Question for LEOs on high intensity lights

[Foul Mike]

There is at least one LE car in my area that has an extremely high intensity bright light in the light bar overhead that I had not seen before. I have seen the LEOs making stops before with bright white lights, but nothing like this.
I was headed to the farm the other day in the early morning dark hours and could see an extremely bright light from a couple of miles away. There are train tracks next to the road there so I thought it was a locomotive and thought nothing of it, as that happens all the time, and I hate to be driving into the locomotive lights as they are so bright.
As I got closer, the light angles changed a bit and I wondered if I was coming onto some kind of thing where the locomotive had derailed and the light was shining down onto the highway. It was hard to see good.
When I got there it was a Sheriff's car making a stop and things were well lit up to say the least.
What neat technology to make such good light?!!
I want some of that for my tractor so I can see clear to the end of the field when working at night was my first thought, but then had to wonder how much juice it was drawing and what the hell makes such bright light.
No pun intended, but can some of you shed some light on this subject?
It must be something new as I haven't seen it before but it is very bright. Regards, FM

 

[Bowman]

Re: Question for LEOs on high intensity lights

Some departments have LED lights that are amazingly bright. It is possible that the Sheriff's car was equipped with Rigid Industries LED lights.

The lights are available to the public and are often used for off-road applications (the lights are not legal for use on road for obvious reasons).

Here is a link to Rigid's website

If you search YouTube for Rigid Industries LED lights, you will find a ton of different videos. Also, the videos don't really show the full effects of the lights, as most cameras will adjust the aperture to accommodate the intense lighting. These lights are pretty impressive in person.

 

[SledDog]

Re: Question for LEOs on high intensity lights

LED lights need to be extra bright because their wavelength makes them dissipate quicker. I never noticed it until I crawled under my house with an LED flashlight, brighter than the xenon before, but I couldn't see as far.

 

[shulette]

Re: Question for LEOs on high intensity lights

Years ago I had 2 landing lamps from a Boeing 737 mounted in housings on my F250. I didn't use them often or for long but when those things turned on the concept of 'dark' went away. I don't know if your tractor would provide enough juice to run them.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

Re: Question for LEOs on high intensity lights

I might happen to know of another (or so) who's used Aircraft Landing Lights,,,, and man-o-man, do they ever light up the valley's of B.C. at 3:30 am. The reflective stuff that they put in the road-marking paint,,, sure lights up for a long long ways.

So I'm told. I think I read that in a book, once.

 

[slowkota]

Re: Question for LEOs on high intensity lights

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Sean the Nailer</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The reflective stuff that they put in the road-marking paint</div></div>

Off topic but... that stuff is glass beads!

IMHO I think that the modern police lights are too bright... Too many blinding LEDS dancing and flashing that make it a hazard for other drivers on the road!

 

[Foul Mike]

Re: Question for LEOs on high intensity lights

Thank you for your input.
Slowkota, I too think some of these lights are a bit overwhelming, but do realize that the LEOs need the protection of good light to see what is going on and not let someone get a jump on them.
It would be nice if they turned off the high intensity lights if the stop was for some Granny or something like that, but if it is for something bad and they are expecting a runner, I totally understand.
This light was very intense and seemed to be good white light.
It did have the effect of me driving very slow past it, as I was having a hard time seeing because of it, which could cause backups and rear-enders because you can't see and know the person behind you can't see any better. That is another discussion.
The implements I pull vary in width from 38' to 54' and are hard to see under the standard tractor lights at night.
I don't farm at night too much as you need the sun and heat to kill weeds but do sometimes get behind and have to run at night.
These high intensity lights would be great when drilling in the fall and you have to be looking around to make sure all the little zoomerinos and bogatrods are all turning and you are getting seed into the ground.
Thanks Bowman for the link, I will check it out.
This may be run of the mill for some LEO agencies in the cities, but new to me out here in the boonies. I don't know, but it sure as hell is some bright light.
I will try to find out from the Sheriff's office what it is, but it sure did impress me. Regards, FM

 

[still_N_29palms]

Re: Question for LEOs on high intensity lights

Last year I met a couple of these in Memphis Tenn. Cept the leo's there were dummies. they posistioned their lights in a manner to light up the intersection in a cross street that had emergency electrical workers repairing a busted stop light. from a distance you could see them and see the officer in a reflective vest directing traffic. However when you got close and the posistion of the lights whited out the cop dirrecting traffic. Moving at a snails pace I almost hit him. When asked my problem, have I been drinking I said I caint see you. your damn lights hide you from traffic. the rookie could not grasp this until a car drove by surprising him, then another and not untill they "shadowed" across the lights could you see them. still could not make out the color. I said best to leave the blue lights flashing and just headlights. and drove off. There is a such thing as too bright. I think maby hopefully Police will angle their cars off to the right and dirrect most of the intense lighting away from oncomming traffic.

 

[Bowman]

Re: Question for LEOs on high intensity lights

Most cops, I would say, already know this. It's too bad that you met one who didn't. Hopefully he learned from that instance.

There are a number of reasons for all the different light set ups on a patrol car. Almost all cars are equipped with directional arrows that will assist with traffic control. Also, they can be dimmed so night vision is not compromised when reading the arrows. Trust me, cops will blind each other during chases at night because they fail to dim the blinking directionals that face rearward.

Also, one of the best ways to get hit by a drunk driver are to leave those flashing strobes, leds etc blinking away on a traffic stop. If cops leave all those high intensity lights going, there is <span style="text-decoration: underline">usually</span> a good reason.

 

[11B101ABN]

Re: Question for LEOs on high intensity lights

Whelen makes an LED upgrade for the post mounted Unity spotlights. Likewise, most lightbar manufacturers instal LED takedown and alley lights in thier lightbars as standard or an option.

The issue of light intensity is not new. I use the following "technique", if you can call it hat on my stops.

After contacting the violator, or whom ever, I cut off the front lights and switch my lights to a mode that only flashes the corners of the lightbar and two amber lights in the rear of the lightbar. Whenever possible, I try to only use the ambers on a traffic stop.

 

[Foul Mike]

Re: Question for LEOs on high intensity lights

Very good input and I do appreciate it.
I will not argue that those lights are way too bright, I just want to know how to get them for my tractor and a source for that. I want to know if my tractor's electrical system will support them and how many amps they pull. Maybe that I only turn them on when getting to the end of a field or turning corners.
That said, the lights are LED and LEDs don't pull too many amps but the intensity of the light leads me to believe that there is a payoff. Light costs money, how bright do you want it?
I don't know how well those lights will hold up to the pounding of the tractor. The tractor will bounce your liver out and all of the high intensity lights I have used before were of the filament type. They lasted as well as I, which isn't too good.
I think there is some techknowlegey out there that I don't know about. But it would benefit me to have it.
Regards, FM

 

[Bowman]

Re: Question for LEOs on high intensity lights

Here are a couple of videos if you're worried about reliability.

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<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-B5DLyDICtc"></param> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-B5DLyDICtc" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"> </embed></object>

These lights are still brighter than any other light that can be mounted on your tractor....with the exception of stadium lighting.

 

[banks74]

Re: Question for LEOs on high intensity lights

I know we have some factory HID's on some of our JD tractors, and they are a huge improvement over the traditional lights they used to come with.