Truck-Lite's LED Snowplow Kits Improve Visibility

Truck-Lite has released its new LED Snow Plow Kit. The LED kit is said to improve overall visibility for plowing vehicles and oncoming traffic, improving safety all around.

Truck-Lite's work with the U.S. military developing the first LED headlamp led to a commercially suitable, DOT-compliant lamp. That led to creating a lighting system for snowplows that offered better visibility and added safety. LED lights are significantly brighter than traditional lamps, have a much longer life expectancy as well as increased durability and lower current draw.

"Battling winters harsh conditions and often poor visibility is a constant challenge for our highway departments and municipalities when plowing day and night" says Craig Hefright, Truck-Lite's director of new product and market development. "With the advent of our headlamp, we already had the established technology under our belt to implement a more durable and safe solution in the form of our LED snowplow kit."

Heavy equipment used to clear snow and ice covered roads has long been faced with an up-hill battle based on lighting equipment failure. Traditional halogen lamps emit light from a fine filament that hasn't been able to withstand the impact generated by the plow's vibration. LED products work from electrically charged semiconductor chips that emit light. The semiconductor produces a solidstate lamp that is far more durable & virtually impervious to shock & vibration, the company says.

Truck-Lite worked closely with the town of Leroy, N.Y. to test prototype kits in real-life winter scenarios. According to Dave Uberty of the Town of Leroy Highway Department, "The difference is like night and day. Driving into blind snow banks in high wind situations with our old lights, we could barely see at all. With the LED lights, vision is no effort at all, and most importantly, oncoming vehicles can clearly see us. What's really scary about this scenario is that if you can't see the highway as a plow operator, it is quite likely that other vehicles on the road in these extreme conditions cannot see you. The potential for a bodily injury accident is very high."

More info: www.truck-lite.com