Beltronics STI-r Review II

Installing the Ultimate “Bird Dog” for Truckers
Title 49 Section 329.71 of the Federal Motor Carrier regulations prohibits radar detectors in all commercial vehicles weighing over 10,000 pounds. Even with this ban the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimates that over 40 percent of tractors regularly use radar detectors.
Till recently truckers using radar detectors in their big rigs have been taking a big chance of having their “bird dogs” detected by the police and getting a large fine.
In 2004 Stealth Micro Systems introduced the Spectre RDD (Radar Detector Detector) that was able to sniff out all radar detectors that were sold. Numerous state commercial vehicle enforcement units though out the USA purchased these Spectre units through federal and private grants. As example the Texas Department of Public Safety purchased over 245 Spectre units though a federal grant for boarder security.
In 2006 Beltronics introduced the STI, first “stealth” radar detector that was able to defeat the Spectre. However as the STI was designed as a dash mounted radar detector, truckers had to come up with ingenious ways to hide the detector from the sharp eyes of law enforcement.
Beltronics is now in the process of releasing their newest radar detector the STIr. The STIr is the first remote mounted radar detector that is not only invisible to the eye, but also invisible to all the RDD’s in use today.
Having the honor as being one of the first in the speed counter measure industry to review this detector prior to its release, I seized the opportunity and installed it in my 2005 Columbia Freightliner.
I first installed the antenna in grill area of the truck. The STIr’s antenna doubles as both a radar antenna and a laser sensor. As laser is a narrow light beam, it is important to mount the antenna facing forward and level without any obstructions.
I cut out a small section of screen in the bottom grill area of the Freightliner and mounted the STIr’s antenna.
I then ran the antenna wire into the cab area through the driver’s door floorboard area, up the side floorboard, up to the overhead storage compartments.
Here I installed the main interface and plugged in the external speaker, the LED display and the main controller.
I then mounted the external speaker and the LED display in the driver’s upper storage area and mounted the controller switch right above my CB radio in the upper center consol.
After all of the detector’s modules were installed, I then connected the interface and the external powered speaker to my trucks power supply.
As I have installed countless radar detectors in the past, I had found earlier install manuals from Beltronics sometimes cryptic and sometimes hard to understand. However the manual provided with the STIr was easy to read and understand and made the install a breeze. The total time for the install was approximately 60 minutes.
With the LED display and the external powered speaker being in the upper driver’s storage area, the main display was totally stealth to prying eyes. However I could easily see the display from my driver’s position behind the wheel when it activated and with the external mounted speaker’s deafening alert beeps I could easily hear it over the roar of the engine even with the XM radio cranked up to full volume.
Next week we will be taking the STIr through its paces during an extended road trip though the southwest and I will follow up with both a performance and driver experience report.

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Bel STI-r Remote – Review Part One

Beltronics STIr Install SUV
Several weeks I was honored as being one of the first to review the new Beltronics STI-r radar detector.
The STI-r is the first remote mounted detector that is not only capable to be invisible to the eye but also invisible to all the radar detector detector units such as the Spectre III and IV. This ability is an important feature where radar detectors are illegal such as in Virginia, Washington DC, in all commercial vehicles weighing over 10,000 pounds and in various provinces in Canada.
We first installed the STI-r into a 2007 Toyota Sequoia.
As the STI-r antenna serves as both the radar detector and laser antenna it is important to mount the antenna in a fashion that the front laser sensors are not blocked and to be positioned in the front grill area where officers commonly target their laser guns.
We choose to use heavy duty double sided 3M automotive double sided tape that is available through NAPA and not the supplied antenna mount, so we wouldn’t need to drill into the front bumper area. We mounted the antenna below the front bumper in the bottom grill.
We then ran the antenna cable through the engine compartment, through the firewall to the rear dash. We removed the Toyota’s car radio utilizing a special screwdriver that allowed the radio to slide out, and installed the main interface under dash.
We then plugged the front antenna, display module, controller module and external speaker into the interface.
We mounted the external powered speaker under the dash and ran mounted the small LED display above the steering column just below the Toyota’s instrument panel and mounted the control module below the steering column on the right lower dash.
I really appreciated the two part LED and controller and their small size, as I was allowed to mount the LED display closer to the main instrument panel. The LED display also has a photo sensor installed to the front that allows it to automatically adjust for brightness.
Both the control module and the LED display has double sided tape applied to them, so it is basically peal and stick, making for an easy install of these two parts.
The STI-r also includes an in dash bezel and a single in dash LED light display for those who really want to go to the next step in making their unit stealth to the eye.
The final step in our install was to run the power cables from the speaker and the interface to the controller and power up.
I’ve installed countless remote mounted radar detectors but I have to admit, I found the STI-r one of the easiest as their documentation was easy to read and understand. The total install time took 90 minutes with the biggest challenge finding a location where I could run the antenna cable through the firewall utilizing an existing cable run.
We will be running the STI-r through its paces this weekend in the Toyota and then we will be re-installing it in a Freightliner tractor for an extended road trip through Nevada next week and we will provide an update on our road test when we return.

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