[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Radar Detector recommendations (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 3/9/2007 11:02:27 AM EDT
| What radar detector do you recommend as I'm going to purchase one this week-end. I know the best thing to do is to slow down but I'm going to purchase one so what is the best! |
I think you have to order the valentine off their website. They may have dealers but i don't know offhand. www.valentine1.com/ |
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Definite +1 www.valentine1.com/ Mine is about 8 years old. I am thinking about sending it in for the upgrade. |
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I have used the Rocky Mountian Scrambler for 5 years, 2 different ones, and never had a ticket. They will even PAY your ticket if you get on in the 1st year. I travel a lot teaching electronics and it is fun watching the locals readjusting their units as I go by becase it is not reading correctly. Handles all bands and laser. really good unit. One thing I really like is because it is a scambler, it does not have to be as senstive as just a detector, so when it goes off, something is almost always there. Rocky Mountain Radar |
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I've owned and used a ton of 'em... Whistler, Passport, Bel... compared to the V1, they all suck! There is a reason the thing cost $400, and you really do get what you paid for. In one year it nearly paid for itself as I slowed for speed traps time & again. And it's probably saved me about $1500 over the course of 6 years (not to mention court & license point trouble), and still works better than my g/f's brand new Whistler. She constantly bitches that hers sucks and wants mine. Yes, I have gotten tickets in the past 6 years, it's not full proof. In the cases of laser your chances of avoiding are next to nothing, and instant-on your chances are lowered some. HOWEVER, I have never been caught by laser, and I travel all over, about 40K miles/year around the south. It's just not often used by cops. Too expensive and too much hassle for them due to the precision required. In the cases of instant-on radar is the ONLY cases I have ever been caught speeding, and even then in 70% of those times with the V1 I am able to decipher it well enough ahead. You can tell by the way it beeps and patterns that they are getting people with instant-on ahead of you, and slow down in plenty of time to avoid it. The only cases where I have ever been caught since the V1, are those with cops using instant-on and no one else is on the road, so there was no chance at warning or... ... the one time I hit the speed trap with my windows down and radio blaring and I never heard the V1 going off. 
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This will anger the Valentine lovers, but I vote for the Passport 8500 X50. Cross-country drive through numerous states at a fast clip, it never let me down. Sometimes it would give ridiculously long warnings of a mile or more on flat terrain. The Valentine has those huge directional arrows, which are pretty cool, but I like the Passport's display that shows 4-6 different signals at once (along with their strength). If the strength of one is diminishing as you drive and another is increasing, it doesn't take much brainpower to figure out there's probably still a radar ahead of you. At the time I was researching, IIRC that it had edged out the then-current V1. If you look into the V1, X50 and the Bel (which is very similar to the Passport), you'll probably do OK. ETA: cops here use the laser aggressively - a danger to any speeder, since you're usually hosed by the time any detector goes off. I try to use "see & avoid" along w/ knowing likely speed traps. The 8500 still does catch the occasional scattered laser from nearby cars & give me a warning. |
ORLY? There's no question the Valentine's a great detector, but: What about this pesky test? Another, unless it's the same test... Radar Roy ...for what it's worth... And you can get the Passport with a blue LED display. 
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| Bel RX65. Very sensitive. Nothing protects you against laser, unless there is traffic ahead that is being scanned and you catch some reflection. It is instant on, too. If you are the only one in the scan area, it's too late when the alarm goes off. Laser is mostly urban areas, like where I live, Houston. |
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Uh, have you guys been to the ESCORT site lately...they have a new one, and I am getting it. My 8500 has been wigging out AND I borrowed my BIL's V1 to test. I still like the Escort. Now with cool GPS stuff...Check it out!!! But no cool Blue display.  No affiliation with Cincinnati Microwave or it's subsidaries... ByteTheBullet (-: |
Absolutely 100% necessary for interstate driving. Not only for the reports on cops either. |
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I went on a ridealong a while back. Guys with radar detectors would be hosed. He left the radar off, then, when a car is oncoming, just switched it on long enough to get a reading. Yes, it could read relative speed and calculate the difference. Might as well be laser. Although this technique really only works when traffic is light, but if you'r ethe only guy there, and the cop is doing this. You're fucked anyway. |
