The trucks I work on are brand new, so firemen washing the trucks isn't an
issue. I e-mailed Whelen from my house to tell them they have problems they
might not be aware of, and they e-mailed back sying the water intrusion was
our fault because we use pressure washers to wash the trucks just before the
customers come for them. But we frequently find water inside the lights of
trucks that have been parked outside in the rain, before they go to the
washrack. Poor installation isn't the issue either; my job is to
troubleshoot and repair electrical issues on the trucks after completion of
assembly and a final product evaluation inspection. I work off the FPE
gigs, and write up and repair anything I come across that the FPE inspectors
missed. The light installations are always correct. We don't have these
water intrusion problems with Tomar, Code-3, or any other brand of light we
install; only Whelen. I also spoke to a fireman from a town in Connecticut
the other day. He said Whelen's lights have a bad reputation among fire
services, but his department had to buy them because the Whelen factory is
fairly local to where he is from, and they wanted to support the "local
business". Whelen lights are on well more than half the trucks we
manufacture. I never see what our customers pay for various options, so I
can only guess Whelen are cheaper than the other competing lights.
Thanks to everyone who replied. It seems Whelen's aircraft lights are
probably better than the emergency vehicle lights, but at least one of you
has had water intrusion problems too.
Scott Wilson