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Installer Institute

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Text and Photos by Jason Anderson

TickeTs suck

ost of us have a lot of experiences with good old Johnny Law and speeding tickets. There are only a handful of people that I personally know that can cry, beg and lie their way out of almost any type of ticket, including speeding tickets. Unfortunately for me,

even though I try, I am not one of those people. So after my last ticket – for a cool $220 – I decided to invest in a solution that might not stop all my tickets but could help eliminate a large portion of them. After doing a little research on Florida laws and looking into a few different products, I decided to install a laser-jamming system onto my 2007 Nissan Frontier. I was looking for something that would not hang from my windshield or go crazy when I drive by a store or shopping mall, so I purchased a stealthy hide-away unit that would integrate well into the vehicle.

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1. One of the first things anyone should do is read the instructions before beginning any type of installation. This will help insure that you do not do double the work.

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2-5 After reviewing the instructions and opening the box to see what’s involved in installing the product, it was decided to install the laser jammer on the lower half of the front bumper. Once a location was found, the front grill was removed to open up the front bumper area to make working a little easier.

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6-7. When installing the jammers, you need to make sure that the sensors are wide apart and pointing straight forward, as this will help ensure the laser from the gun will not squeeze into an unprotected area. The laser jammer works by putting up an invisible wall that the laser bounces off, not allowing Johnny Law to get a speed reading until you want them to. It is recommended that you have an On / Off switch installed on the power line of the unit so when you are getting clocked and the jammer is on and working, you can slow down to the correct speed and switch it off, allowing the officer to see that you are going the speed limit.

Creating a mount for the units turned out to be pretty easy. It required a small piece of ABS plastic that slid between the bumper and plastic body panel. It was mounted using factory body panel mounts and held into place with a few drops of quick-dry silicone.

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Installer Institute

Tech Talk

8. Like I mentioned earlier, the jammers must be pointing straight ahead and level with the road. To do this, the manufacturer provided two level capsules that could be inserted into each side of the unit. Make sure that you leave the capsules in while you tighten the bolts that hold the unit in place.

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9. Now it is time to get the wires into the cab of the truck. I like to make all my wires run with factory wire loom, and I make sure that I zip-tie the wire every 6 to 8 inches. Getting the wire into the vehicle can be problematic at times, but I used a tool called a Wire Insertion tool. It looks like a hollow screwdriver and it’s used for poking through a rubber grommet. Because the tool is hollow, you can send a wire directly through into the cab of the vehicle. Once inside, you can pull the tool out, and the rubber grommet will close around the wire, creating a watertight seal.

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10-10a. With the wires inside the cab, it was now time to find a place to mount the Piezo tweeter and LED. These pieces are used as indicators: one audible and the other visual. When finding a mounting location for these pieces, I was looking for some place out of the way but still visible. The loca-tion that I chose was the underside of the instrument cluster hood. I started by removing the hood and cluster to see what was available for space. When it all checked out, I began to mount the LED.

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11-11a. When finding the center of a fragile piece of vehicle plastic, it is always a good idea to use tape. This will give you an area to mark your center lines without damaging the plastic panel. Once the center was found, I used a drill bit on slow speed and made a hole for the LED. Super glue was used to hold the LED in place, then the activator was applied to dry it within seconds.

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12-12a. For the siren mount, I decided to mount it next to the LED on the inside of the hood. Because the wires were attached to each other and of the same length, it just made sense. Once the super glue and activator dried, I mounted the brain behind the cluster and buttoned everything up.

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The Source: Installer Institute 1524 Ridgewood Ave. Holly Hill, FL 32117(800) 354-6782 www.installerinstitute.com

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13-13a. Now, the only thing left to do is to try it out, and I had a few options for testing. The first but probably not the best idea is to find the closest free-way and start speeding, looking for a Highway Patrol officer. The other two, much better options, include using a standard remote control standing about two feet away and pushing any button, or purchasing a small laser gun (about $50) that can be found on the manufacturer’s web-site.

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