Surface or flush mount spike strips?

How many of you have had the actual pleasure of having installed surface or flush mount spike strips (referred to as “tiger teeth’ by some of my clients)? What fun they are, aren’t they?

Let us look into the different aspects of these wonderfully simple tools for traffic control, there really aren’t too many types of spike strips, they are a simple application designed to do a simple, but extremely important job in the world of traffic and access control… You’ve got the flush mount or the surface mount and within those two categories you’ve got the counter weighed, the spring loaded and the motorized systems. Starting with the simplest system, which is the surface mounted, with four available models. They are the Cobra and King Cobra, The Viper and The Python… these counter weighed surface mount spikes with the very cool names are by far the easiest to install, and will inevitably act as speed bumps as well as a traffic direction control device, rising to a height of just under 4’ from the road to the top of the spike and with a manual latch down device built in, they really are not just easy to install but also simple to set up and operate. Although they look really aggressive, at only 2 1/2” tall, they are quite easy to go over, just as long as you are traveling in the right direction. Now if we want to get fancy here, we may want to install the flush mount device… as cool as the surface mounts are, the finished product with these flush mounts look amazing… although requiring a bit more labor they are definitely well worth the trouble. These flush mounts with some more really cool names like The Cobra with five versions… the standard Cobra, the EZ, the HD, the HD-EZ, and the King Cobra have all the same features as the surface mount but without the speed bump with the counter weighed spikes, and then there is the Sting Ray which is the equipped with “pedestrian friendly” spikes that come with counter weights or spring loaded. This brings us to the ultimate access control… the motorized flush or surface mount operators. Let’s take the Enforcer for example, a plausible and economical surface mount system that integrates a barrier gate to the mechanically retractable spike strips for a very reasonable cost, this baby is available in 110 or 230 VAC, integrates with any brand of access control, available in 12’, 15’ and 18’ lengths, choice of ‘safety red’ (standard) or ‘safety yellow’ and it can be ordered with an optional reflective aluminum arm in red/sliver as well as a red/green LED stop/go light and a 10 year continuous cycle total life span, or you may want to look at the next barrier in line… The flush mount Protector Xtreme… 10 million cycles and available in galvanized, painted or powder coated again in ‘safety red’ (standard) or ‘safety yellow’ with all of the available features that the Enforcer has plus an extremely intimidating row of heavy duty steel ‘curved’ teeth that show 4 ½ inches from the top plate of the in ground box and a standard reflective red/silver aluminum boom with available custom lengths as well as the optional red/green LED stop/go light, but if you really want to infuse fear in the hearts of trespassers… There is the Dominator (really got to love the name on this one right?…) This is a surface mount, double stacked electro mechanical wedge barrier that includes dual channel loop detectors and should come with a warning sign reading “DON’T THINK ABOUT IT… YOU WON’T MAKE IT”!!! specially formulated for high security applications where a continuous duty cycle motor is required, and full access and security integration is needed! Of course let’s not forget our safety peripherals. Things like warning signs and reflective materials, loop detectors/loops and photo cells so that the less than guarded drivers do not hurt themselves around these highly visible, very aggressive and extremely efficient traffic control devices for lack of warning.