Radar Devices (Fuzz Busters)

  • Thread starter Joey D
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Joey D

Joey D

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Lakes of the North, MI
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GTP Joey
Well after having a Cobra for a couple of years I just went out and bought the top of the line radar detector, an Escort 8500 with the blue interface. The reason I bought a new one was that I was pulled over last night for doing 15 over on the freeway, my old detector didn't spot the cop. I recieved a warning, thankfully. But I thought that since I do travel so much that this would be a sound investment. The device ran me $350 bucks which is about the price of a 15 over in Michigan. So it was justified.

Does anyone else use radar and if so which one? Also does anyone know what states they are illegal in? I don't want to be stupid and end up using it where I shouldn't. I know in Canada I can't use it, and I think maybe Ohio but I'm not sure.
 
Right now I don't use a radar detector, but I think it's a good idea for me to get one...

And radar detectors are illegal in California, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Washington D.C.
 
I use a Road Angel 2.

GPS-based, giving a readout of your speed along with warnings for fixed cameras, as well as known accident blackspots and school areas (regardless of camera coverage), along with a laser/radar detector.
 
I don't use one.
However, I travel the same roads 5 days a week and the State Trooper are polite enough to "hide" in the same few places most of the time.

There is also at least one "idiot" really flying. I just let him/her get well ahead and "draw out" any Troopers.
 
Gil
I don't use one.
However, I travel the same roads 5 days a week and the State Trooper are polite enough to "hide" in the same few places most of the time.
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Same here. Though the one problem is that what they'll usually do here is camp out at the same spot for a couple days, then be gone for like six months, then suddenly come back. So, most people, myself included, get a little lax about that ("Oh, there hasn't been anybody there for a long time, so I don't have to slow down"), and suddenly "Oh ****!".

I've been hit by that sudden need to brake enough times that I've decided to go no more than 7 mph over the limit when passing by known speed traps, even if I "know" a cop isn't there.

There is also at least one "idiot" really flying. I just let him/her get well ahead and "draw out" any Troopers.
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Yup, that's what I always do. What I try to do as often as possible is to wait for a fast pack of cars to catch up to me, then I start speeding up when I'm in the middle (you don't necessarily want to be in the very back, since it's probably easier for a cop to pick off a "straggler"), then I stay up to speed with the pack, minus 1 or 2 mph, and making sure I'm at least five car-lengths behind the lead car to give me enough braking warning.

It's all a science, and quite a bit less expensive than a radar detector. :D
 
Indeed - there's a famous speed trap across from the Country Club here in Denver. The rich people who live in the unbelievably nice neighborhood across the street from the country club complained to get the limit changed from 35mph to 30mph (three lanes either direction, cement fences each side, median in the center - should be a 40 or 45 zone). Because of the low speed limit, everyone speeds, and cops just sit and pick off the last cars in each pack that goes by. It's comical to watch when you're headed the other way since you know what's about to happen yet the people coming towards you have no clue.
 
Well I got a chance to try it out on a trip to downriver Detroit. Went off a bunch of times and sure enough there was a cop about a 1/2 mile up the road. I was only doing about 80 so it was no big deal, didn't even bother taking my foot off the pedal. Michigan cops don't even bother with less then 10 over unless you are weaving around traffic pretty good.

If anyone is in the market for a fuzz buster I recommend the 8500 highly.
 
I have a Solo 2, and a V1. I've had more luck using common sense and my eyes. Maybe it's because I feel invincible with the detectors in, thus causing me to drive like a complete jackass.
 
Then again you have a faster vehicle then I do, my truck does something like 100 and it tops out. I normally cruise in the 80's though, but I can't afford to many tickets since I have a slew of them.
 
i like the V1 personally, but dont use any radar detectors.

common sense, driving a nondescript car, sharp vision, they are my radar.

on long trips when i want to do 90 plus, i do just about 10% over the limit, wait for the one dummy who is doing way more than that, give em a quarter mile lead, and then kinda follow. if you hang back long enough, and stay in the slow lane and most importantly, keep your eyes peeled, (in all directions) usually they get nailed not you. of course the eye in the sky will see that you're both doing the same speed, so if they use aircraft, good luck.

i followed this convoy of cars doing 100+, but made sure i was way way behind them. smokey bear is coming on the other side of the freeway (divided only by dirt) and i saw him before they did (people really zone out when driving!!!) and eased off the gas so it looked like they had just passed me, he did a U turn in the dirt median and three minutes later i passed the ringleader on the side of the road. apparently the other 3 people following were also using him as a hare and slowed down.

its all about staying under the radar.

even on the roads in los angeles, when i come up on CHP or cops on the freeway, i make sure to pass them, very very slowly, at below 10% over the limit. everybody else is doing exactly the speed limit, and i pass the cop, and suddenly everyone starts passing them too. can be funny to watch.
 
