High Visibility Paint

[adrenaline503]

So I am going to paint my Wildernest in the next few days and that brings me to my question. Has anyone painted high-vis panels on the top of their vehicles? I am going to paint the 'Nest a charcoal color, the same color as Nissan 4x4 wheels on my truck. I was considering painting a blaze orange stripe on the top for aerial visibility. Some rescue vehicles do it, so I assume that some in the SAR community buy into it. Opinions?

 

[IllianaXJ]

When I was active in SAR we had a 24x24 panel of high-viz orange paint on the top of the van for aerial visibility. Not a bad idea for recreational vehicles to do as well.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Or for a lot less money you could just get a VS-17 panel and keep it in the truck. That's what I do. If you need it, you can tie it on, but otherwise it stays inside the truck where it won't fade from constant exposure to the sun.

http://cgi.ebay.com/US-Army-Signal-Panel-Type-VS-17_W0QQitemZ180136255166QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/EMERGENCY-SIGNA...VS-17-GVX_W0QQitemZ300173025714QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Mobryan]

for $12, I'll buy some spraypaint and touch it up now and then.
We do a lot of hiking/exploring away from the vehicle, if I can't get back to it, the stowed panel does no good.

Rather have a permenent mount solution, IMO

Matt

 

[madizell]

We do a lot of hiking/exploring away from the vehicle, if I can't get back to it, the stowed panel does no good.

If you hike, get lost and in trouble, and can't get back to your vehicle, finding the vehicle won't do you much good, either. Seems to me you would need the florescent panel with you, not on the roof of your truck.

Having done aerial search and rescue for many years back in the 80's, I find that cars and trucks are quite easy to spot from the air, and don't really need stand-out markers to be found. People on foot are another story. Even from 600 feet up, a pedestrian is almost invisible. What we found hardest to spot from the air was a wrecked airplane, mostly because they ended up in a shape that was not readily recognized as such. Unless you plan to roll your truck into a ball of junk, I don't really see a benefit to putting an orange panel on the roof. At best it would help a search team differentiate between your truck and someone else's, and then only from the air.

 

[ntsqd]

MISF painted his Scout in Desert Storm era desert camo. Went to the trouble of finding the correct paint codes and had the paint mixed in a DuPont product and then studied the way the colors were used & matched it.

When done I asked him how he was going to be found when/if he needed to be. Now the underside of his semi-easily removed hood is Pontiac Hugger Orange.

 

[jayshapiro]

High Viz Tarp

Just ordered one of those High-Viz tarps from the eBay link. Thanks.

Pretty small and easy to pack. makes some sense.

Cheers,
Jay.