Good evening, I had a few questions. For those of you that use a radar: is it hardwired & if so how is the power cable run to the detector. Alternatively, if you use the cigarette lighter; have you found a way to prevent it from getting in the way of you driving/shifting? Lastly, I’m looking at the R7/R8 from Uniden. If anyone has experience with these models or anything else you would recommend; I would appreciate the opinion. Thanks Eferrari34 Tim
I've got a Uniden R3 which I use in the daily driver and the 348, it just plugs into the cig lighter, I can arrange it so the cable is clear from the gear shifter, I have a friend who uses an R7 in his 355 which I have driven and i can't remember the cable getting in the way... I was going to upgrade to the R7 soon for the directional capability it has, the R3 is actually very good, but sometimes I'd like to know where the "threat" is coming from...
Thanks for the reply. I was looking at the R7/R8 & Escort 360. They all have very good reviews. There are certainly some die hard Uniden & Escort fans. The Escort apparently sets off the radar when it’s 4 miles away. The false alarm triggers take a while to learn apparently, but thanks for your input. Particularly on the power cable. If the car had an electric rear view, I would hard wire it from there. Thanks again. Eferrari34 Tim
Any of those radar detectors are excellent, the Uniden R3 has fantastic range on it, as would any of those you're looking at. False triggers results from the unit not being set up correctly. You need to find out what bands are used for radar in your country/area, you can pretty much filter out everything that will cause it to go off when it shouldn't. The Laser detection is worth using, sometimes I get a false trigger from that, but only very rarely, its definitely worth having that enabled even though they lock your speed within 300milliseconds, often they will laser you a couple of times to give you the benefit of the doubt and see if you are slowing down (at least in New Zealand the Police often do.). Here in New Zealand the local distributor set up our units so we don't have things like Adaptive cruise controls from other cars, "slow down" signs, and other things triggering it. I've thought about hard-wiring cable in, but it would still have to come from the dash somewhere so I have just stuck with the Cig lighter option...
@KevZep As far as the radar doing what it’s supposed to~ detecting radar…Is the R3’s performance similar to the R8 just minus the bells & whistles. I know they have GPS on the R8, but there is a lot of controversy about it not working as advertised. I didn’t even consider the R3 until your post, but If the R3 has true similar performance I may seriously consider it. I understand it doesn’t have arrows, but I’m not sure how important that is? I’m not saying it isn’t; I just don’t know. I had a V1 on other cars; it was good but it sounds like both Escort & Uniden eclipsed it’s capabilities. Particularly b/c you have to use your smart phone with the new V1 to access its full features. Eferrari34 Tim
Part of the reason I haven't bother upgrading is because the R3 is actually a great performer. It has the GPS, I have never had any issues with that, all the New Zealand fixed speed cameras and red light cameras are loaded so I get a warning about those. Every now and then there is an update so the new camera locations can be loaded, I also have some "User Marks" loaded where there are mobile speed camera locations, just in case. I have it displaying the speed, as you know the speedometers are not particularly accurate in our era of Ferraris, so that's a handy feature too. The R3 has excellent range, its a nice compact size too. Only thing is the arrows, but after a while you do get used to how it behaves and I can usually tell if there is a radar behind me. There are other feature the R7/8 would have, they'd be nice but to be honest I'm not sure I'd use them. It would definitely be worth considering the R3, its easy to spend way too much money...
I believe I have a post on here on wiring in a Valentine. In the spyder, it's on a mount on the visor. I run power off the center windshield light. I run a lead down to the Concealed display indicator velcro'd below the center vents. Though I do like to run with waze on. I find it a better indicator for most busy roads. Image Unavailable, Please Login
My car has a built-in K40 the owner probably put in when the car was new in 1995. It's a joke now. It falses constantly, screeches at random times even when switched off, and the volume isn't adjustable. I want it gone. But, more importantly, I've been told there is no path to upgrade it. The only option is to rip it out and reinstall a new one. I was quoted $4995 for that work, and of course you have to leave the car somewhere to do it. A standalone V1 is by far the best option. I have one for every car. BUT...for some reason my V1 won't work on my 355's 12v plug. I don't know why because other things get power off it. Some quirck of the V1. Just me or does anyone else have this issue?
Many years ago Escorts used to include a gray adapter for the cig lighter plug. It seems euro plugs and US plugs were a bit different in size. I havent seen them in years.
I think the Euro cig lighters might be slightly bigger because I use my R3 in all my cars (which are all Jappers), for the 348 I use a cig lighter adapter that splits out to two sockets and a USB socket, for some reason that fits the 348 better and the R3 plug fits the adapter better. So its a win win.
They are, a thin piece of plastic to shim it is how I usually rolled! Or whatever else I could find in the car. I was a big escort fan, then switched to the V1. I have used the V1 for the last 25 years or so.
