Question for the S&S experts

Bruce Biancalana

Bruce Biancalana

PCS Life Member
Did S&S offer an an option to make the astra light flash on the S&S Professional Hi Boy ambulance?

pictured is an Astra lit at night
1973fortwright002.jpg


a link to the Astra lit with the lights avtivated. Click on the picture below
 
I agree with Steve. I think the intended purpose of the Astra was for identification (of the owner) rather than a traffic clearing device.

The '76 S&S Professional I once owned had a metal bar behind the Astra Shield, which held about a dozen light bulbs to illuminate the shield. There was a corresponding switch on the control panel in the cab marked "ASTRA."
 
I've never quite understood the Astra panel. I think it was just meant to be a steady red lighted panel to the front (Hmm, would that have met the CA steady-burn red requirement?) and/or a fancy front lighted sign. I think your second picture, Bruce, says it best - there were a lot brighter lights on an S&S ambulance that would have washed out the Astra panel.

I'm with Steve that, probably, someone somewhere made it flash just to make it flash, and may even have ordered it from the factory that way. But from the ads and such, I don't think it was intended to be a warning light. I'm not one who has seen a ton of S&S ambulances, but the ones I have seen, it didn't flash.
 
A little too much CA Steady RED!

Bruce: When we had it out here in CA we would (occasionally) turn it on at night, but like in the 1st night photo... it is a LOT OF RED LIGHT and very bright (on it's own) even without the CJ-184's on! It originally had "FT. WRIGHT LIFE SQUAD" in a slight arch with white lettering in that area. You might still be able to see a faint outline of the original lettering? MM
 
I took the car to a local cruise night/show and won best of show. The car drew a large crowd. On the way home I turned the Astra on but people were pulling over, so I turned it off. when I got home I turned it on to see what it looked like illuminated at night. I then realized how bright it actually was. That is when I saw that there were multiple individual big light bulbs. That was when I started to wonder if S&S had ever set those up to flash either simultaneously or sequentially.
 
Same problem!

Bruce: I experienced the same "problem" turning the ASTRA on briefly once when I was driving it for the first time bring it back to CA from the PCS Convention in Minneapolis. I thought it would be just be a (pale) low intensity light just to light up the sign like Superior's Ambulance Owner ID Lights...... IT WASN'T! after cars pulled off on the shoulder! Obviolusly if it was being used while in-service it would be fine, because if the twin CJ-184's are on + the 888 the intensity of the astra a kind of blends in as witnessed by your night pictures of it "lite up"! (*) It's pretty "decibel heavy" in the noise department too with the twin CJ-184's Electronic Siren(s) wailing + the Super-Chief. MM
 
S&S Professional Ambulance / 'ASTRA' Lights

Bruce Biancalana said:
(Re: the 'ASTRA' light)... I realized how bright it actually was. That is when I saw that there were multiple individual big light bulbs.
Click to expand...

Enjoy and appreciate the nice, bright glow of that 'ASTRA' panel, Bruce. I still recall (not so fondly) the hours I spent replacing/rewiring several of those "multiple individual big light bulbs" - and the bayonet socket bases that hold them - during the time I owned the ambulance.

In the end, though, the effort was worth the result!
 
S&S Professional Ambulance / 'ASTRA' Lights

The company I worked for had two S&S, a 72 and it was replaced with a 76. Both had the Astra lights and the owners told us not to use them. There was no reason. tehy did not want us to use them. We did turn them on to see how bright they were and they did not flash.
 
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