Being the huge LED fan that I am (right!), I have several of the new Tomar LED dash lights coming in next week. They are CLAIMING that at 60 degrees from dead center, they are as bright as their strobe heads. At 75 degrees from center, they are actaually more intense than the strobe or halogen units. They have 31 flash patterns (including steady-burn red) and a "demo" mode that scrolls through all patterns. Here's the cool thing- all colors will be the same price! This I gotta see! It almost sounds too good.
For any of you Neobe 930N lightbar fans, the 930N style bar will be available in full LED with a 13 LED clusters and built-in traffic director bar. The bar is supposed to be fully PC (?) programmable and will do just about anything you want it to- including create your own custom flash patterns! 5 amps total current.
Now....is it gonna be worthy of being on an emergency vehicle? None of the others are, so far.
Tomar LED
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Ah ha. Time to ruffle some feathers!
Jim, I hate to break it to you (I know how much you love Whelen), but the Talon already does all of that. I've held it in my hand and had them in both an SUV and a station wagon.
They DO hurt your eyes at 60 degrees off-center and they are brighter than their Strobe counterparts. I would never buy another strobe or halogen dashlight again so long as this thing exists, and I am REALLY picky when it comes to dash things.
As for price, all colors are the same too. The only exception being that white will cost you an extra $8.00
Jim, I hate to break it to you (I know how much you love Whelen), but the Talon already does all of that. I've held it in my hand and had them in both an SUV and a station wagon.
They DO hurt your eyes at 60 degrees off-center and they are brighter than their Strobe counterparts. I would never buy another strobe or halogen dashlight again so long as this thing exists, and I am REALLY picky when it comes to dash things.
As for price, all colors are the same too. The only exception being that white will cost you an extra $8.00
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Me: "What exactly is a 900Mhz UHF CB?"
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- Some loser on rr.com
eBay at it's finest:
Me: "What exactly is a 900Mhz UHF CB?"
Them: "A very nice CB at 900Mhz speed!"
I got to play with it at the New England Chief's show last weekend, and yup, does hurt the eyes! Uses the same liner8 LED that the Liberty bar uses.
Also noticed many EMS and fire trucks using the Whelen LED's this year. Only saw one Vector bar on a truck this year...but had 11 pods on the roof..
Also noticed many EMS and fire trucks using the Whelen LED's this year. Only saw one Vector bar on a truck this year...but had 11 pods on the roof..
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They might do it, but as a professional and business owner supplying vehicles to municipalities, I can't install a product from a company that has ZERO quality control, terrible warranty coverage and a bunch of lies when you contact them. And to top it off, they are very arrogant and have a serious attitude problem when you call them about an issue. Over the years, I have had too many Whelen failures and I went as far as dropping them because of this. I am also not alone on this, regardless of whether you think they are the greatest thing or not!
Several OEM fire apparatus manufacturers have already dropped them as the main supplier of lighting, as many OEM ambulance builders have, too. There are two major lighting distributors i nthe US (who I'm quite sure you know of, but I won't mention) that have told me personally about the number of Whelen returns they get from failures of newer equipment.
To me, it's not worth my business's (or my own) reputation to install trash that comes back in six months. Tomar, Code 3, Federal and infact, NOVA and ABLE 2 build products that work fine and never have to be repaired. Why use something that fails?
Most of their products are okay for vollies, but aren't up to the task of true commercial public safety use on a day-to-day basis. They might have been the thing to have 20 years ago, but today, they just plain suck and nobody will ever convince me otherwise. I gave their products more chances than one should have ever had and nothing got better from them. They might give their products cutesy-wutesy little names like "Talon" (which, by the way, is a really cool sounding name...we beter buy this!) but it's still Whelen trash that makes installers lose money and look bad. If some day they improve their products (or get controlled by a real company), I'll try them again. Right now....um....no thanks. My ass still hurts from all of the problems with their crap.
The only Whelen item that I do like is some of their sirens. It's just a shame that their siren's horn activate circuit is still 25 years out of date. You just gotta love the Alpha12Q!
I'm sure I'lll get some of you vollie and amateur Whelen lovers firing back, but until you own a business that has to deal with these problems, you'll just never understand.
Several OEM fire apparatus manufacturers have already dropped them as the main supplier of lighting, as many OEM ambulance builders have, too. There are two major lighting distributors i nthe US (who I'm quite sure you know of, but I won't mention) that have told me personally about the number of Whelen returns they get from failures of newer equipment.
To me, it's not worth my business's (or my own) reputation to install trash that comes back in six months. Tomar, Code 3, Federal and infact, NOVA and ABLE 2 build products that work fine and never have to be repaired. Why use something that fails?
Most of their products are okay for vollies, but aren't up to the task of true commercial public safety use on a day-to-day basis. They might have been the thing to have 20 years ago, but today, they just plain suck and nobody will ever convince me otherwise. I gave their products more chances than one should have ever had and nothing got better from them. They might give their products cutesy-wutesy little names like "Talon" (which, by the way, is a really cool sounding name...we beter buy this!) but it's still Whelen trash that makes installers lose money and look bad. If some day they improve their products (or get controlled by a real company), I'll try them again. Right now....um....no thanks. My ass still hurts from all of the problems with their crap.
The only Whelen item that I do like is some of their sirens. It's just a shame that their siren's horn activate circuit is still 25 years out of date. You just gotta love the Alpha12Q!
