty series. The internal wiring is not excessive or complicated. The lightheads mount in a logical and simple fashion.
I echo Brent's statement about wiring being necessary for features. Certainly it can be done other ways, like the ROC design which I have very little love for. I am very glad Whelen and others have chosen the modular, wired approach versus one big circuit board. Wiring provides flexibility, modularity and ease of connections.
Whelen has an excellent, next-generation lightbar in the Legacy. I strongly feel it will supplant the Liberty over the next five years, especially as pricing comes down. I think that Whelen will not be like others and won't be constantly releasing new lightbar chassis. I would argue they have only released this bar because it allows for a complete change to leverage current technology and their newest total in-house production capabilities. The Legacy is flexible enough to adjust to new LED technology in an efficient manner. The older Liberty design is pretty well maxed out, IMO. That does not mean it is not a good product, just that it has come close to it's design limitations.
RE SOS lightbars, I'm not sure what issues others are having, but I have had very few issues with the Pinnacle bars, which make up a majority of our fleet and nearly every lightbar I have sold and installed through my business in the last four years. Well over 100 units. I have replace one control board, three lightheads, two alley lights, and a few topcover encaps. That's it. The bars stay drier inside than any other bar I've ever seen. In all, most SOS products I've used/sold are very good to excellent. The Ghosts have been problematic and that has been discussed here.
Most here should know I shy away from Kool-Aid flavors. I try to give fair play to all. Certainly, I've been vocal and opinionated regarding certain products and marketing hype.
RE the Legacy...I have a pre-production demo in service with my agency's fleet. AFAIK, it was among the very first in actual police service, certainly the first in the southeast region. It was provided for T&E and for a published product review. We quickly identified a design issue (I'll not get more specific) which resulted in an immediate fix to all bars and a minor change in the product. This issue would have certainly cost Whelen some dollars, as it was unexpected. They stepped up and fixed it, and we had our fix in hand in three weeks. Production bars all have the fix. Note, this is why quality manufacturers have solid reputations and are successful. It's also why they sometimes provide demo units. Quite simply, products need to be proven in the environment they are expected to be used in.
The Legacy is a substantial product for Whelen. It is the first real ground-up LED lightbar design for them; earlier products, like the Patriot, Liberty, and Freedom are all direct descendants of the Edge platform. What this means is that they designed the bar to work with the LED units in every way, from looks to thermal dynamics. It is thin because they designed the bar to fit the lighthead, not the lighthead to fit the bar. The entire bar is a major upgrade in construction, design, reliability and serviceability, IMO. Far easier to work on than a Liberty. I know, because we had it apart. I am not guessing here. The domes seal better than the Liberty/Edge's grove system...in fact, the only "trouble" I had with the bar was that the excellent sealing system makes sliding the covers back on a bit tedious. The endcap improvements are so significant that they are being carried over to the Liberty series. The internal wiring is not excessive or complicated. The lightheads mount in a logical and simple fashion.
I echo Brent's statement about wiring being necessary for features. Certainly it can be done other ways, like the ROC design which I have very little love for. I am very glad Whelen and others have chosen the modular, wired approach versus one big circuit board. Wiring provides flexibility, modularity and ease of connections.
Whelen has an excellent, next-generation lightbar in the Legacy. I strongly feel it will supplant the Liberty over the next five years, especially as pricing comes down. I think that Whelen will not be like others and won't be constantly releasing new lightbar chassis. I would argue they have only released this bar because it allows for a complete change to leverage current technology and their newest total in-house production capabilities. The Legacy is flexible enough to adjust to new LED technology in an efficient manner. The older Liberty design is pretty well maxed out, IMO. That does not mean it is not a good product, just that it has come close to it's design limitations.
RE SOS lightbars, I'm not sure what issues others are having, but I have had very few issues with the Pinnacle bars, which make up a majority of our fleet and nearly every lightbar I have sold and installed through my business in the last four years. Well over 100 units. I have replace one control board, three lightheads, two alley lights, and a few topcover encaps. That's it. The bars stay drier inside than any other bar I've ever seen. In all, most SOS products I've used/sold are very good to excellent. The Ghosts have been problematic and that has been discussed here.