Wreckers & Snow Plows - "Anything But All-Amber"

philyumpshus said:
That wrecker is used to tow other Harley Lonestars that are pulling trailers loaded with Harley Ford pickups that have real H-Ds in their beds. And you need to wear Harley boots and other apparel while driving it.
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Harley whackers.....


Harley realized a long time ago where the real money is made.......MERCHANDISING!!!!!


You know...Harley Davidson, the flasher; Harley Davidson, the siren; Harley Davidson, the lunchbox; Harley Davidson, the FLAMETHROWER!!!!!


apologies to Mel Brooks
 
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Phillyrube said:
Harley whackers.....

Harley realized a long time ago where the real money is made.......MERCHANDISING!!!!!


You know...Harley Davidson, the flasher; Harley Davidson, the siren; Harley Davidson, the lunchbox; Harley Davidson, the FLAMETHROWER!!!!!


apologies to Mel Brooks
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LOL!
 
Phillyrube said:
Harley whackers.....

Harley realized a long time ago where the real money is made.......MERCHANDISING!!!!!


You know...Harley Davidson, the flasher; Harley Davidson, the siren; Harley Davidson, the lunchbox; Harley Davidson, the FLAMETHROWER!!!!!


apologies to Mel Brooks
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:roflmfao:
 
I see your schwartz is as big as mine
 
I wish I had gotten a picture of it, but while out and about I saw a heavy duty wrecker that had red/blue filters under 2 mini excalibers.


I actually liked it (only cause red and blue are 2 of my favorite colors)
 
rwo978 said:
ND - amber only (but get by with some clear for HAWs and rotators w/o filters)
MN - red & amber. Red is only to be used when stationary/on scene, but I've seen them tooling around with them on as well.
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We here in MN have a lot of play when it comes to lighting, espetialy if you have a city or marshals contract.


Red and amber are permitted on wreckers, clear gets used to the front also. Red is on scene only but 2 ambers can be used at any time. Wreckers are concidered Emergency vhicles in most freeway situations but does not seem to do much.
 
rwo978 said:
It's an L53 LED beacon.
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No it isn't. It's a tiny little nearly-invisible strobe. It's not actually for any type of warning but to signify that the vehicle is on "official business" and exempt from certain parking/driving regulations. Without that light, we can ticket them for parking abreast, excessive idling, etc.
 
Missouri tow trucks can use R/B if they are going to a scene with LE there. Other wise they have to use amber, but I know this isn't always obeyed. In my town the one of the tow trucks has an amber S&W bar.
 
I've tried for the last couple of years to get the company I work for to do something more creative with the lighting on our trucks. But, alas, I spend more time just trying to keep the lights working let alone adding to them.
 
calebsheltonmed23 said:
Missouri tow trucks can use R/B if they are going to a scene with LE there. Other wise they have to use amber, but I know this isn't always obeyed. In my town the one of the tow trucks has an amber S&W bar.
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Not really.


Missouri law list tow trucks (and a few others you wouldn't think) as emergency vehicles in the same law that make fire trucks, police cars and EMS emergency vehicles. Has nothing to do with who is on scene.
 
dmathieu said:
Back in the 1960s and 1970s they used amber to the front, and red to the rear in Massachusetts.
Dan
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True Dan. A lot of plow trucks had Dietz 7-11 beacons with the Amber/red split dome. Now in MA you have to have a red light permit to place a red flashing light in any direction on any vehicle. Thus all the plow guys had to bump their taillight strobes to the reverse lights. Thing is, I have an 08 Escape and my taillights are red. I wonder if this means I can't use my hazards if I break down lmao
 
JohnMarcson said:
As I understand it MI wreckers can only use the red when stopped in the public right of way.
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Wisconsin is RED/AMBER and is used during operations and while responding to calls, i.e.: running down side shoulders and interstate traffic clearance!
 
New Mexico drove me absolutely insane when I passed through in September. Every single vehicle that had any warning lights at all had red, blue and amber except the state police didn't have any blue. Highway work trucks had a Code 3 DuoBeam, red to the rear, amber to the sides and blue to the front, with more red, blue and amber LEDs to the rear, and blue and amber LEDs to the front.  Is there not a better way to teach people not to respect actual emergency vehicles? And no, I don't care that only emergency vehicles had red lights to the front - blue and red lights have no place on anything other than emergency vehicles.
 
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JohnMarcson said:
Blue has become a free for all in NJ it seems
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This is a big pet peav of mine being a volunteer in NJ who uses blue lights to get to my calls I think it just adds confusion seeing blue lights on a svc vehicle to the already clueless public, I don't have a problem with some red facing rear but they should be ticketed for running blue.
 
chucksorce said:
This is a big pet peav of mine being a volunteer in NJ who uses blue lights to get to my calls I think it just adds confusion seeing blue lights on a svc vehicle to the already clueless public, I don't have a problem with some red facing rear but they should be ticketed for running blue.
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Blue was actually the primary color on tow trucks, the ones I saw just had a single amber light to the front. There were oversize-load trucks and flag cars that had all-amber lights, but if I had to guess, they were probably from somewhere else.
 
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Well Texas passed a new law saying that wreckers can now have RED along with the amber lighting..... Well this has created a problem that is growing out of control and nobody is enforcing it. The wrecker drivers who already had amber blue are now adding red so now they look like an emergency vehicle from far away.... Some tow truck drivers  have gone out of their way to LOOK on purpose like an emergency vehicle. I know one guy here locally who had all his trucks painted red and now all of them have full size red lightbars grill lights and the works and not a single amber head on the whole damn truck.. same guy likes to run lights hauling ass to calls having people pull over for him since people think he is a fire truck. I tried to enforce the law on those color violations but trying to tell your investigator or chief that what the guy is doing is illegal is like talking to a potato they don't have a clue....

Hopefully TX DPS will enforce it.
 
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Station 3 said:
Well Texas passed a new law saying that wreckers can now have RED along with the amber lighting..... Well this has created a problem that is growing out of control and nobody is enforcing it. The wrecker drivers who already had amber blue are now adding red so now they look like an emergency vehicle from far away.... Some tow truck drivers have gone out of their way to LOOK on purpose like an emergency vehicle. I know one guy here locally who had all his trucks painted red and now all of them have full size red lightbars grill lights and the works and not a single amber head on the whole damn truck.. same guy likes to run lights hauling ass to calls having people pull over for him since people think he is a fire truck. I tried to enforce the law on those color violations but trying to tell your investigator or chief that what the guy is doing is illegal is like talking to a potato they don't have a clue....

Hopefully TX DPS will enforce it.
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I've noticed a huge number of wreckers in Kansas & Missouri that have ALL red/blue lighting. From a distance they look like police or fire. But I will say that when used responsibly during a roadside service call it seems to engender more caution by passing motorists. I think it's fine so long as they aren't acting like "code-3 maniacs."
 
And with the broadening of the Texas "pull over" law...
 
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