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Another happy V1 owner here. There might be other detectors out there are more sensative or give less false alarms but the visible radar threat counter and directional arrows provide a ton more information then any other detector. For example, let's take my drive to work this morning as an example. You are driving on the interstate and hear a weak beep, beep, beep on KA band then it stops. With every other detector this is all the information you have so please explain what is going on. You can't. You don't know if there is a cop in front of you coming towards you, a cop in front of you going the same direction, or a cop behind you. With the Valentine 1 the arrow showed me the cop was behind me. Since it was a weak signal I was immediately able to check my review and saw the cop about 1/2 mile behind me. Since I was cresting a small hill both a cop in front or a cop behind me was a possibility. Being able to quickly determine where the cop is allows you to take additional action that you just can't do with other detectors. I knew the cop was behind me, I had 1/2 a mile of distance on him, and I just disappeared over the hill...so I increased my speed a little to put even more distance between me and the cop. Every time I or the cop would crest the hill I would get another set of beeps, again I was immediately able to determine what was going on. Without the arrows the beeps could easily be a cop hiding over crest of the hill. So sure the V1 might false a little more and might be the #2 sensative detector but the other features let you know exactly what is going on and that actually reduces the annoyances. |
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My next one is a Bel STI Driver. Beats the V1 in pretty much all the specs. My 90's era K40 saved my butt for a solid decade, so I think it deserves an honorable mention. Not the latest and greatest but a damn workhorse. I'd still be using it if my dad hadn't given it a bath (long story). |
that one kicks ass! |
| I was going to post my biggest complaint about the V1's, but that's been fixed. They're not very reliable, and everyone I know with one has sent theirs back for repair at least once. I just noticed that they've reduced their basic repair cost to $45. The last bill for a repair I saw was over $200 so they're better in that regard now.z |
For example, many schools in this area put out a huge amount of RFI garbage that blank out AM radio and set-off radar detectors. If you have a normal radar detector it will detect schools and when there's a cop running radar you won't take the alert seriously since your detector always goes off. While driving my great-nephew's Corvette I often notice the side alert with an additional alert to the front. The number on the display will also read 2. That way I know that there is a school to the side and a cop to the front. I don't speed and have never even been stopped for speeding, but even I appreciate the warning the V1 gives so I can double-check my speed and accurately ignore false alarms. I really like the counter because it's amusing to see just how many cops are running radar in the same areas. At the intersection of I-385 and I-85 in Greenville, SC and on US-29 in Spartanburg, SC it isn't that uncommon to see a four or larger on the display.z |
Yes, and as far as I know the radar reads the cop's speed by the radar reflection of stationary objects and calculates the difference between them and you. |
| I use the new Passport 9500. It's the same as the 8500, but it locks out the same false signals you drive by each day, and has SMS. In Northern Cal almost all the police use the Ka and POP. The 9500, and the 8500 pick it up from FAR away. The 9500 will tell you how fast you are going when it first alerts you. I haven't gotten a ticket using either. The 9500 is very pricey. I'd settle for the 8500, but false signal become annoying. Both units can get software updates as well. |
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i went through this a few years ago and ended up buying a v1. i am skeptical of the radar jammers as thats a sorta illegal on a federal level type thing. anyone every look at these guys? www.lidatek.com/ |
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cheating on taxes, insurance fraud, underage sex, social security numbers for the dogs, radar detectors....let's play Sesame Street -which one doesn't belong? Answer they all are in the same group - they are used to circuvent or flat-out break the law. I guess I'm busting in on this thread, but it seems the gurus of technology have already declared the winner in the category of which is best, so help me understand something. Why would you knowingly and aggressively do something to violate laws? There is usually a reason a speed limit is in place. Sure, I speed at times, but I know that if stopped I am in trouble. That is a chance we take, and oftentimes it is purely negligence on my part, not payimg attention. There is also a safety issue involved - for you and the other drivers on the road. Speed Kills. Now my take is that in some areas, speed limits should be eliminated. I also feel that there should be no limitation on buying brand new manufactured Class 3 weapons either, everyone should be able to by newly manufactured ones. But since the laws say otherwise I will abide by them. I guess I just don't understand why speed limits are given such disrepect. If your family member is ever involved in a catastrophic motor vehicle accident where the other driver causing the wreck was exceeding the posted limit and was using a radar detector -would your thought process be altered? I'm no saint, please don't infer that; I just don't get the concept. There is no rational explanation to purchasing one of these devices except to use it to 'break speed laws'. I don't necessarily think they should be legislated illegal, I think people should have the privilege of owning them - I 'd just like to have someone explain to me why they think they should be able to break a law, and more importantly, what moral concerns do you have in doing so (if any)? Okay law breakers - flame away
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From what I can tell, the GPS one is simply a re-badged Garmin, and has no fuzz busting abilities whatsoever... |
Like I said, if you travel across RD banned areas the Sti is the only one that is invisible right now. |