Not neccesarily true, on the line of sight comment, but as stated you can pick up cops in distant locations or behind concealment. Your picking up the the signal sent by the radar not the radar gun itself so if two beam patterns are aimed in the same direction like down intersecting streets, you will pick up a cop that could be a couple city blocks around the corner of a building. This is the real reason a radar detector will "work good". If you are picking up the signal targeting your car, it's too late.

With the way that radar operators, at least in Florida, are trained now you won't have any hope of detecting them no matter what you have unless they are gunning a car other than yours. Radar operators don't sit on a roadside with the gun on just waiting for a high number, contrary to popular belief. They will flick it on for a split second when they can single your car from others if the situation permits.

Use camoflauge FTW. If you are close to a larger vehicle (e.g. 18-wheeler, lifted truck) the gun will almost never pickup your car. I'll admit though it's tough to find Freightliners doing 120 on the highway as of late.

-Kevin

 

Radar detectors can be helpfull but I feel my mother is the reason I'm now better at keeping the cops off my back. She taught me from the very beginning to look way ahead. Watch for brake lights, cause almost every person instictivly hits their brakes when they go by a cop. This is especially helpfull if you see brake lights as the cars in front of you reach the top of a hill or if they hit their brakes going around a corner. Cops usually like to sit right around corners or right over crests in the road so you cant see them till your right on them. Usually I'm moving fast enough that no cop would have a chance of coming up behind me, so all I need to worry about is cops on the side of the road. If you are constantly watching brake lights I promise you it will save your butt.

If you do happen to get pulled over one trick I have used at night is when I see the lights in my rear view mirror I take the adjustability **** on how bright my instrument guage is and turn it all the way down so my instrument guages are completly black, when the cop pulls me over usually I am very nice admitting that I was probably speeding but just today I blew a fuse and my instrument panel wont light up so I didnt know how fast I was going. That got me out of a ticket doing 20+ over. Its no garuntee that you will get out of a ticket but usually if you have some sort of story that doesnt totally suck and your a nice guy usually you can get out of some pretty decent sized tickets.

And I'll be honest being white helps a lot. I am a white kid thus not really effected by the racism of cops but its so apparent I've noticed it on several occasions.

 

Ive been pulled over twice without mine, and never with it, so thats reason enough for me

 

tickets prior to radar detector: 1 52 in a 35

tickets since: 0

tickets since wife stole r.d: 0

I gotta get it back....

 

after a 435 dollar ticket i would say yah it is worth it

 

die thread die!!!

 

I have the Valentine... Never been happier, saved my A** a few times. But if i can do it again, i would get a scrambler. A pig hit me with lazer on an open road with nobody in front of me so there was no early warning

 

in my opinion no. they go off about falsely about 50 times to 1 legit time. or maybe even more. you start to become desencesited or however thats spelt. so when its actualy right in going off you just keep speading. best option is to watch the road far ahead. if you see everyone hiting there brakes. slow down. if you see a cop far off slow down. all you need to do. i always drive fast but i never got pulled over cause i see people slowing down or the cop befor he tags me

 

I'm on the fence here - because A- I have one - and B - I think it's useless... With laser guns these days, generally all a radar detector is good for is telling you that "you have been gunned - and if you were speeding, be prepared for a ticket." There are some expensive fully installed ones that offer jamming etc, but quite honestly I've heard they're a farce... I'm with a previous poster - stay at 10 over and you'll never get a ticket... And if you *do* go over, it pays to have a good lawyer - I have one in Milwaukee that, for $75 per, has gotten me out of 3 doozie tickets (including one 138 in a 55 on my CBR - faulty speedometer ;-) )

 

PS - if you happen to be in Illinois, I'd definitely say don't get one - I ROUTINELY do 85 in a 55, and have even passed state patrols at that speed and not gotten so much as a head-turn. I think you'd have to be doing something *really* egregious to get pulled over around here...

 

If your using it so you can speed all the time and avoid a ticket, no.

