AMR Whelen Edge NON California Lightbar Explained

American Medical Response, one of the nation's largest EMS providers, used a very specific version of the Whelen edge 9000 and later 9M lightbars on their van ambulances located "not on the west coast". These bars are often referred to as the "AMR east coast bar", but actually saw service from the east coast all the way to southern and middle America. The mainstream adaptation of LEDs has made specialized lightbars rare if not totally obsolete. The same LEDs can be setup in a variety of ways that makes the same physical setup adaptable for most markets. Before LEDs took over emergency lighting these lightbars gave AMR the flexibility to stay in compliance with requirements in the multitude of jurisdictions they covered.

These lightbars contained 4 strobes, but more interestingly 3 front facing halogen lights hooked into the unit's triple K ambulance flasher. In theory this kept the front lighting within "Federal K" compliance on vehicles lacking these lights such as Leader Coach brand vans. Leader Coach vans didn't see extensive service outside the western contract areas, so these bars were often mounted on vehicles, like AEV vans, that already had separate front facing 9x7 halogen lights by default. The lightbar mounted flashers and the body mounted ones served the same purpose, were wired to the same flasher, and flashed at exactly the same time. This caused the two sets to blend together and took up space in the bar standard edge bars would utilize for more strobe tubes. Most of these bars had flashers in the alley light position as well, usually on a separate internal Whelen lightbar flasher and sometimes tied to the ambulance flasher like this one    • Ambulance AMR  

Even though these bars were rarely actually used on units lacking the redundant front facing "primary/secondary" lights, these bars could be used on such a unit in an area that required them by law, regulation, or contract without having to heavily modify the vehicle. Operating under contract makes operational and equipment requirements subject to complete revision with the stroke of a pen. It is conceivable that an entire division could suddenly require "Federal K" compliance but have a fleet of vehicles lacking even the location to mount the required lights. These lightbars spoke to that possibility while still being completely functional on any unit that already had the required lights mounted elsewhere.

For more on keeping strobe systems in compliance with Federal triple K see my other video    • Whelen 1989-1991 Ambulance Strobe Power Su...  

Also, a shorter video without the analysis containing only lightbar footage is coming soon.