-30°C LED Traffic Marshalling Wands?

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auroreboreale

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Apr 24, 2005
Messages
88
Location
Yukon Territory, Canada
All: We're busily prepping for a movie shoots here in the S.W. Yukon, 60N, 135W, in Canada's far North West.

Part of that will involve traffic control and direction.

To make matters worse, given subarctic midnight sun, and -40C winter temperatures paired with 19hour long nights, we have had motorists run traffic control points as 'everybody knows there's no road construction in winter'. True, but most of our movie shoots are in winter!

Anyways, what I am looking for is experiences with LED traffic marshalling wands in cold temperatures, like -30C.

We need the version with an LED flashlight on the very tip, preferably white, to point at our reflective Stop/Slow hand signs.

Light weight would be a plus, as would the ability to run on Nimh 'C' or 'D' cells whose mass delays freezing solid in cold weather.

My local safety supply store has some which run on 'D' cells, make and mark unkown, but is currently out of stock. They have sold them to our bylaw officers after having tried them out with Air North, the local Boeing 737 operator. I will share what they are using when I can get it.

In the meantime, I may order a pair of plastic traffic direction cones from Night Ize for my Terralux TLE-5-LED'd 2xAA Maglite, and get another LED drop-in to put in another 2xAA Maglite. Barbolite makes a traffic-directing cone out of reflective tape, well-received on CPF, but I have yet to hear back from them on its availability.

I have read the CPF thread on flashlight cones + LEd wands here:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=111573

So, let me know your cold-weather LED Traffic Marshalling Wand experiences!
 
I don't know anything about traffic control since I've never done any, but NiMH will still freeze at that temperature. Best to use 123a lithium cell, they will still work okay at -30. But if you already have D size NiMH take a look at the new rebel 2D mag, and mag traffic cone.
 
I work at my local airport and due quite a bit of marshalling aircraft. It also gets very cold up here in the winter months, where the average temperature barely rides over 0.

I myself us two of my Ra Clicky's with Nite-Ize traffic wands made for mini-mags. This combo works great, as I already carry the two Ra's all day. It also gives me many output options from dim all the way to blinding strobe.
 
All: Thanks for the thoughts on traffic direction flashlight cones; I will stick with Night Ize which will fit the Mag 2xAA.

I will let you know when I hear which LED traffic direction wands seem to work at -30°C.

Thanks!
 
You might want to consider a bike light with a seperate battery pack. That way you could keep the battery pack clipped inside your coat, with a wire running to the light head with a traffic cone or however you want to use it.
 
Strauss said:
I work at my local airport and due quite a bit of marshalling aircraft. It also gets very cold up here in the winter months, where the average temperature barely rides over 0.

I myself us two of my Ra Clicky's with Nite-Ize traffic wands made for mini-mags. This combo works great, as I already carry the two Ra's all day. It also gives me many output options from dim all the way to blinding strobe.
Click to expand...

Strauss, I might consider buying one for my usage. How well does the wand stay on the Clicky?
 
there are 2 kinds of lights asked for, right?

one that gets placed at that temp and rests there (#1)
and real traffic wands? (#2)

No sure idea to #1, but most ppl in here have told "Lithium batterys for these temps" over the years.

#2: the same as when firemen ask for lights: most any good light survives anything the HOLDER can survive with ease.
The guys waving the lights wont stay a full night in the cold, do they?
So no chance the lights can get cold enough for any chemistry to fail, just use one of the respected makers lights with traffic wands.
(Fenix, Jetbeam, Olight, Wolf Eyes, Surefire, ...)
 
m16a said:
Strauss, I might consider buying one for my usage. How well does the wand stay on the Clicky?
Click to expand...

It fits on the light very well, it will NOT fall off even if shaken decently hard. It's almost as if they were made for the Clicky's and or Twisty's ;)

Although, they almost fit TOO well. I noticed some fine scratches on my SS bezels from taking the wands off and on so much. Nothing major, if I wanted too I am sure I could remove them with a good polish job. I can only notice the fine scratches when looking at the bezel very closely, in normal use I can't even see them.

Matter of fact, it was the main reason why I ordered the 140CT instead of the EDC-T. I wanted the beefier coating incase I needed to use the wands with it, I was worried the cheaper coating would wear faster. I haven't used my 140CT at work yet, so I can't comment on the durability of the AlTiN coating....but it sure does look nice :p
 
GPB said:
You might want to consider a bike light with a seperate battery pack. That way you could keep the battery pack clipped inside your coat, with a wire running to the light head with a traffic cone or however you want to use it.
Click to expand...

