Differnt kind of lights

You have a siren?

Strobesnmore.com has some good "house brand" LED stuff. My 2nd gen had a nice setup of synched their grilled LEDs with a 6" above mirror LED, and Federal PA300 concealed install.

 

No Siren - BUT have been looking at this --> http://www.strobesnmore.com/Strobes-N-More-TruDual-EFlood11000-Warning-Flood-Bar.html

I'd like to get the CaliRaised stealth mounts so I could put it behind my lower grill but am worried that with that bar being curved that it wouldn't project very well being behind something. We have a strobesnmore bar on our ambulance (rural FD, so much needed!). It seems bright, but I don't have much to compare it to.

You have some pics of your setup to share? be kind of cool to have a thread dedicated to emergency taco's, lol.

 

I don't. I sold the 2nd gen 2 years ago and for some dumb reason, I scrapped most of the pics I had of it that were on my website.

I used it for volunteer EMS response back home in Ohio, about 7 miles from house to station, mostly rural 2 lane, cut some time off running code.

This is about the best picture I can find that I still have, you can see the 4 TIR3 style LEDs in the center of the grille, but the glare on the windshield kind of blocks the view of the dashlight above the mirror. The LEDs were all red, and synched together on quad-flash, for a significant and multi-level red flash. I replaced the front amber turn signals with clear bulbs and ran the hazards in conjunction with the LEDs, to give some clear flashing to the front as well. PA300 was under the seat, with a remote head I built installed in the dead space adjacent to the shifter / cupholders.

A local FD actually has a 2nd gen Taco that's marked and has a lighting setup, I'll try to grab a picture of it next time I see it.

 

man, sweet setup for sure! my buddies/fellow FF's keep wanting me to put strobes and drill all kinds of things - I can't do it at this point!!! I like your TIR3's and the placement of them! I actually have 3 of them that I'm contemplating putting on a license plate bracket. we'll see... between the visor lights and the big stick in the back I have pretty good coverage, but I'm sure I don't have to tell you, you really can't ever have too much. Unless it's looking like a low flying UFO, keep adding, right, LOL

love to see a pic of the local FD's taco!

 

I guess I had better stock up on the dremel bits. The light is shipped, will be here Saturday and I'm off of work till Wednesday- so you know what I'll be installing. I got the mini 4200 controller too...no idea where I'm going to put that. I need to get some lights for the back window eventually too.
I'll do the remote starter install I've been procrastinating at the same time...since I'll have all the electrical stuff out for the light anyway.

Do you guys run your lights on a switched(ignition) source or direct to battery(can use them even when the truck is off)? I'd almost prefer it to be a switched source so I don't have to worry about shutting them off when I get to the station.
My Subaru WRX I had them run direct off the battery since they were all LED(low draw) and I could shut the car off if I was stuck on a scene in my POV(lots of times accident calls would block the road for me to get to the fire house).

 

Nice

 

Nice! the install wasn't too bad at all.

Right now I've got them ran to my accessory outlet, but once I get a controller i'll run from a constant power source. being rural, sometimes we're on scene for a while and i'd rather not just leave the truck on idle.

let me know if you run into anything on your install! the inside visor mounts twist off with about a 1/8th turn counter clockwise, slide your mount around it and pop them back on. the hardest part is always the bends.

 

Where did you run the wiring? Obviously have to be careful with what I believe to be, airbags in the pillars? Or at least the inflators.
Light won't be here this weekend. Only the switch. Got an email saying the lights are being shipped direct from manufacturer...next week

 

well that stinks. luckily my wiring was pretty painless. i'll try to get some pics this weekend for you!

 

There is such a thing as too much light. Maybe not 15 years ago, but with today's high quality LED lights you can easily become more of a hazard by blinding oncoming traffic. Not something you want to do on rural 2 lane roads. If I were designing a system, I would have a relay set to automatically dim the lights when the headlights are on. It is ok to have them super bright in sunlight, but at night you really don't want drivers coming past you with their eyes closed because you are blinding them. IMHO anyway.

 

I got the 4200 mini controller, I've decided this is where I want to mount it. I just don't know how to mount it or how to run the wires. First idea is to cut a small piece of ABS sheet plastic to cover the pocket hole(to mount the switch) drill a small hole in the back of the pocket there and run the wires right out the back.

 

+1 for making a .gif

 

This looks great! more control than I use right now though. My fronts are independent and I can control traffic advisor from the visor light itself. the rear I have yet to figure out. It's not that I'm cheap, I'm frugal, so it's hard for me to spend money....

thanks, intentional on take 5 secs of video knowing i could convert to .gif and not be very big and be www friendly

 

hi - do you have the 4200 installed? do you have pics to share?

 

Took a while - 8 months, lol - but here it is:

Believe it's a 1999 (?) Tacoma 4cyl, 4WD, manual trans. VHF radio is in the slot under the AM/FM radio, 1/4 wave antenna is a permanent NMO mount on the roof. Siren speaker is under the front bumper and is barely visible in the 2nd pic towards the left side. Light setup appears to be a dual Talon-style dashlight above the mirror and two older (5mm, not internal reflector style) LEDs in the grille. I could not see the siren box or switch panel by quickly looking inside through the window; my best guess is they are just two toggles running a undercover siren and an on/off lighting switch. Did not appear to have rear lighting. The plates show it is a government vehicle so it's owned by the fire district.

 

I know this post is old, but I kind of have a pertinent question considering there's only so many of us that might face this situation:
I have two visor lights in my Tacoma, and two in the grill. I'm nervous about taking it to the dealer(for TSB's warranty fixes), with the lights in there. What are they gonna say(I'm sure they are going to say they will interfere with the side curtain air bags- which they may- a tiny bit, but I really don't care), are they going to try to use them? etc.
I've got a fire department mobile radio in it too.

 

barring you taking it in for any electrical issues, they shouldn't have any problems, especially for standards TSB's. I've ran lights in my vehicles for a long time, and no dealer has ever tried to point that to the cause of anything. also, if you do find a dealer that tries to point to your emergency lights to get out of fixing something for you, it's time to find a new dealer! Luckily these days 99% of people appreciate first responders and try to help when they can.

 

I never had any issues with the dealer with lights or the siren I had in my 2nd Gen or the current 3rd Gen. Both were at the dealer for the ToyotaCare maintenance and state inspections with no problems

 

Why would we care. It's your truck and you can do whatever you want. If it compromises your safety it would probably be mentioned on the work order but that's as far as it will go, just letting you know the potential hazard. We did have a vehicle come in once that someone was impersonating a police vehicle. It had red and blue flashing lights in the grill and flashing alternating headlight. It was very obvious from looking at the control panel that it wasn't professionally installed and the person driving it wasn't a first responder. It was reported to the local authorities. Scary to think this person might pull over someone's wife or daughter one night.

 

Good job reporting it! We recently had a real incident occur in our county where someone did impersonate a LEO and the girl pulled over. luckily for her recognized something wasn't right and instead of getting out as instructed, she took off and went to a gas station.