How to hide a radar detector?
 

Not that I would ever consider exceeding the speed limit;), but I'm thinking about getting a Valentine One. They are illegal in VA, so I would need have it as well-hidden as possible, if I were to ever "theoretically" consider using it in VA. What are the chances of my having this well-concealed and it still working to maximum effect? Anyone have photos of how to best install these in a 911 and keep them hidden? Sorry for the dumb question. Thanks.

No pic Richard, but a 356 friend of mine who also lives in that state says a hollowed out sunvisor hides his V-1 just fine. Be sure to have a quick shut off switch tho....wouldn't be cool for the officer to hear the beeping & see the lights flashing should you get pulled over. I call a wrecked-em yard, see if you can buy a sunvisor with foam already bad for cheap...play with it a bit...

Officer: "Son is that a thick sunvisor or are you just glad to see me?"

Put it in something normally found on dashes: kleenex box with strategic holes, doughnut box (no wait the cops might look in there), make "cast" that looks like a bunch of papers piled up in the front of the dash and hide it in there. Inside a "hulu girl" doll? Make a special right hand mirror and hide it in there. Wear a hat and hide it in the top. The possibilities are endless.:D Jim

Not to be a pain, but I have found if you run at any speed at all, you basically almost outrun the capabilities of even the good detectors. Plus the false alarms and such make detectors more hassle than they are worth to me. If I am going for a spirited run, I always go through the stretch first and then backtrack to make sure it is both safe and radar free. Just my 2 cents worth.

Alan Poh
'77 Carrera 3.0

i got busted for a detector (but not speeding) in va in 79 and i have not used a detector since.

Also, unless you put it in a good Faraday cage (which makes it useless) a good radar detector detector is going to find it. Cheers, Jim

I'd say not true on many counts. The V1 has proved invaluable in my friend's jaunts, including over 100 mph. In addition, the predator, or whatever the detector detector is called, couldn't find a V1 from more than 10 feet away.

An idea that I played around with was mounting the V1 in the high center-mount brake light, with appropriate wiring to a concealed display. If you don't want to wire it that much, I'd go with the sunvisor route.

I'd shy away from anything on the dash, which can be a ticket for obstructed view, and then might lead to the detector being found.

Remember though: "Speed Kills."

Jared

My VA friend reported that his system worked great, gave lots of warning. He said the VA cops, because detectors are illegal there, tend to use the older equipment that is most easily detected, giving him tons of warning time.

I said a "good" radar detector detector. I had a collegue get busted for speeding by a state policeman out on the JJanno by Vaugh, NM using the telephone poles and stopwatch method. His V1 wasn't a whole lot of help. :D Jim

Richard,

My '76 has a tinted 2.5" band at the top of the screen, and I mount the detector, high up against the roof at the top of the screen, beside the rear-view mirror. I route the power cable along the window seal and have it hard wired to the ignition, via a little switch for "emergencies". From the outside, even standing next to the car, it's invisible. From behind/beside, you can't see it because the roofline decends lower than you'd think, so you can't even see the lights.

I'll take a photo tonight and post it for you. It's nice and high and seems to have paid for itself many, many times over. I have literally stopped at the lights right next to a Police car and gotten away with it. Of course, it's pucker time, every time! :D

flush mount it into the mirror, it's the stealthest I've ever seen the V1 done and there's no way unless the driver gets in the driver's seat and looks at the mirror that he'd notice it.

later,

amir

I live in N VA and have a Valentine and it works well. I use it in my RSA when cruising or p/u truck when towing. I mount it on the windshield at the dash. When it goes off I look around to see if there's an obvious police car around and the arrows are somewhat of a help. The Valentine gives plenty of warning except for laser and you're dead with that anyway.
If the police are in front I'll pull it down off the dash and drop it in the passenger seat or somewhere. I only use the detector when I'm on the highway so that works for me. My biggest concern is radar coming from the rear at night when the detector goes off and starts flashing lights. Had one detector confiscated because of that and yes, I did get it back. I paid the fine, waited till after the court date and called the police property divison. They told me the cop had not released the detector, left several messages for the cop, phone call never returned. Call the police chief and got a return call from the cop the same day, retreived the detector the next day. ;)
Is this land great or what? :D

