Aloha,
I'm a police officer with the Honolulu Police Dept. and also a proud
owner of a 2000 Nissan Xterra 4x4 XE silver ice. Here in Honolulu,
senior officers are allowed to use their personal vehicles for
police duty. We receive a monthly subsidy, free gas, and insurance.
Because the Xterra is one of the vehicles on the "approved vehicle"
list I get to drive my X all the time. And no, I do not transport
prisoners in my X. We call for a marked vehicle for that duty. The
only indication that my X is a police vehicle is a blue Whelen
mini-edge lightbar mounted to the roof rack and the uniformed
officer behind the wheel. When off-duty, I simply remove the
lightbar.
The department installed a radio, siren and removable roof light. I
supplemented that with two pairs of hide-away strobes in the front
and another two pairs in the rear. I installed a pair of clear
hide-aways in the headlights and replaced the bulbs in the foglights
with another pair of hide-aways (since there is no fog in Honolulu).
I have the front strobes connected to a 4 outlet 80w Nova power
pack. I installed one pair of hide-aways in the brake light housing
and another pair of strobes in bogus auxiliary backup light housings
near the trailer hitch. The rear strobes are connected to a 4 outlet
90w Nova power pack. Both power packs are located under the front
passenger seat. The switches to activate my Mini-edge, front and
rear strobes, and siren are located where my cupholders used to be.
I modified my center console to accommodate the Motorola radio head,
switch box and a bank of three 12v power outlets which are
constantly hot. I also have a Whelen PA/airhorn installed with the
control box under the driver's seat. To avoid sucking my battery dry
I installed a Optima "yellow top" battery and I try not to run my
equipment with my engine off. I did all installations myself to save $$$. Been using this setup since May 2000 with not even a blown fuse.
Please check out the pics in my briefcase.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/hpd_x Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas),
Brian