Bar Lights anyone use them?

[landscaper3]

We would like to get a 56" or a 60" Whelen bar light for our 97 F350. We have found a Towmans Edge new with 8 strobes, 2 take down lights and 2 alley lights. Directly through Whelen there cost is $1200.00 through a distributer we found the same light for $649.99 just curios if anyone has one for we are being forced by the D.O.T to run a DOT regulated lights on our trucks do to plowing and maintaining city and town roads and summer maintenance on main roads and this barlight falls in there specs. Plus it looks real nice and the price doesnt worry me that much at least the $650.00 doesnt I would be hard pressed to dish out $1200.

 

[diggerman]

Oh those kind of bar lights, I was going to refer you to Iowastorm I think he is putting a revolving Bud Lite sign on top of his new dump truck.As for ambers are you sure you have to have that big of a light for the D.O.T. We plow the local airport and we just use twin rotators called a mini bar made by federal signal which is the same one used by our D.O.T. They only run about $100 and are visible for forever.

 

[cat320]

I have a Whelen 9308 8 strobe 2 alley and 2 rear work lights that i got from Galls for$799 list was over $1,250 at the time now they are around $839.I think long as you have some kind of warning light on your truck you should be all right I don't know any such thing unless it's something new that your have to have a bar and not just a cheap stobe or two or rotory.Let us know what you do.

 

[GeoffD]

Try the Whelen mini edge. More than enough light power and half the cost of the towman's edge. The only benefit to the towman's edge is it provides signal lights, this light is really only need for tow trucks. The mini edge is a lot easier to install, and uses a lot less power.

Geoff

 

[snow]

If you're looking for a lightbar, but want to save some $$$ <a href="http://www.lightbars.net">click here</a>! they sell reconditioned light bars for about half the price. there is an 8 strobe model on their site for $375 and a lot of other bars from 4-10 strobe. Also,you might just be able to get one of the $100 mini-light bars galls sells. if you want even more lighting look into a power supply and strobes for your truck. you could get a 6 head power supply w/ a 3 light dot system for under $400 new!<a href="http://www.strobesnmore.com">click here</a>. <b>I soon will be selling Nova strobes, i'm going to be placing an order soon. </b>

hope this helps,

Bryan

 

[GeoffD]

Snow:

How are you going to sell these lights? How are you going to market them? What models and types do you plan on selling?

Geoff

 

[snow]

I already have a lot of interest in the lights. I get them factory direct. I plan to sell to anyone that wants one, a lot of people in my fire department are interested, and i think a lot of people on the forum would be. I can get ANY Nova product. I will be calling Whelen soon to setup an account.


Bryan

 

[Chuck Smith]

I've heard the term "jule" used describing lights before. I had never heard it before. I've heard candlepower, lumens, and watts. I was leafing through my pocket reference (book) and came across conversions for lighting. To make it a little clearer for others here, one "jule" is equal to one watt. That's simple enough. Guess it sounds fancier using the term "jule".

So an 8 jule light, is an 8 watt light.

~Chuck

 

[landscaper3]

The joule power is the brightness of flash look at the ones am AW Direct has http://www.awdirect.com
the higher the joules the brighter it is like ones from napa,car quest and vip are only 4 to 6 joules and dot ones are 40 joules wich are 80watts. I belive you double the joules and thats the watts acording to the light book anyways.

[Edited by landscaper3 on 11-06-2000 at 03:43 AM]

 

[Chuck Smith]

Well the pocket refernce has the conversions for joules to just about anything else. Including BTU's, volts, watts, Ergs, kw-hours and a bunch more. You multiply the # of joules by the figure given in the conversion table, to convert. To convert to watts, its a "1" in just about every watt catagory. Some are watts per hour, watt-seconds, even horsepower.

For watts, they list:

joules to watt-second ....multiply by: 1.000165

joules/second to watts........ multiply by 1.000165

This is what I went on. I could be wrong.
Makes sense though from what you say. A 4 watt flash would not be very bright compared to an 80 watt flash.
I don't understand how a 40 joule can put out 80 watts given the conversion above though.

~Chuck

 

[landscaper3]

Look in the AW Direct web sites and youll see the 40 joule lights are 80watt and they also have a external power pack versus built in power packs, our Nova 500 strobe lights are 15 joules 80 quad flashers per minute and are real bright alot brighter then 80 watts I belive. Im not sure how they figure out how many joules are in wastt's but the strobe lights are coming off to purchase a Whelen light bar.

 

[Woodman]

Chuck's correct (as usual) with regard to the conversions he posted.

The trick here is to understand the difference between energy and power.

Power = Energy/time

A Joule is measure of energy and a Watt is a measure of power.

For all practical purposes 1 Joule = 1 Watt x 1 second
(3 decimal places in Chuck's post)

Think about it for a second... your electric company bills your residence for the energy you have used and they measure the energy in kilowatt-hours. (A kilowatt is 1000 watts.) A joule is simply another way to measure energy.

On a practical note, I looked quickly in AW Direct for the text landscaper3 mentioned and couldn't find it right away, so I'm not sure what to say about AW Direct's advertising.

 

[Chuck Smith]

Thanks Woodman, now it makes sense. I just couldn't understand the need to confuse things by rating the lights @ joules. I can understand now, as you explained it.

~Chuck

 

[plowking35]

We just ordered a 4 head hide a way strobe system for am 96 F-350 p/u and a 6" mag mount stobe from NOVA. I dont like the look of the big light bars, but thats just me.
I have always had good luck with both nova and whelan, the nova is built 5 miles from my house, so parts are easy to get and we get really good deals on the lights.
Dino

 

[cat320]

Dino What type of hide away did you get Whelen? and ehat type of power supply? I wanted to get one for my p/u .

 

[plowking35]

No its a NOVA- NOV 904 4 head hide a flash system, its a 60 watt 4 head power pack 4 strobe tubes, and 4-15' cables it is in AW direct for $ 352.29 but my dealer was way less than that.
Dino

 

[cat320]

Dino How are there lights god quality Nova .You can get them less than that does that include weather proof connectors?Plese get me the # of your dealer if he can get them for less. thanks

 

[plowking35]

Ok they use the deutsch connectors which they test by dropping the connector into a bowl, and no leaks. They have a 2 year warranty, and no ? asked they replace anything.
I have had my 3 head system for 3 years and no problems.
my dealer is http://www.ganos.com or call 860-537-3431 ask for Tony, tell him I referred you.
Dino

 

[landscaper3]

Thanks for all your replies I went with the Whelen Edge Towmans at galls. Im sure Ill love it thanks.