Whelen Liberty Questions

theolog

Member
Dec 27, 2010
731
North Carolina
I've just been issued a Whelen Liberty lightbar with 8 LED light heads (so there is space for additional heads). The car is a 2006 model so the lightbar is at least that old. I see LIN6/500-series lightheads advertised all over eBay for this lightbar. Are they "plug-and-play" or would they require a different power supply/flasher like the old Edge lightbars? I've never taken apart a Liberty bar so I don't know what to expect inside.


If they will work, how do they mount in the lightbar? Is additional hardware required?


Will a self-contained 500-series LED function in these lightbars, or is the Liberty version different?


Thanks for any help! :p
 

ffjwhite

Member
May 21, 2010
1,082
Bombay, NY
If you have black filler plates in there, then they should just pop right in. All the wiring should also be in there. I believe all the wiring is the same for every liberty, just lacking heads.
 

Jman423

Administrator
Sep 10, 2010
3,391
United States
Just keep in mind that IF your bar is a 2006 model, you NEED to get LIN6 "Passive" heads (LIN4 Economy heads are available too), and NOT LIN8 "Ballast" heads. That would really be the only thing to watch out for. Otherwise, the color of the LED's in the head will be represented by the color of the wire... there will always be a black wire, and the other wire will be the color of the LED's. You can use heads from a LIN6 Responder LP as well, sometimes those are cheaper to buy than the individual heads, and you are usually guaranteed to get color matched LED's that way.
 

theolog

Member
Dec 27, 2010
731
North Carolina
ffjwhite said:
If you have black filler plates in there, then they should just pop right in. All the wiring should also be in there. I believe all the wiring is the same for every liberty, just lacking heads.

Ok, thanks. Those black lighthead holders are in there and there are plugs not in use so I should be good to go.

Jman423 said:
Just keep in mind that IF your bar is a 2006 model, you NEED to get LIN6 "Passive" heads (LIN4 Economy heads are available too), and NOT LIN8 "Ballast" heads. That would really be the only thing to watch out for.

The corner LEDs are dated 2005, and the inboard lightheads are LIN6s.


Could passive TIR6s be used as well?

Jman423 said:
You can use heads from a LIN6 Responder LP as well, sometimes those are cheaper to buy than the individual heads, and you are usually guaranteed to get color matched LED's that way.

That's a FANTASTIC idea! Thanks! :p
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Jman423

Administrator
Sep 10, 2010
3,391
United States
theolog said:
The corner LEDs are dated 2005, and the inboard lightheads are LIN6s.
Could passive TIR6s be used as well?
I haven't tried the TIR6 thing personally, so I am not sure. But if the head will pop into the black housing, I don't see why not. Also, as long as the bar is made after 2004, it will be passive.
 

Strobesnmore

Member
May 23, 2010
382
Westerly, RI
What you need to do is get the part number off of one of the existing LED Modules in the lightbar and give me a call. I will tell you the type you need. We also have some Blue Linear 6 for the Liberty bar on special.
 

rwo978

Member
May 21, 2010
5,196
ND, USA
theolog said:
with 8 LED light heads

If you have LIN8s, those are ballast, not passive. Most of the ballast supplies are maxed at 8 heads (4 corners, 4 inners). If you have more heads, you likely have a 2nd ballast supply and would need more LIN8 heads. If not, you can add a passive flasher and passive LIN6 populated or de-populated heads. That would require a lot of internal rewiring to tap off of a power point, no to mention running wiring to the individual lightheads. As far as the lightheads, they snap right into the holder after removing the black filler plate.
 

theolog

Member
Dec 27, 2010
731
North Carolina
I'm sorry, rwo, I wasn't clear when I wrote that. I meant that the lightbar currently has a total of 8 light heads in it. Four corners, and four in-board light heads. The four in-board light heads have 6 LEDs in them. The wiring appears to allow for additional heads to be added.
 

rwo978

Member
May 21, 2010
5,196
ND, USA
theolog said:
I'm sorry, rwo, I wasn't clear when I wrote that. I meant that the lightbar currently has a total of 8 light heads in it. Four corners, and four in-board light heads. The four in-board light heads have 6 LEDs in them. The wiring appears to allow for additional heads to be added.

In that case, it should be a drop in install. Most of your time will be hooking up the additional trigger wires and setting patterns.
 

WS224

Member
Nov 28, 2010
1,049
West Tennessee
If your looking for more heads, I highly recommend HPD84's thread in the "For Sale" section. I have ordered several things from him at good prices. The tranactions are smooth and the items arrive quickly.


I think he has several colors to chose from.
 

Forum Statistics

Threads
53,964
Messages
449,809
Members
19,103
Latest member
Safetylight5

About Us

  • Since 1997, eLightbars has been the premier venue for all things emergency warning equipment. Discussions, classified listings, pictures, videos, chat, & more! Our staff members strive to keep the forums organized and clutter-free. All of our offerings are free-of-charge with all costs offset by banner advertising. Premium offerings are available to improve your experience.

User Menu

Secure Browsing & Transactions

eLightbars.org uses SSL to secure all traffic between our server and your browsing device. All browsing and transactions within are secured by an SSL Certificate with high-strength encryption.