Picture yourself driving down a two-lane freeway. It’s dusk, headlights just came on, and you’re cruising at about 80mph, just enjoying the music and looking forward to getting home from your long road trip. You notice a shadow in the adjacent lane about 150 ft ahead. You flick on the brights and give a wide berth. In mere seconds you pass the 7-foot pine tree that had been accidentally dropped on the freeway by a careless driver, too anxious to get home to bother with proper knots or tie-down methods.
What now?
Your instincts tell you to pull over and get it out of the road before someone hits it, but at 80mph you’re already 50 yards past it. You glare at the rearview mirror and see the headlights swerving as the traffic behind you desperately tries to avoid a collision with the tree and other road companions. Reality sets in and you realize you have no safe way of removing that tree. Sure, you could pull-over and reverse down the freeway, but cars are recklessly swerving and making unpredictable moves to avoid the hazard, and you don’t want to put yourself and your passengers in danger by getting closer to it. How about pulling over, flipping on the hazards to warn oncoming traffic, and walking back to get it? Ironically, hazards won’t warn people of an actual hazard, only that your vehicle is stationary somewhere, and you would once again introduce yourself to great unpredictable danger.
I found myself in this exact situation recently. The long drive home gave me plenty of time to think about what had just happened, and come up with a plan for the next time I came upon any type of road hazard at night, whether it be an animal carcass, an accident, or a friggin’ tree taking up half of the freeway. You should have noticed already (that’s kind of the point), that this was my solution:
The modular and portable 12V powered strobe lights are suction cup mounted so I can easily install on any smooth surface on my vehicle. After a few days of research I decided to get the Sirennet SNDL3s, mainly because I was attracted to the Star Mini Phantom line of LED bars and the SirenNet SNDL3 is the same exact light branded under Sirennet, so it’s and slightly cheaper. One thing they don’t tell you is that the suction cups are no longer in the kit (used to be), they are separate in the $13 ULB9BKT kit (per light). However, they do come with a reflective hood mount and flush mount, both of which utilize 3M adhesive. I appreciate the high-quality materials, but I don’t want a mount semi-permanently attached to my window.
These are not the perfect, instant solution of professionally installed strobes, but they are much more versatile and will fit my needs nicely.
The Rundown
The Good
- Compact and low profile
- Bright, with approximately 1000 lumens per light
- Wide spot pattern
- Versatile drill-free mounting options
- Can flush-mount to the vertical rear window of a pickup
- Comes with hood, windshield, and flush 3M adhesive mounting options
- 12V plug is fused with a 5 amp fuse
- Switches for power and pattern are on 12V plug
- 35 patterns
The Bad
- Expensive at $130 per light
- Doesn’t come with non-adhesive mounting options
- Can’t sync the patterns of multiple units
- Standard mounting options do not allow vertical adjustments
- Not waterproof
Expect to pick up the Amber/Red SirenNet SNDL3 for around ~$130.