Sand flag advise

Hi Malcom M,

Firstly, to be compliant, sand flags must meet certain specs for height above vehicle, size of flag & configuration of reflective material. Assuming you already know this and are looking at compliant flags, the spring base has an advantage if you are using one where there are overhead objects such as tree branches, as they will absorb some of the “shock” load if they strike an overhead obstacle. As far as “excessive whip” is concerned, I have not found it to be too much of an issue. Yes they move, but this “waving” action as you come close to the top of a sand dune can attract the attention of a vehicle on the other side that may be also getting close to the top.

Macca.

We mount either a fishing rod or conduit to the roof rack...both work great. They can be much shorter to gain a safe height.
Buy a fluro flag from Bunnings and you're good to go.

Malcolm
With UK English setting on your device the advise will become advice, which you are asking for. In return people will then advise you as intended. Predictive text in UK
English is a friend to all.

I've got one without a spring, Malcolm, and the 3 sections all screw together. Even without a spring it is very flexible, and will whip back after hitting an overhanging branch, often hitting the roof of my ute, and the canopy. Expect a spring based one would be just as flexible, or more so.

The quick release is a Nitto fitting, and on one occasion, I couldn't release it but a dose of snake's pee eventually got it working.

Bob

We got one from ExplorOz. There are rules on required height and those relate to mounting position. I found that the air hose type mounting adapter jammed up and cannot be released as the balls won't evenly retract! So that "feature" is useless. The FG is so flexible that I think there is little advantage to a spring base - IMO.

.
Beware of being TOO flexible. I have seen several in The Simpson, with the vehicle travelling at 20-30kph, and the flag was hanging over the rear of the vehicle. Maybe a bit of head breeze too.
Not of much value on a dune crest approach, but doubtless the driver was unaware of the location of his flag.

p.s. The flag in my photo below is not my current one. It is now 3.5m above the bull-bar.

Bought one of those 3 piece flags with no spring from ARB back in 2010 for a Simpson Crossing, hopefully they are better now then they used to be....the thing was so flexible it was useless as an early warning device due to bending back too much as I drove along. I ended up removing the flag from it’s quick release fitting and taped the flag poles to my broomstick uhf aerial with electrical tape instead to give it stability. On return home from the desert I went to ARB and told them how useless the thing was and wanted a refund, but I didn’t get it...they (or maybe it was the supplier, can’t recall) gave me a new flag instead and said keep the old one....can’t say i’ve tested that one as I on sold it.

I just used a 3 metre length of 25mmorange hd conduit strapped to the bull bar, which gave enough flex to wave the flag side ways so it could be seen by others.

Cheap, doesn't break and works.

Pvc pipe over my UHF antenna to give it the correct height and a some poor buggers flag I found lying on a track. Flag only goes on when require and is taken off immediately when not required