Okay the title maybe a little confusing, so I'll clear it up.

I'm starting the application process for joining the volunteer rural fire department in my county. I already know a guy who is in the department and I'm very passionate about joining the department. You could say being a first responder is second nature and in my blood. To focus back on topic, working with the rural fire/rescue has an advantage in my mind. We get to deck out our personal vehicles with emergency lights/sirens/speakers; so we can respond to calls in adequate time frames.

I will eventually need/want to deck out my Dakota with lights and a siren. Does anyone here have any experience with this? Installing lights, sirens, a control box, etc. Suggestions on where/how to mount these things? Or can tell me where to look for manuals on how to do it.

Thank you in advance to anyone that can give some input. I'm right now just trying to learn or start researching how to do it so when it comes time, I will be prepared and comfortable doing it.

 

Most people use a rotating yellow light on the roof. Some put red and blues on a headache rack. I've seen people attach small red and blues to the back of the rear view mirror or to the inside of the grille.

 

Oh wow you can decorate your personal vehicle with red and blues? In my province I'm pretty sure that's illegal.

I know that volunteer responders use a green light.

Anyway, sorry I'm not very helpful it just caught my attention you can impersonate the popo hahaha.

 

sxrsil3nt, yes we can. There are rules to usage and what colors we can have, red, blue or both. Green are very expensive, and we are volunteering to do this, so my state gives us the cheap option. But impersonating an officer is a felony, so I can't use them to pull over a friend as a joke. It's okay, I think it would be cool too

Magnethead, what's a headache rack? As for yellows, those are used for construction/maintenance and traffic crews. Blue is reserved for all first responders and red is specifically reserved for fire personnel only.

General plan (what I was thinking):
1)100 watt siren mount in the gap down by the fog lights
2) 2 LEDs in the grille
3) 2- small LED bars (2 lights a bar) on the top of the windshield
3a) same set up just on the rear glass as well
4) 2 LEDs in between the tail gate and rear bumper
5) 1 strobe or LED on each corner of the truck

It isn't cheap, so I was wanting to wire the whole thing up myself. I'm wondering how to wire it up and if anyone knows cheap places to order from or any other designs?

 

remember our trucks dont have a gap between the gate and bumper.

Headache rack is the metal rear window guard for trucks (we call them headache racks in tx because the folk here hang guns on them, and they rattle enough on dirt roads to give you a headache)

i think your plan is good.

 

We don't have a gap? Sorry my truck is 800+ miles away, so I can't go look at it. Darn, I guess I could copy another guy, he wired some into his brake lights or what not. Anyone with wiring experience here? If not I'll make a thread on it when I do it in the months to come.

 

I've set up several police cars and worked on countless others, so I can say I have some experience in this department.

The "siren" on most police cars is actually just a speaker. The siren sounds come from the controller (we use a Unitrol TM4, but there are less expensive alternatives if you don't need all the features). The TM4 has a built-in 100W amplifier for the siren and PA.

For lighting, I would use an interior red/blue light that goes in the windshield and maybe something similar in the back window with some flashing LEDs on the corners.

All of those lights have programmable flash sequences and the small LED lightheads come in different colors. Wiring is a piece of cake, since they only need 12V power, instead of the control boxes that old style strobes required.

 

Wow TomA thank you for all the info, that is really useful. Ya, the last thing I need is bells and whistles. I really appreciate the links, they gave me base to work from. Do you wire all the lights to the control box? Which then wires to the fuse box?

 

Yes, all the lights are wired to the control box, which then goes to the battery because it draws too much power to go through the fuse box. It actually has several power inputs for different functions that all need to be fused separately. We run all the power through a continuous-duty solenoid/relay that's energized through a circuit with a Charge Guard that will shut it off if battery voltage drops too low. The TM4 also has controls for alley lights, takedown lights, and other things like a code 1-2-3 switch and a switch to activate the siren when you hit the horn button. But like I said before, you don't need all that stuff for what you're doing. You can use a basic siren (browse Whelen's website) and use a toggle switch for the lights. Or, if you need different modes, look for a less expensive siren/light controller combo.

I'll see what I can find later when I'm on a computer instead of my phone.

 

I saw one of the LED websites with a combination flasher for not too bad of a price. forget which it is. May look later.