This is what I would do, definitely! I remember a member a while back who wanted to use a headlamp for mushing his dogs up north, and he ended up buying and modifying a PT Apex (no Apex Pro or Extreme back then) with an external battery pack that went under his jacket. If the OP is looking for a turnkey solution in plain flashlight form, this isn't the way to go - but if they're willing to do a bit of tinkering, a 4AA, 8AA, or 4D pack under the jacket with a cord running to the tail of a standard light would be the best solution, all else being equal.
 
Thanks for all of the comments.

In fact, in the winter biking world here I do all of the tips people have suggested---use a headlamp with a remote battery pack worn under my clothing on my belt, etc.

I am still waiting to see if anybody has LED traffic wand experience in cold temperatures.

I see using flashlight traffic directing cones as a temporary, lower-cost and lower-bulk solution. Long-term, it will have to be an LED wand.

As for the mechanics of using traffic directing cones, local law says they have to be red, with a hole at the end such that the flashlight light can be used to illuminate the Stop or Slow sign at the end of the arm-swing.

The logistics of doing this are, as some of you suggested, limited by human endurance at below -30°C, however, the usual dodge is to have two identical maglites, and keep one next to your body warm, until the one in your hand freezes, then swap the traffic directing cone to the warm light and re-warm the other....we try to swap out staff as well, but this is not always possible so extremely-high quality clothing is in order, as is a re-warming post, usually a wall-tent with a wood-stove and a clothesline to dry body vapour out of parkas and overpants.

Still, LED traffic directing wands are much more effective, so I will let you know what our experience is here when they get more in as of mid-April.

enlightenment!
 
I've been using Fenix PD30 with traffic wand successfully for traffic control for some time now. It hasn't been as cold as -30 degrees celcius, but been used in at least 26. No problems with it at all.
 
sprocket said:
I've been using Fenix PD30 with traffic wand successfully for traffic control for some time now. It hasn't been as cold as -30 degrees celcius, but been used in at least 26. No problems with it at all.
Click to expand...

It's supposed to be -26 off course. We rarely get +26 here...
 
Strauss said:
It fits on the light very well, it will NOT fall off even if shaken decently hard. It's almost as if they were made for the Clicky's and or Twisty's ;)

Although, they almost fit TOO well. I noticed some fine scratches on my SS bezels from taking the wands off and on so much. Nothing major, if I wanted too I am sure I could remove them with a good polish job. I can only notice the fine scratches when looking at the bezel very closely, in normal use I can't even see them.

Matter of fact, it was the main reason why I ordered the 140CT instead of the EDC-T. I wanted the beefier coating incase I needed to use the wands with it, I was worried the cheaper coating would wear faster. I haven't used my 140CT at work yet, so I can't comment on the durability of the AlTiN coating....but it sure does look nice :p
Click to expand...

Ok cool. I am seriously considering getting one of these then! :thumbsup:
 
All:

After all your tips, and some musing here about costs, and the size of kit, smaller being better, I have decided to go the Night-Ize orange traffic directing cone route, with a pair of re-lamped Maglite 2xAA lights with the Terralux TLE Microstar-1 or Mini-star 2 drop-in LED units.

The size and cost of a pair of LED traffic wands is a bit daunting, as those usable at -30°C are $65Can. each. Even transporting them around is a bit of an issue. I have also heard that the film shoot we were expecting will be a summer shoot, low budget, so hard to justify LED wands.

Based on some of your comments here I will also keep my eyes peeled for a scroungeable traffic direction cone I can fit onto the LED light head of a Nite Hawk bike light I already have. This has a remote-corded battery pack that can more easily be kept warm inside your parka with the cord to the light head running down inside the sleeve to the wrist-mitten interface, much better than the 2 cells exposed to the cold in an LED wand.

I am guessing I can probably find a mangled traffic control cone to cut up for the cause, but I am open to better suggestions!
 
Since the biggest issue will be battery chemistry (assuming you really hit temps that low for extended times) use energizer lithium AA's in any AA light you don't have a remote pack for. Put a small dab of silicone grease on any easy to locate switching or contact points (battery ends, tailcap, ) to prevent condensation from forming when they move between indoors and outdoors.
 
Thanks for your tips.

The German site is interesting, but, alas, requires a E500 minimum order. Sigh.

I have not yet had internal condensation problems with Maglites, and yes, we routinely see weeks of -30°C weather, the O-rings seem to keep body vapour out.

Holding a metal object is a no-no in cold weather, so I would likely gaffer-tape (theatrical duct tape) foam pipe insulation to the body of the Maglite, pre-exposure.

We do have 'CMHC tape' construction sheathing tape which is still sticky at -10C, but it is best to tape stuff in a warm work zone...

Better still is to improvise a traffic cone for my Nitehawk bikelight which has a separate battery pack with coiled cord....
 
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