Beacons

[Paff]

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?

 

[Lincs Mav]

I use a small led light bar bolted through the roof. It's been very effective when doing recoverys. Ideally it needs to be seen from 360 degrees.

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

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.

 

[rustic]

That's an interesting read, I didn't know that.

Now I wanted a set of Blue ones, as the vehicles that drive on the hard shoulder with them seemed to never get pulled by the Police, and make far better progress than me, waiting my turn in the huge queues on the motorways.


:lol:lol

I must admit, I have often thought about putting a blue children's bucket on my roof lol....

:lol:lol

 

[Sweety]

If a rotating one is used & has the normal 55w bulb in it, you could prob replace the bulb for a LED which would draw less current:thumb2

 

[Paff]

What about these? I am not a breakdown service, but sometimes when I do boiler services, I have to park on the side of the road in some awkward places.

BTW - on FleaBay I could not see any Gen 2 or 3 stuff.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LED-BEACON-Magnetic-Bolt-Recovery-Flashing-Warning-Strobe-Light-lightbar-Amber-/171380575926?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CommercialVehicleParts_SM&hash=item27e7140eb6

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

If a rotating one is used & has the normal 55w bulb in it, you could prob replace the bulb for a LED which would draw less current:thumb2

I wanted to do that, but unfortunately most revolving beacons rely on mirror rotating round the bulb, which is in the up-right position, so it uses the light coming out of the side of the bulb, where as most LED H1 bulbs, have a small amount of LED's round the side, totalling just a few watts, but the main focused beam comes out the end, which would be the top of the beacon.

What about these? I am not a breakdown service, but sometimes when I do boiler services, I have to park on the side of the road in some awkward places.

BTW - on FleaBay I could not see any Gen 2 or 3 stuff.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LED-BEACON-Magnetic-Bolt-Recovery-Flashing-Warning-Strobe-Light-lightbar-Amber-/171380575926?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CommercialVehicleParts_SM&hash=item27e7140eb6

Main problem with those, is they are very low down to the roof, so if you have roof bars, they often get hidden behind them.

Other than that, its about the norm.

There is a lack of Gen II and Gen III on Ebay at the moment. This is one though.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BNIB-48-LED-AMBER-QUAD-MOTORCYCLE-POLE-BREAKDOWN-WARNING-BEACON-EXTENDS-/390861101380?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item5b01231944

 

[jims-terrano]

I use a britax double halogen beacon. It's mounted to a ally bar that I mount to the roof rails with two exhaust clamps. I used the spare pin in the 12s socket to create a switched feed via a relay and a illuminated rocker switch in the dash.
Got two, one of them was found in the bottom of a hedge with a broken lens and the the other a landy owner gave me because he simply didn't want it.

Down side is that I'm assumimg it would drain my battery if I left it on without the engine running. Also if fixed on and I hit a low branch it would be a bit crunchy I guess.

Rule of thumb we are taught in RAYNET is they're hazzard lights, I believe the rules are not to use them on a moving vehicle.

Also remember a beacon won't stop you getting a parking ticket, if you're parked illegally plod will give you a piece of paper. I'm Not saying that you would park like that Paff.

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

For my roof beacon, I have one of those small double units, that uses a magnet inside a sucker to fix to the roof. I have modified it though.

I picked up a cheap 8 LED amber bar, that was supposed to go inside the rear window, but I put it along the inside the unit, running along the bottom, so it is under the height of the revolving beacon.

I also purchased some 10w COB LEDs, plus constant current drivers from Ebay and made my own 18w LED H1 bulbs (this is the equivalent of about a 100w halogen), which took some doing, but work very well.

I then fitted one of those cheap 4 channel remote control boards from Ebay into it, so the cable up to it is always live, but I have a keyfob remote control fixed with Velcro to the roof up by the sun-visor, to turn it on and off.

Really pleased with it now, I have the 360 degree of the 2 beacons, or forward facing LED bar when doing road blocks, where I only need visibility from one direction.

 

[Paff]

Rule of thumb we are taught in RAYNET is they're hazzard lights, I believe the rules are not to use them on a moving vehicle.

When I started with RAYNET we were allowed to use green beacons as we were secondary users, first being Doctors. I did use it once in anger, someone knocked a push bike over injuring the rider, bad bend and at night, so I marked the accident. Copper turned up and said thank goodness your a Doctor :augie :lol

 

[briggie]

im also a member of RAYNET , I believe that the police aren't too happy about the use of high intensity led's or strobe type warning beacons , particularly in residential areas .