I'm sure I'lll get some of you vollie and amateur Whelen lovers firing back, but until you own a business that has to deal with these problems, you'll just never understand.
I just got back from the Chief's of Police show in Lancaster, Pa. Whelen was there with their demo car (which, may I add, had a right side mirror LED element failure!) and other products including the Talon. We got to talking and sat the Talon and the Tomar side-by-side. They were BOTH as brigtht when viewed straight ahead. At 45 degrees, the Whelen was slightly better than the Tomar. At about 70-75 degrees, the Tomar was CLEARLY brighter than the Talon. The Whelen actually had a nicer looking red color.
Both are good lights, as I see. If you want maximum penetration and brightness at angles, the Tomar is the ticket. The Talon fits really nice at the rearview mirror, as the Tomar is a little too tall for this location. The Tomar has more flash patterns- not that it really matters.
One further note- the Whelen two times as many LEDs in it.
Both are good lights, as I see. If you want maximum penetration and brightness at angles, the Tomar is the ticket. The Talon fits really nice at the rearview mirror, as the Tomar is a little too tall for this location. The Tomar has more flash patterns- not that it really matters.
One further note- the Whelen two times as many LEDs in it.
PJ,
The Point Pleasant truck there has 2 kind of cool coinky dinks....
1. It's a Sutphen... may have been built buy a friend of mine. 2 streets away from where I work.
Might have even seen them pumping it off the duck pond by us too....
2. 4011... can't have that number... that is the number on our first due pumper.. a PEIRCE!!!
Although a nice looking truck none the less. Kind of a funky lookin bambulance too...
The Point Pleasant truck there has 2 kind of cool coinky dinks....
1. It's a Sutphen... may have been built buy a friend of mine. 2 streets away from where I work.
Might have even seen them pumping it off the duck pond by us too....2. 4011... can't have that number... that is the number on our first due pumper.. a PEIRCE!!!
Although a nice looking truck none the less. Kind of a funky lookin bambulance too...
JAYMZ
"Mom and dad say I should make my life an example of the principles I believe in. But every time I do, they tell me to stop it."
Calvin
"Mom and dad say I should make my life an example of the principles I believe in. But every time I do, they tell me to stop it."
Calvin
Jim,
I have worked in the comms/emergency vehicle field for quite some years, and most of them was spent with a master distributor for whelen products....As it stands today, ALL of the other garbage manufacturers such as Code 3, Nova, Federal would not even be as advanced as they are without ripping off of whelen....Period......You are right, there customer service, lead time, and attitude SUCK.....But, they have the most innovative designs around, and still currently do...The others are all rip offs.....I have had little to no problems with whelen products, with some exceptions....The point is, whelens current line up is untouched by anyhting else on the market.....An that is not saying much for the other manufacturers, b/c over the last three or four years Whelens quality has gone severly down hill,,,,They are getting cheap...Items that were once metal are now plastic, and the abortionzed most of there led series light heads, such as the 52, 43, 73 series....
Just my 2 cents..
I have worked in the comms/emergency vehicle field for quite some years, and most of them was spent with a master distributor for whelen products....As it stands today, ALL of the other garbage manufacturers such as Code 3, Nova, Federal would not even be as advanced as they are without ripping off of whelen....Period......You are right, there customer service, lead time, and attitude SUCK.....But, they have the most innovative designs around, and still currently do...The others are all rip offs.....I have had little to no problems with whelen products, with some exceptions....The point is, whelens current line up is untouched by anyhting else on the market.....An that is not saying much for the other manufacturers, b/c over the last three or four years Whelens quality has gone severly down hill,,,,They are getting cheap...Items that were once metal are now plastic, and the abortionzed most of there led series light heads, such as the 52, 43, 73 series....
Just my 2 cents..
no- this isn't a Whelen bash.
I like the Tomar and the Whelen. The Tomar does have the advantage at deep angles. Both are just as bright 45 degrees and less.
At the show, I also got to see the Federal demo car with their LED bar (lists for a cool $5800.00!!!) sitting next to the Whelen car with the Liberty. The Federal wins hands-down. There are NO dead spots whatsoever. The Liberty has 8 bad dead spots as you walk 360 degrees around the car. The Federal also has more agressive flash patterns to it.
The MDT touch screen lighting/siren controls on the Federal 2000 system is really cool! It's just too bad that it's Windows driven and is sure to crash at least once a day. Federal is coming back it seems. The two companies had their latest/greatest products there and the Federal car much more impressive (both cars were about equally equipped) than Whelens except it didn't have mirror LEDs. I guess this didn't matter since Whelen had only one that worked.
A note from the Whelen guys: "we've had problems with some of our LEDs going out when they run for 8 hours at a time at these shows." Great.
At the show, I also got to see the Federal demo car with their LED bar (lists for a cool $5800.00!!!) sitting next to the Whelen car with the Liberty. The Federal wins hands-down. There are NO dead spots whatsoever. The Liberty has 8 bad dead spots as you walk 360 degrees around the car. The Federal also has more agressive flash patterns to it.
The MDT touch screen lighting/siren controls on the Federal 2000 system is really cool! It's just too bad that it's Windows driven and is sure to crash at least once a day. Federal is coming back it seems. The two companies had their latest/greatest products there and the Federal car much more impressive (both cars were about equally equipped) than Whelens except it didn't have mirror LEDs. I guess this didn't matter since Whelen had only one that worked.
A note from the Whelen guys: "we've had problems with some of our LEDs going out when they run for 8 hours at a time at these shows." Great.