Maybe one of the "screen room" engineers on this site could design a jammer relay triggered by the detector. Use some old magnetron and a waveguide mounted under the front of the car near the tow hook. Not sure about getting a HV source but if you could the police would never know what happened.
Of course as they look at wavy white lines you go by at 95! So they might run you down anyway!

some great advice has been offered.. Valentine will custom make anything you want.. you should have rear detection also.. Calif HP has been using it.. never be the point man.. follow bear bait.. the higher it's mounted the better.. if big rigs are doing the exact limit there's a reason.. you may be able to pick up laser scatter if you're directly behind the bait.. stay back 1/8-1/4 mile.. SUVs in the left lane at limit + are the best bait, IMO.. If you feel you have to be in front of the pack, forget about any detector.. there's always someone with an ego problem when they see a 911 on the road, wait it out.. and for big audio crusing you can wire the V-1 into a mono amp/speaker, that's another story.. and to avoid false triggers you can customize the V-1 settings.. I like the idea of a custom rear view mirror, with most of V-1 hidden under dash, and a custom LED bar and arrow in sight, w/ an emergency off sw close by... nothing is 100%, but give it your best shot.. it makes driving more relaxed

I currently have a K40 in mine. The brains are mounted on the glove box roof which houses the lights and city hwy settings. On either side of my Tach are two red lights very tiny (just bigger than a ballpoint pen and when not blinking red are virtually unnoticeable. I relocated the speaker (and upgraded to a louder sounding one) so that it is below the oil and gas gauges. Just a black nickle sized piece of plastic. Non-Porsche wouldnt notice. Next to the ignition is a toggle switch that turns the system on and off. Lights up green when on, no lights when off. Again, if you do not know the car, you do not notice it. The sensor is mounted in the front bumper. I did not have it installed or I would have mounted it behind the black grill on the hood.

The system works great and I am going to add the laser option which mounts as a license plate frame on the front license plate (black plate with Porsche crest and the frame is black).

I would love to get a V1 but they do not offer a remote installation. Something about it being less effective. I cannot see why its any less effective if they can still mount the sensor and all the hardware under dash or in the glove box etc.

I thought I read about a company that would redo your rear view mirror and the back side of the mirror was the sensor for the V-1 and the readout appeared on the mirror glass itself. My guess is that I found the link to that from Pelican or Rennlist.

Just my .02.

Look at my links one has some pictures of it.

Here's my Valentine setup (from a much earlier post). You can't see it from outside the car, or even casually leaning in.

Also see http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=88825&highlight=remote+ V1

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads/P90611322.JPG

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads/P90611352.jpg

Mine is mounted sortof like Chris's. It is hard to see from the outside unless the sunroof is open.

I mount mine like Chris' too, just above the mirror with a long tag line running around the window trim. It's works great there. Be sure your detector has the "shadow" technology - so the nice police officers don't detect your detector.

Question, I once had a bad experience hard wiring my cell phone charger that pluged into the cig lighter. Turned out there was more than just the 12V in that plug? I've got the Vector detector that plugs into the cig lighter, Can you hard wire this and get rid of that plug into the cig lighter without hurting the detector?

It would be nice not having to bring that wire out to plug into the cig lighter. Anyone know for sure?

Amir: Can you get photos of that detector let into the mirror, that sounded pretty cool to me.

My last radar detector experience in VA: On my way back to Va Tech on 460 in Appomatox... radar detector on and well hidden, me doing the speed limit (no, really)... blue lights... Me: "Is there a problem, officer? I wasn't speeding" Him: "I don't know know how fast you were going. Let me see your radar detector. Here's your summons. Have a nice day." He never hit me with radar, so I never know he was there (and didn't have a chance to turn off the detector) until the lights went on.

I thik Streit's and the hollowed out sunvisor idea are both too high for the V-1. I called Valentine who told me that Mike V. has and likes 911s, but that the low rear roofline means you have to put the V-1 about where the mirror is -- not above. Else it will cut off the rear view factor -- Believe me you want all the rear detetection you can get.

It would be great if someone would mount the V-1 itself in a mirror housing and sell those assemblies. There is a place that will mount the remote display in the mirror but that isn't much help. The rear brakelight mount would be a good choice on the newer P-cars.

I'v eoften thought of expanding the seat belt light display vertically and putting the remote display there.

