federal 175.

John ED Renstrom

PCS Member
Super Site Supporter
I was not aware that the 175 light has provision for running just red or red and white lights. makes sense to be able to shut off the white ones in bad weather. a nice feature.
 
One of our old Pontiacs had a pull switch on the panel,along side the rocker switches it was for the rotor and had 2 positions,all the way out for all lights,and half way out for just the reds,great for driving in a heavy fog.
 
If memory serves me correctly, you could also wire/switch them in such a way as to stop rotation and use the downward light as a "ditch light". I'd have to do a little research to verify that though.
 
Sireno beacon

The light that came with my Pirsch (fire truck) I believe was a Sireno. The pull switch had to indents light parking and head lights. Never saw a Federal product with such.
 
I remember using Federal 175's and 176's on fire apparatus with a push pull headlight style switch, first pull turned on motor and reds, second position added the whites. Our policy was to turn the whites off at night when parked. We also had one truck with a Yankee beacon wired the same way. One prank was to put it in the red only position and tell the new guy in the jump seat to smack the beacon to get the white bulbs to work. That truck was an open cab with a canvas roof over the driver and officer with the jumps exposed.

Jerry J's Superior combination coach has a 175 wired from the factory with a multi position rocker style switch.
 
the pull switch would work or a double throw rocker also. I would imagine that the 176 was set up the same way with out the til. just for those of you that are curious how it works here is the pictures I did resize yesterday. the reds are off the standard slip ring and the white the added one. one could if they wanted to swap the power wire for the motor but why. it's a nice light now what to put it on?

only federal would hid the warning label to were you need to turn the bulbs to read it. I also have not see one with all the factory set up on it
the toggle bolts and rubber isolators with the ground strap.
 

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the pull switch would work or a double throw rocker also. I would imagine that the 176 was set up the same way with out the til. just for those of you that are curious how it works here is the pictures I did resize yesterday. the reds are off the standard slip ring and the white the added one. one could if they wanted to swap the power wire for the motor but why. it's a nice light now what to put it on?

only federal would hid the warning label to were you need to turn the bulbs to read it. I also have not see one with all the factory set up on it
the toggle bolts and rubber isolators with the ground strap.

That one is set up with the Federal factory supplied toggle bolts,rubber grommets for around the mounting bolts, and grounding strap if needed. Question is....how the hell did somebody get it off whatever it was mounted on without making a mess. Those toggle bolts do not like to come out once installed!!!!

When mounting that light you drilled a holes(s) for the toggles, inserted them, then put the grommets down against the roof (with a washer on the top of it) and ran a nut down to "flare" them out (to prevent leaks). A second nut was left higher up on the toggle to mount the light base against and to properly adjust height and "angle/profile". The last nut was run down against the top of the light base to secure the installation. Actually much more simple than I made it sound.
 
... Question is....how the hell did somebody get it off whatever it was mounted on without making a mess. Those toggle bolts do not like to come out once installed!!!!...
They aren't designed to come off! They are designed to stay in place. And they likely will. And since Federal beacon rays are pretty durable and rarely break (without "external" help), there wouldn't be much need to remove/replace a beacon while a vehicle was in service.
 
They aren't designed to come off! They are designed to stay in place. And they likely will. And since Federal beacon rays are pretty durable and rarely break (without "external" help), there wouldn't be much need to remove/replace a beacon while a vehicle was in service.

That's what I'm sayin', they were not designed to be removed. If need be, you removed the guts of an old/broken light from the mount and slid a new one in place. Yes, I have experience in these matters!! One of my guys tried to back my Pontiac high-top into an 8' garage door. It didn't hurt the roof, the light is quite a different story!!!

The light Ed pictured appears to be a used light, that looks like it had, indeed, been mounted on a vehicle. Hence my question.......how did they remove it without making a mess of something? Since the light appears undamaged, we must think the mess is in/on the vehicle. I'm very curious.
 
I'm guessing from the add I got it from it was off a fire truck. the remnants of the cardboard headliner are on two the the toggles. it was one of those bid on things for the heck of it then I got it for the opening bid. strange had a whole lot of guys bidding high on a 176.

most of the light you get don't have any bolts or maybe one toggle left. but this was the whole miglia. it had one 50 watt flood and one fog bulb in it for white and the two reds look to be coated ones. but they swapped out OK.

now one more question for those of you that run them. the down tilt and the reds have the notch for bulb position so that the patter is vertical. but the up tilted one will only go in horizontal. if you put it vertical with the tilt it will ground out on the shaft. do you remember what patter your lights were in?
 
I'm guessing from the add I got it from it was off a fire truck. the remnants of the cardboard headliner are on two the the toggles. it was one of those bid on things for the heck of it then I got it for the opening bid. strange had a whole lot of guys bidding high on a 176.

most of the light you get don't have any bolts or maybe one toggle left. but this was the whole miglia. it had one 50 watt flood and one fog bulb in it for white and the two reds look to be coated ones. but they swapped out OK.

now one more question for those of you that run them. the down tilt and the reds have the notch for bulb position so that the patter is vertical. but the up tilted one will only go in horizontal. if you put it vertical with the tilt it will ground out on the shaft. do you remember what patter your lights were in?

Ed, you have to "follow" the notches. Many, many years ago I had a Federal guy explain to me why they were set up that way, but I'll be damned if I can remember why. I will promise to "ponder" on it, see if I can shake it loose in my old memory.
 
thanks Jack for the instructions. a nice addition to that file. the lights are fairly simple to get into and make repairs to but the one bulb out of the pattern intrigued me.
 
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