jcage89
New member
OK, so I'll probably open myself up for debate about what radar is best and so on, but I am 15 year Valentine1 user from my Zcar days and then transitioned over to the 4runner more as I had kids and drove the speedster less and the 4runner more. I bought the Valentine because at the time it was the only show in town with directional indicators... very simple and very good. I sent the Valentine in once during that lifespan for an overhaul to catch the new radar conventions but once again it had become outdated. It still worked with police radar, but was also continually jabbering due to all the K-band collision avoidance and adaptive cruise in newer cars these days and the olde V-1's inability to filter that stuff out.
A few months back after buying the TRD Pro I contacted Valentine1 about the newest upgrade and was met with an absolutely HORRIFIC phone experience. I spoke to probably the most rude and unapologetic person that I ever have in dealing with a purchase situation. It was almost as if she was inviting me to not spend more money with them and sure enough, that is where I was at. Not going back to Valentine after that.
So did a bit of research and was tempted by the performance ratings of the Uniden detectors, but found that Valentine's patent on the directional indicators expired recently and now Escort has taken up that mantel in its 360, Redline and new Max360c. Escort was offering a holiday bundle deal with a low profile tandem (both mount and power) M1 dashcam so I bit. Pricey, but with the Valentine-like direction indicators I'm used to + WIFI updates and Realtime traffic cam database was too tempting. I found a great mechanical mount in Blendmount (also pricey but worth it to me) to avoid the suction cup situation and set it up with a the remote mute hardwire smart cable. Anyway, whole thing looks good (as in low profile) and works good on tests so far. This is a shot of speeding camera warning...
Here is view of how the mount is set up attaching to the mirror stem with hardwire power in to the M1Dashcam and then short hop out of Dashcam into the Max360c... Slick!...
I was going to get more fancy with integrating the remote mute and LED of the smart hardwire cable into a switch blank but was too large to fit intact and didn't feel like doing surgery until I know I'm keeping it so I double sticky taped it to the side of the steering column where it is still convenient to tap when the radar chirps...
Overall it is nice to have radar in the rig again and not be so paranoid about whether I drift 5-10 over in the ridiculously limited 35 areas around me (like through a straight hi-vis canyon with nothing else around where should be 50... anyway everyone here can relate I'm sure to the annoyance of speed traps like this and how nice it is to have radar in that situation.
I'll post more info about performance as I use it more.
Cheers - JC
A few months back after buying the TRD Pro I contacted Valentine1 about the newest upgrade and was met with an absolutely HORRIFIC phone experience. I spoke to probably the most rude and unapologetic person that I ever have in dealing with a purchase situation. It was almost as if she was inviting me to not spend more money with them and sure enough, that is where I was at. Not going back to Valentine after that.
So did a bit of research and was tempted by the performance ratings of the Uniden detectors, but found that Valentine's patent on the directional indicators expired recently and now Escort has taken up that mantel in its 360, Redline and new Max360c. Escort was offering a holiday bundle deal with a low profile tandem (both mount and power) M1 dashcam so I bit. Pricey, but with the Valentine-like direction indicators I'm used to + WIFI updates and Realtime traffic cam database was too tempting. I found a great mechanical mount in Blendmount (also pricey but worth it to me) to avoid the suction cup situation and set it up with a the remote mute hardwire smart cable. Anyway, whole thing looks good (as in low profile) and works good on tests so far. This is a shot of speeding camera warning...
Here is view of how the mount is set up attaching to the mirror stem with hardwire power in to the M1Dashcam and then short hop out of Dashcam into the Max360c... Slick!...
I was going to get more fancy with integrating the remote mute and LED of the smart hardwire cable into a switch blank but was too large to fit intact and didn't feel like doing surgery until I know I'm keeping it so I double sticky taped it to the side of the steering column where it is still convenient to tap when the radar chirps...
Overall it is nice to have radar in the rig again and not be so paranoid about whether I drift 5-10 over in the ridiculously limited 35 areas around me (like through a straight hi-vis canyon with nothing else around where should be 50... anyway everyone here can relate I'm sure to the annoyance of speed traps like this and how nice it is to have radar in that situation.
I'll post more info about performance as I use it more.
Cheers - JC
