The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay emergency flasher on AD trucks?

I've hooked up the five red flashing lights on the firetruck but I do not know how to make them flash on and off. Anyone here have experience with alternating flashing red emergency light wiring or flasher experience? Any help would be appreciated. They all come on in red but do not flash off and on as they did in 1952.

Virginiafiretruck,

I would guess these lights are not tied to any turn signaling device, but are a whole separate circuit just for emergency flashing. I wonder what made them flash in '52? Did the Tung-Sol style bi-metallic flasher exist then. I'm not sure on this, but I think a adequate sized flasher in series between the load (lights) and power would probably make them do their thing.

Fire engines have some strange stuff on them, so don't hold me to my word. I don't remember if your rig is still 6 volt, or has been switched to 12 volts. If a little flasher ends up being the ticket, you will have to find one that is the proper voltage and one that blinks the load at an acceptable rate. 6 Volt HD flashers might be a hard thing to scare up.

Is there some strange electrical box on the rig that might have been a motorized flasher. On an old fire engine, this would make more sense to me than a little bi-metal can! Dig around some, I'll bet you'll find a magic motorized flasher.

Stuart

Thanks. I've found the "new" electronic flasher set ups that are used on today's firetrucks but still have not found what they used in 1952. I'm going to keep looking till I find the answer. I'm going to look at an old firetruck this weekend so maybe I'll see what they used then.

Have you looked at the flasher switches made by Signal Stat? The Signal Stat Flarestat (Part No. 105,106 and 107) switch was made to convert cars without four way flashers. The switch has the flasher built in and would easily accomplish what you are trying to do. Search on E bay for signal stat and you will see some listed. They also came in both 6V and 12V, but you could easily convert the switch from one to the other.
Regards,
Steve

I have not but I will. Thanks!

I'm not sure that the lights flashed in 1952 on emergency equipment. I say this because I can remember bing stopped by the California Highway patrol in the early 50's and they just turned a red spotlight on you. I put 6 volt flashers on my fire truck to flash the lights. I only had 2 lights on one flasher and a separate flasher for the light on the siren.

Speaking from experience, the "red rose" used by the CHP did not flash! It didn't have to, when you saw it in your rear view mirror, your heart did enough flashing for everyone.

Stuart

I thought exactly the same: they would not flash back then. However the folks at the Old Dominion Fire Historical Society tell me the front fender lights flashed alternating right/left on and off and the rear red lights did exactly the same on an Oren fire truck built in Roanoke, Virginia.

Hey, I don't know as I wasn't born yet... I’m still looking for an old truck from 1951 to see for myself before I hook up any flashing lights.

I'm with atomarc,it probably had a motorized unit with a cam that opened and closed some contacts.Or a HD relay with bi-metal springs that would heat up and open the curcuit,cool off and close.Multi-line phone systems of the era did the same thing to flash "line on hold"

Thanks for the comments. I'm still looking for the proper flasher equipment. I'm not in a hurry as atleast the lights burn red, even if they don't flash yet.

All of the ones I've seen used a motor driven flasher...some of the school busses of the 60's and 70's used these also for the 8 way overhead lights...

Thanks. I have not seen one of those yet but I have found several flasher mods that will work. I haven't installed anything yet as I'm still looking around at other trucks.

I installed the flashers I got for the fire truck. Here is a 2 second link to a video: http://rides.webshots.com/video/3013652140080243953GBniKm

The rear lights flash just the same way.

So you got it working then? Good deal, just sorry I was too late to give input.
The same company that makes halogen lightbars makes a 2-way alternating flasher unit that you just plug in 3 wires and you're done. Similar units were used way back when as well.
I have an old police/fire spotlight from Unity that has a spot on one side and a red flasher on the other that uses a standard two wire flasher. Guess it all depends on the company that did the original wiring as to how they ran the circuts

Yes it is now working properly. Thanks to the experiance and advise from the stovebolters!

Wow! What a beautiful job you have done on the truck. I just wish you had taken more pictures

Thanks. I do too! I took pictures for two reasons: One- Stovebolters love pictures and Two-I needed to be able to figure out how to put it back together. Now the pictures serve as a reminder of how bad things were(wiring) before I started restoring the firetruck. I sort of forget where I came from and it is nice to have "before" and "after" to match up side by side.

Many times I wanted to quit as it just seemed I couldn't get the right part or it was taking all my time. In the end (not there yet), it will be worth the effort and time. It does look great as everyone who stops in the shop spends about 15 to 20 minutes just marvaling over it. I guess that makes it worth while. Again thanks and I'm ready to get my final punch list(lots of little things) done and get it on the road!