The crew from DCFD 13 Truck #4 sent in these photos of an upgrade they made to the tip of their aerial. They removed the bulky spot lights often found on an aerial’s tip and replaced them with LED light strips. The main purpose of the modification was to reduce the profile of the tip, while maintaining adequate illumination for operations. The LED’s operate off the rig’s batteries, so the generator does not need to be in operation for them to be used. As you can see from the photos, the LED’s still illuminate the area of operation, and are still quite an eye catcher while operating on the roof. Another benefit is that the LED’s do not tend to have the blinding effect like traditional spot or flood lights.
21 thoughts on “Aerial LED’s”
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That looks great! But who pays when the LCC vents the window with the tip? Do they throw it on his house tax? or on his next meal? LOL
I hope the brothers that came up with this get a patent on this before the apparatus builders do. I bet you see this at the next show. Awesome mod
To late on the patent. Some apparatus manufactures offer full length LED lighting on the aerial with color options. Looks pretty neat actually.
Check out http://www.efd74.com thier new tower ladder has them the whole way up. Stay Safe
Great for finding your egress when its time to go. Awesome modification!
I run at a more rural department and i dont see how this can be benificial. I’m sure its great for DC where they’re dealing with narrow streets and high roofs, but where we mostly run and use straight sticks, its to provide lighting and an elevated waterway. Nice idea guys! I’m just curious as to the practicality at my house.
To Mr AVFD. DCFD and many other fire depts use the aerial to access the roofs and windows of bldgs so the Truck Company can do their job.
By setting up your aerial to only provide lights and elevated waterway defeats some of the use of the aerial. By having a pre-piped waterway and giant quartz lights at the tip hampers safe operation of the ladder and makes it extremely difficult to access the roof or windows.
By the way….Where is RICKY RILEY??
Our 2009 Seagrave stick has them in blue all the way uo. A great asset when spotting the stick to roof/windows and blue does not inpare night vision.
Plus with a little wiring job, you can make one of those f@#king fire truck Christmas videos and put it on youtube.(Not that I get on any other websites other than ves.com)
HAHAHAHAHA @ DMAN
I find that if the quarts light are too bright you can slip a latex glove over them….if that doesnt work of course the next step would be to pull the meter…but this is just a theory because we don’t have fire trucks in my response area
I spelled “quartz wrong
your hella dumb
If I could get the @#$%^&^& engine to NOOOT take the address and block my TRUCK out now and then, we might get the main in the right position…. now and then……
But I would like to get the details on this modfication. Been a sucka for LEDs for a long time. Plus, my Dep Chief tore the stock spotlight off the stick recently at a fire. Thank you. 😉
We dont have these fancy LED’s and spotlights you all speak of. We find that our oil burning lamps hanging off the end of our tower are quite efficient. 🙂
you must work for san francisco city fire.
We just have 2 Garrity flash lights tied to the end of our stick with 2 pieces of rubber. That seems to do the trick.
Recently saw a Tl out on drill at night. Only reason it caught my eye two blocks over was the wrap of blue LED’s around the bucket perimeter. I drove over and introduced myself to the officer. Told him I saw the bucket from that far away. He said the boys did it on their own out of their own pockets so as to make it easier to see the means of escape for those operating on the roof. Talked to them about roof ops and inherent dangers facing them today. Good bunch of guys and made me wish I was 20 again starting over.
We have had an aerial here at RFD since before I got on the dept. But until recently we haven’t trained our guys to be truckmen. In fact when we are down to min. manning we only have one guy on the truck at a time. Aggravates most of us. We also have the situation with Engine drivers taking center stage on the A side of the building and forgetting about the aerial’s purposes. I have held three classes now, yes I am just a firefighter no rank behind me, on aerial and roof operations. Of course I had about 85% productivity and the other ones weren’t going to be taught anything by a 6yr rookie.
Hi Brothers any idea on what kind to get? and how to install them. Also i’m trying to get are ladder tips re-painted any ideas of Colors and brand of paint to help with spotting and visibility
To RAKEHEAT: Not sure but looks like a great idea. About the paint, not sure about what kind to get but maybe some sort of bright yellow-green?? Should increase visibility maybe some reflective tape too??
Stay safe brothers!!