Monday, April 4, 2011

Mini LED Light Bar Buying Guide

Mini LED light bars attach to the top of the roof of a vehicle to give 360 degree warning to motorists around you. There are hundreds of models and choices that you have when selecting the right LED mini bar for you. Do you know what you should look for? Have you ever really thought about what makes a LED mini bar a good choice for you? At ThePublicSafetyStore.com compiled a list of a few things that you can refer to when choosing.

1. Application - Figure out what you are using the light bar for. Is this going to be for emergency response? Or are you using it for something like snow plowing. Although this seems obvious, you should plan ahead to figure out the entire usage of your LED light bar - it will make it easier to choose in the future.

2. Color - What color are you legally allowed to use on your vehicle. Some state laws allow you to use several colors, some are very restrictive. Here in Kentucky for example, police can only use blue & white (unless an incorporated city) and fire can use red & white including all volunteer firefighters.

3. Mounting - You'll need to choose your mounting option. Usually there are 2 choices - either magnetic light bar mounts or permanent mounts. Magnetic mounting simply uses 4 or more very powerful magnets and sit atop your vehicles roof. Although very strong and rare instances can occur, it is not recommended by most manufacturers to drive a vehicle with a magnetic mounted LED light bar attached to the top of your vehicle. To us this is just like Q-Tips(c) saying you can't stick them in your ear. The magnets work however officially it isn't recommended to stay on the top of your vehicles roof. The permanent mount option uses screws and bolts to mount in some fashion to the top of a BackRack 3rd party bracket or even directly to your vehicles roof.

4. Power Connection - While this is usually determined by the mounting you'll still need to figure how you are going to power your mini LED light bar. Typically magnetic mounted lightbars have a plug that you can plug into your cigarette plug in your vehicle. The plug usually have a power switch as well as some type of pattern selection switch to change the patterns on the LED light bar. If you choose to go with a permanent mounted light bar, usually you will have several wires that you can manually use switches to control the power and pattern.

5. Price - Price can vary greatly. With The Pinnacle Mini Bar from ThePublicSafetyStore, lower price does not mean a lower quality. Check it out now!

Have more suggestions? Add them below. And as always, if you have questions, email or call us so that we can answer them for you!


Sean @ ThePublicSafetyStore.com