Snow Plowing Question

NasConst_land

Hey just wondering if anyone knows anything about legal lighting on trucks. Heres the situation. We just spent some good money and our time installing hide a way strobes in our trucks. So we are out plowing our first storm, and one of the guys gets pulled over for having the strobes. Now the interesting part. He was plowing the entrance of a commercial lot and going on the street and what not. THe cop said no blinking lights what so ever on any vehicle except emergency vehicles, as other private plow trucks were passing. He was going to make him take the strobes out on site, but decided not to be a prick. I was just wondering if anyone knows if they are legal or not. I was under the impression, amber or clear lights are fine, red and blue are not. I cant get a straight answere out of the police station either.. so I am going to eventually go to the tropper station.

PipeGuy

I imagine the laws will vary state to state. I've never seen anyone using the strobes in a mobile operation - only stationary.
I've played with the idea of doing the same on some of my trucks. We do a good amount of road work and I like the idea of our trucks being welll lit.
What did your kits cost? Assuming one has some skills, how hard were they to install? It looked to me like drilling out the existing lamp housings, to accept the strobe fixtures, was the trickiest part. Any tips or advice? What brand did you use?

Cole

What state are you in?

BTW- an pics of the setup?

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NasConst_land

I am in Ohio. The kit was from a place called Strobes N More. We got the pro pack 606 i believe it was called. Each unit was $189.00 which was not bad. We tryed doing one on the first truck to see if we could do them ourselves before we paid $420.00 for a electronic company from here to install them. Let me tell you.. do it yourself. The First one took 2 guys about 4 hours and it just got easier from there. Drilling the holes is very simple actually, 1 inch hole saw and the strobe has a gasket and 2 screws and it screws right into the light housing.. quick connect wire connectors, and you are on your way. The hardest part is making the inside of the truck look clean. Need to find pre-drilled holes to run the wire up threw. Switch is heavy duty and very nice, and the have 15 different flash patterns. I would definently recommend. One thing we ran into.. all of our trucks were either ext cab or longer, and we ordered 15' cable runs and they were short so we had to splice on the first truck. Order the 25' cable and we had no problem wiring a crew cab long bed dually. Im waiting for pictures of all our trucks to come back i will post when i get them, maybe take the headlight out and show that set up as well.

PipeGuy

Cool Thanks much.

25BRIAN

In Michigan we have to go by public act 300, which basically states you need to have 360 visibility by using a amber rotating light on top of your vehicle. I work for the local fire dept. here part-time and a lot of us get strobes at a e-bay store called strobes 4 less, I personally don't use them I have a full size lightbar I don't like the way they look when snow is frozen on the headlights or the way they reflect off of vehicles I pass...

ElmForest

Nas you might want to check out http://www.plowsite.com/index.php I'm sure you'll get lots of info there. Several of us post there and vice-versa.

IHI

I think it'll boil down to officers in the car. 90% of guys round here have and dont use their becons. I've been using strobes mouonted on both sides of the ladder rack for 5 yrs with no troubles, and I've noticed a trend that many guys are switching to strobes over the revoloving lights.

Just dont turn them on so your not attracting the bored policmen with nothing better to do. Or call the state office and see what they say. Just dont get too excited cuz by law the DOT guys can pull you over and ticket you if your not running a log book and dot state numbers....your using their highways in order to make money so technically your taxable for hwy use.

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Glasshousebltr

Criminals selling crack and snagging kids and some Ohio state boy is jumping up and down about lights.......freakin amazing......shamefully so....but just flat freakin amazing.

However, anyone notice this? In the last 10 years or so cops are starting to ask the passengers for ID on a pull......Good or bad?.......... What ya think?

Bob

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IHI

As focked up as people are getting I can understand the concept to check all passangers to be thorough and cover all bases. As a passenger with nothing to hide it's an insult to be asked for that info, but I dont know the cop and he dont know me, for all he knows I'm a killer, thug, etc...that has warrants someplace-they're just making sure everything's cool.

I do agree and got myself into trouble when one of my guys got pulled over by a trooper and called me-then left his phone on speaker phone so trooper could hear everything I had to say about'em LOL!! Seems they're getting too bored and ticketing and looking for stupid things, they could save some man hours giving ooutlandish tickets and have the officers doing more case studies, questioning for detectives, etc...not just sitting there eating krispy creams and using binoculars to spot folks with no seat belts.. get a friggin life.

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PipeGuy

I think it sounds like this:

Cop: Guten abend Herr Bob, may I have your papers please? Und das maggots in der rucksitz, their papers as well, ey? Schnell! Schnell!

kenvest

i plowed a good bit in the NC mountains and all i needed here was the factory raised light setup which came with my myer 8 foot plow.

NasConst_land

Heres the scoop for anyone plowing in ohio. I just spoke to the local police station and actually got the wrriten law from the law book. Hide-a-way strobes may not be run on any public roads or highways at any time. If you are plowing an entrance of a lot and backing out on a road they are ok. Also they are fine in a private parking lot. Now the interesting news, you are not permitted to run stobes in your front or rear lights, but you are permitted to run a strobed lightbar ontop of the truck. This can be on during travel time, as long as you are not on an expressway, or highway. It is not a law but reccommended that vehicles in the state of ohio that plow snow have some sort of beacon on the top of their vehicle. Now saying this, the only color legal on the top of your truck is of course amber, or orange. The officer i spoke to at the station was very helpful and we spent about a 1/2 hour trying to find this in writing. I guess all cops can have a good side to them when approached the right way.

nadonailer

What's snow?



Sorry couldn't resist....

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NasConst_land

Snow= big $$$$ where we are from.. thats what snow is. Lol

noreast05

Here we have to have a amber light no smaller than six inches in diameter and visible 360 degrees. no strobes. And only used when backing out onto a public way. You can not use them while driving on a public way. Which makes sense to me I never understood the guys that drove around town with their lights flashing and the plow was up. Ok let go guys plow all day and all night with the radio blasting, heat cranking, wipers going, and every light under the sun on ..... it's a big drain on your battery/ alternator. Shut your amber light off when you don't need it. Years ago I thought it was cool to have a flashing light, but now I only use it when needed.

The cops around here don't really push this issue. They print an ad about the regulations in the local paper before the snow flies. That's about it. It's kind of like not wearing your seat belt here they won't pull you over unless you did something else wrong.

All states are different when it comes to this matter check your local regs.

IHI

Sheeeot, our cops specifically do seat belt stings and will look to pull you over specificaly for not wearing one...

Snow= money falling from the sky

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747

Its yellow in the state of illinois. Rotating on the top of the plow. My advice would be what do tow trucks use in your city. I will have to say the police officer is being petty. My father was a partner in a jeep dealer ship when i was growing up. They use to outfit a little cj 7 with a plow and charge 10 dollars a dryway. When it snowed the phone rang of the hook. They would do at least 35 driveways. It was me and my cousin when school was out who would plow and run the tow truck doing a lot of battery jumping. They ended up closing the dealership once chrysler took over jeep. My father and his brother owned the dealership. My uncle worked fulltime my father just partime because he was a ford employee.

Glasshousebltr

Now thats freakin funny.

Bob

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