ECE Regulation No 65 Explained

ECE Regulation No 65

 

The full title of Regulation No 65 is Uniform Provisions Concerning the Approval of Special

Warning Lamps for Motor Vehicles.

 

In plain English the term “Special Warning Lamps” means beacons and Lightbars.

 

This Regulation covers things like labelling, colour and light output.

 

What Regulation No 65 means for Lightbars and beacons.

 

There are a lot of different Lightbars available. Many of them are not ECE 65 Lightbars because

they include things not covered by Regulation No 65, e.g. flashers, red or green lenses. It is perfectly all right to sell them in the UK at present (2006) because this ECE Regulation is not compulsory. But if we say that a particular light bar is an ECE 65 light bar, i.e. we stick the appropriate label on, we have to actually comply with Regulation No 65.

 

ECE 65 Lightbars and beacons are type-approved. This means that we are only allowed a limited number of well-defined variants. They are defined by the drawings that we have to submit with the sample Lightbars. This includes putting labels in the all the required places, i.e. at either side and the base of the light bar. ECE 65 Lightbars can be either blue or amber and can have halogen or xenon strobe light sources. If they have halogen light sources they can have one rotator or two coupled rotators per side.