Thinking about getting a beacon for the business Terrano. Any suggestions, LEDs or bulbs, rotating/flashing.
Best way to fit them?
Where to look for them? FleaBay?
You do need to be a bit careful, there are some rules that are often flouted, but if the police need to, will come down like a ton of bricks on you if you ignore them.
Firstly... Amber only... Red or White (and obviously blue/green) are big no no's, despite seeing them on all sorts of vehicles. Next, they should spend an equal on time to off, so strobes are not legal if used on their own. They must be visible for a full 360 degrees, and if you use them on the motorway, you must have at least 2.
Personally, LED are the best, as they are bright, and use far less power than the rotating ones, which usually have 55w halogen bulbs in. The down side with LED though, is you need to have several sets, pointing in each direction to make them visible for a full 360degrees, which greatly increases the cost.
Rotating are easy and cheap, plus you have many fixing options, like magnetic etc, but quite noisy, as the motor noise is transmitted through the roof. Also, they need a reasonably high current cable, which if not permanently installed, needs to run through doors, which can make them leak. I know of several people who's cigarette lighter socket has burnt out with prolonged use of rotating beacons as well, and always at the worst possible time.
With the LED ones, you do get what you pay for, and most on Ebay are not worth touching with a barge pole. when you search, you want Gen 2, or ideally Gen 3 LEDs, which you will see reduced the dross, and ups the price.
I dealt with
Richard Blackman at
"Active LED Lightbars" when I got mine, who was very helpful. I ended up calling him, as I wanted something pretty specific to mount on the back of car, and he sorted me out.