 

I used to drive the same 120 miles to work and back, there is one county I would go thru that had several speed traps on I-95 and you never knew which one they would be setup at. Anyway when they would beam a car in front of me i'd get a few beeps from the reflection. Then I would know where they had setup that day.
As for general, I know where most of the "false" alarms are around town, if I hear it anywhere other than those I usually at least take my foot off the gas. As someone said it's not an open door to speed, just a first line of defense, if they are using laser you are screwed, but with laser they are usually out in the road as it requires PRECISE alignment on the target and need a tripod or at least a door to prop up on, so you usually see them first.

I worked RADAR in the USAF and a Jammer (completely illegal) would be the real way to go on this if you were dead serious about trying to open a door to speed all the time, again unless they are using laser. But you would have to build it yourself and different systems work on different freq's so the ones you see for sale are, from what I can tell totally bu11$hit.

I use a cheap BELL detector and it has saved my butt more than a few times. anything is better than nothing. The cheaper ones have a cheaper discrimination circuit, is all, but as I said if you know where most of the false alarms are then it's OK, ANYTIME I hear that thing go off on an INTERSTATE tho I usually check speed and if too high get it back to right at the limit or just above, (you don't want them to see the car nosedive form breaks being jammed tho, but even when they have seen me do that they usually don't follow as they know they scared the **** out of you and are prolly laughing their a$$es off....)
LONG STORY SHORT YES they are worth their weight in points, (as it points on your License, money is easy, points, at least in GA SUX, they are kept in a rolling window, and if you get too many in a certain period,,,,bye bye License, I have had it happen to me, had to go to drivers school, just to get the License back!!! not to mention the added cost of insurance, as I said, paying the ticket is the EASY part)
VOTE YES worth it!
John

 

I've read alot of BS in the last few posts..but refuse to comment. the V1works is all I will say.

 

I bought a nice Passport radar detector years ago. Ended up with two tickets in two years. Both times I was hit with an instant-on radar gun. I've found the best thing is to wait for someone running fast on the highway, sit back a couple hundred yards and wait for them to brake. When they do, slow down. This method has saved me several times and it's free!

 

wao., i can't believe I just skimmed over nine pages of the same story, OVER AND OVER.

I just got off the phone with Valentine and am the new proud soon to be owner of a V1. The reason for getting it, I actually got my first ticket in 7 years. I'm usually very aware of my surroundings. It was silly actually, the cop was coming towards me on my own road. I was pre-occupied with the fam and really did not notice it, (talking to the wife, yelling at the kids). I saw the cop but did not bother to check my speed as I thought i was doing somewhat the limit. I got the ticket and it hurt. 55 on a 40. He bumped it down to a seat belt ticket... Nice guy for a cop.

After that, I rather just have it for insurance sake. It's very easy to get careless with the foot and with the eyes. A lil warning by a friend (the V1) is worth its weight in GOLD.

 

you made the right choice...it gets addicting watching the thing work, so don't be distracted by it.

 

Definitely worth it, I speed occasionally and have been saved numerous times. Where I live there are lots of places that the cops can hide, one spot is in a patch of trees just before a curve and you can't see them until its too late. My Bel detector is over 10 yrs old, true it won't detect the "instant on" radar but it's still good enough for my driving needs.

 

I have one in my 03 max. Honestly they do go off and pick up useless crap sometimes but just recently I was able to avoid 3 speed traps while i was going out to New Jersey... Jersey state troopers are the worst to.
ALSO!!! you still have to beware of your surroundings because it picks up the rays from the radar gun... not the cop cars themselves. if you just blow by a cop doing 100mph your gunna get pulled over, so just beware ... but when you get it you will be able to relax a lil more

 

ditto. only think i hate about not having one is that a cop can sneak up behind you lol

 

Not worth it. You become dependent on it, then it fails, then you pay a big ticket. Use your eyes and pay attention. You will avoid not only speeding tickets, but also pesky things like car accidents and running into small children/animals.