Thursday, November 8, 2007

Vehicle Safety - Emergency Flares - Prep Tip 1




So, how many of you reading this can actually say you have a set of road flares in your vehicle? Not many I will venture. If you did would you know how to use them? Are you familiar with setting up a pattern behind your disabled vehicle?
We have had these spectacular items in our vehicles for 6 months now ...they are the modern equivalent of a road flare - minus the burning, smoke, burnt pants and fingers....if you have set up a lot of flares on the highway you know what I mean.
These little LED lights are bright and have magnets so they can attach to your vehicle in a variety of configurations if you are broken down along the highway. They are amber or red and are powered for 20 hours (versus 30 minutes max for a road flare) in the flashing mode and 6 hours of steady-on mode by only 2 AA batteries.
Some people insist on leaving their car flashers on before they take a hike to a service station or exit only to find that upon returning they now had to deal with a dead vehicle battery.
I recommend using lithium batteries to power the flares as they will remain viable for up to 10 years - maybe longer than your car or SUV. They are designed to be set up on the roadway as well and are crush resistant.
They are called FlareAlert and can be purchased in many auto parts, marine and truck part stores or online at http://www.flarealert.com/ We have seen them priced from $6 to $15. You will note the sticker over the battery compartment indicating a vehicle registration number...so they can be traced back to you by the police if they choose to return any you may have left behind. If you can get them on clearance - get 6 for your car.
A more expensive police version of these are TurboFlare 360's but they cost $35 each. At that price, I'd feel bad if someone "borrowed" these from the scene.

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