On a lot of my drives I'm on the road very late at night so there aren't many people around. I do follow people when I can but I like the security blanket of a radar device. Like tonight I was going to visit my buddy at Kettering University (Flint, MI about a 40 mile drive from my house). I was booking down I-69 doing about 95mph, nobody was on the road. I came over a hill and I had a cop laser me. I'm glad I had the fuzz buster since I slammed on the brakes once it went off. So it works quite well.
 
Uh I spend $350 bucks on one, its cheaper then a ticket plus the insurence hikes.
 
Somehow some way I've got an internal radar. I've only been pulled over once the past 3+ years and he wasn't fast enough on the radar to get me. I get this sick sense of "cop radar" and at least 60% of the time I'm right and there seems to be a cop within a mile of me getting that feeling. Can't explain it...but after getting 30 tickets from the ages of 19-21 I've learned to not only slow down but know when it's time to shut it down. I'll cruise at 75-80 here on our freeways (speed limits being 60mph) and usually most drivers here go as fast or faster than me so I don't worry about it. 👍
 
Cops sense is the best thing in the world, I'm starting to hone mine but I'm still young so its not perfect yet. In a couple years I'll have it down.
 
Depending on what review you read the V1 and the X50 alternate about which one is the best. The reason I bought the X50 over the V1 is that the X50 does everything except show arrows. I wasn't going to shell out another 100 bucks for arrows.
 
I am still using an older (late 90's) Escort passport 7500......
Was top of the line next to the V1 when i bought it..... funny thing: when I got it i had a 4 cylinder ranger that had a 4.10 gear in the back..lol thing barely did 85....
Now in the Stang its nice, but I use my eyes more than anything.... 1 big clue is everyone in front of you slamming on thier brakes... :)

i am due for a new one soon, maybe a V1 , maybe nothing???? who cares...lol
 
Damn, I just got pulled over for the first time the other day, going 45 in a 30. I just got a warning because the cop didn't want to be the first one to give me a ticket. I don't usually go 45 in a 30, but I didn't see any speed limit signs and I just assumed it was 40.

I blamed my sister because I was rushing to pick her up at a Coldplay concert.

It was the first time I had driven my parents' car, too. The registration is effed up - the car is a Saturn SL1, but the registration is for an Olds Cutlass Ciera. The cop didn't say anything, though.
 
It's just a couple seats and a lawnmower engine covered by a plastic shell.

It doesn't even have a CD player. I thought it was impossible to get any car made after 1992 without a CD player.
 
Klostrophobic, good to hear from you! Blazin, I've got the same detector as you do (Passport Escort 8500 X50, with the red display) and so far I have been really pleased with it. I mounted it up next to my rear-view mirror, wired it straight into my cars fuse box, and set it to the "silent" start-up mode. It's so great! You can just barely see it from the outside if you look hard, and most people riding with me don't even know I have one because it's silent. I love it and highly recommend the install! 👍
 
Dude mine pwns your I have the blue since for whatever reason red hurts my eyes really bad at night. But I think I'm going to have to install it like that because I don't like it right smack dab in the middle of my windscreen.
 
If you have an automatic garage door you have a legitamate eason to have a laser scrambling device on your car. :D

Apart from GPS, isn't there no way to detect the new digital cameras that take your average speed?

(What if you were to completely kill you speed when you saw one, wouldn't that lower you average enough?)
 
Except the cameras that take the pictures aren't in Michigan, and even if they were I have a shield over my rear license plate. It wouldn't be able to get it anyways.
 
Not at all, it's a black tinted plastic that goes over my plate, but the sun reflects off of it so you can't see it sometime.
 

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