I hang it from the visor w/ the stock clip and read rear hits.. probably not the best position, but definately doable/confirmed

Randy,

THrough numerous tests in cooperation with local law enforcement, I've notived about a 20% reduction in range on the rear detector. However this has little or no impact on performance... Here's why.

When you are approaching a radar gun, you're time to closure is much higher. One mile away gives you about 60 seconds before closure, and proably 30-40 before they can see you. REAR radar is closing at much less of a rate, and a 20% or even 50% reduction still gives you comparable time to react. Having the detector much less visible is more of a help.

I've had enough officers give my interior the once over looking for the device, either standing next to the car and looking in, or driving next to me and peering in. They are a LOT less leniant if they see one. No problems with rear detection and I have lots of independant tests to back that up. :D

jazzbass, what brand and model detector?

I have not noticed any problems with my detector in the high position. It works fine

So are the cops in VA carrying a device that detects a radar detector???

K40 and Escort both have some (high priced) hidden models, but the V-1 seems to be the model of choice. I am hoping they come out with a permanent hidden installation model.

Wish I could find that web site with the V-1 installed in the rearview mirror, that seems to be the best hidden device, just so long you can turn off the display thats in the mirror.

Wow! I'm impressed by the reponses here. I have heard that VA carries radar detector detectors. But who knows? Obviously, if a smokie gets you at night from hiding behind a billboard and then sees your brakes come on, he's gonna know you're running a detector, whether it's hidden or not. My insurance company does not recognize tickets for having a detector or for HOV violations. So I don't care about that too much. However, I don't want to incur a trooper's wrath for getting caught with a detector, which is why I want one that will keep the troopers away from me.

Here are two sites with the remote display integrated into the rear view mirror. I believe the second link is the guy that I heard was doing it first. You still have to find a stealthy place to put the main V1 unit, though...

http://www.ecisbmw.com/product_files/accessories/V1%20Display.htm

http://www.apexcone.com/Radar/RadarLove.html

The PO of my car had a dectector/jammer installed in the car - Ill be damed if I can find the sensor... I dunno where its hidden.

V1 and other high end detectors are undetectable by detector detectors. (EIEIO).

The V1s are detectable when you get pulled over and the cop sees it as your friend pulls the registration (and V1) out of your glove box. Ask me how I know...

Fought it in court and had it thrown out. The speeding ticket is another story. :(

Jpinkert - thats the one I was thinking about! Thanks for finding the link!

Richard--

How about in the grill near the radiator?

Seriously, one method VA troopers use is to repeatedly flash a suspected detector user with conventional radar. If the brake lights repeatedly come on in response, they pull the guy over and look for the unit. Unfortunately, the courts pretty much always find that the repeated braking establishes probable cause for the stop and the search for the unit, even if no independent traffic infraction is observed. So if you've got a detector, it better be pretty well hidden.

Usually if I get painted by radar and there is not some one on my rear bumper I yank the hand brake. Slows the car down pretty quickly with out the front of the car diving and with out the brake lights coming on.

When in VA running radar I always use the hand brake to slow down. Odd incident one time in VA

Just crossed over the border NC/VA on 77 and I decided to pull my detector off the window (thought I would be a good boy that day) As I started to pass the weigh station / Welcome Center I was speeding and my radio start making some loud poping noises. This startled me and I slowed down. Rounded the corner and there sat a trooper.

Don't know what caused the popping noise on the radio but it saved me a ticket

It probably wasn't radar, but rather his voice radio system or two-ways. Motorola devices can cause that sound. My Nextel cell-phones give radios in my cars nuts. The crackling and popping is enough sometimes to make you just turn off your phone altogether.

Keith:mad:

Gentlemen, Yon can put the radar detector brains in the back swing arm and the horn or antenna in your girlfriend's brassiere and the police are still going to find your system. It doesn't matter what you do in the optical spectrum. To work, detectors have to have an "opening" to let the RF in and this same opening lets radiation from the detector out. There is no way around this. The technology readily exists to find your detector (even a V1) if it's on. Cheers, Jim

Richard
 

If you're coming up to DSI on April 6th, we can show you some new laser jamming devices. We've tested them and they work. We also have the complete line of Bel detectors.

If you want we can also talk about how to mount your valentine display in the rearview mirror.