Guide to Buying Amber Flashing Lights

Amber flashing lights — strobes or LEDs — are among the most popular lighting solutions typically used with emergency and first-responder vehicles, such as two trucks, construction vehicles, and fire engines. Why? They’re super bright and can be easily seen even from a distance, they’re power-efficient, and newer kits come with programmable and adjustable flashing patterns. Sounds good? Here’s what to look for and where!

Decide Why You Need

Before buying a lighting kit, you must see why you need them. It may sound obvious to some, but it’s not a good idea to use, for example, undercover police lights when working on a construction site. There are amber beacon lights, flood lights, those yellow light bars you see on fire engines, etc., and they all serve different purposes.

You might want to get a beacon kit if you’re a tow truck operator. Beacon lights are easily seen from a distance and have rotating functions, so they’ll alert other drivers of your presence. You might want to get some flood lights if you’re operating a construction or a farm vehicle. They are meant to illuminate a larger area, which makes them great for off-road and nighttime work.

Figure Out What Kind of Optical Tech Would Suit Your Work Best

There are various types of lights based on optical technology they’re based on, and they all provide different visual effects. Nowadays, however, we usually use only two types:

• Strobe lights: Strobes are super bright and produce an intense flashing light, which is great for utmost visibility.
• LEDs: LEDs are the most versatile solution. They’re bright, energy-efficient, and usually easy to install and replace.

What Kind of Conditions Are You Working In

No matter what kind of emergency and safety equipment you’re buying, it’s always essential that you consider what type of weather conditions you’re working in.

• Clear weather: Amber lights are a great solution for daytime and clear-weather operations, no matter whether we’re talking about strobes or LEDs. You probably don’t need to replace strobes if you already have strobes. However, we might recommend LEDs for the reasons mentioned above. However, we might recommend LEDs for the reasons mentioned above. However, we might recommend LEDs for the reasons mentioned above.
• Foggy and rainy weather: LED amber lights are also great for cloudy and rainy weather. They’ve got some pretty intense output, so they’ll penetrate through rain and fog easily. However, you might want to consider special amber fog lights. They have wider beams, illuminating a wider area in front of you.
• Winter: Flashing amber lights might be less effective in blizzards and snowstorms because of their color. If you need amber lights, get something extremely bright because only high-output rays can penetrate snow and hail and remain visible.

What Kind of Vehicle Do You Have

It would be best if you never rushed into any purchase. Just because you found an affordable light kit, it doesn’t mean you should go for it. First, consider whether it’s a good pick for your vehicle. If you’ve got a police car, you’ll probably be fine with most rooftop light bars. But what about fire engines? They’ll need full-size or several light bars mounted on top since they’re large vehicles.

You’ll want to get larger kits, and ideally, you’ll combine them with grille or backside lights for extra visibility from all sides and angles. Also, bring something easy to install if possible, so you don’t have to do drilling and additional tuning work. The same goes for two trucks, construction vehicles, and farm machinery.

Rules and Regulations

You can mount any lights and drive whatever vehicle you want on private property, but that’s not the case on public roads. Amber flashing lights are reserved for vehicles responding to emergencies, so many rules and regulations govern their use.

Perhaps needless to say, you’ll have to check what kind of lights are allowed — or mandated! — in your area before making any purchase. Violating regulations will often result in fines or penalties and license revocation in the worst-case scenario.

Budget

When all’s said and done, we must admit your budget is the most important factor when making these decisions. After all, if you can’t afford something, it doesn’t matter how many features it has or how well-built it is. So, before making a decision you might grow to regret later on, consider how much money you can spend on lights.

The most important thing to remember is that you should probably think long-term, especially if you have a whole fleet of vehicles to furnish. If possible, look for LED solutions because, as we’ve said, they’re quite energy efficient and easy to install, so you won’t have to spend much money on power and mounting. In addition, they’re easy to maintain and quite durable, so they’ll serve you well even in tougher weather conditions.

SpeedTech Lights — The Best Place to Get Them

SpeedTech Lights is a leading vehicle lighting and equipment provider and retailer with a wide range of cutting-edge products, including LED police lights, police strobe lights, sirens, road flares, tow truck light bars, and everything else that will suit the needs of every emergency vehicle operator.

SpeedTech Lights deals only with high-quality products, all of which meet national and international reliability and quality standards. Moreover, all products on the SpeedTech Lights shelves are fairly priced, assuring you can get the utmost reliability even on a budget.

Regarding amber lights, you can count on SpeedTech Lights for several dash and visor light bars, hideaway and surface mounts, traffic advisors, off-road light bars, police lights, and siren kits.

If you have any questions regarding pricing, light kit customization, installation, or anything else, contact SpeedTech Lights customer service, and their exceptional personnel will get back to you immediately.