"Each product is the highest-performing equipment manufactured, built to our precise standards, rigorously tested, and made specifically for your unique requirements. "
--Right off the McCain site.
McCain's equipment is the worst quality in the industry. Eagle, Econolite, and Peek are way ahead of McCain!
Joe- Yeah everything McCain produces are cheap knockoffs of good brands. The programmable McCains are a direct copy of 3M's version. It was slopped together to compete with 3M. 3M ended their traffic signal line in 2004. The back doors on a McCain programmable signal are just retooled 8 inch housing bodies. The front door and visor is a normal McCains door and visor. The interior is almost all 3M guts from the diffusers to the photocell sensor.
And TiCoune66--The french fries are top notch quality!
At least the LED clusters survived. You possibly could re-use them. Here most are made from GRP, both because of corrosion and because they would get stolen for scrap even more than what they are now.
The LEDs are Dialight and GE RX-11 and are strictly molded polycarbonate. No glass fiber. McCain's polycarbonate signals are molded with fiberglass reinforced polycarbonate. Some companies like Siemens (owns Eagle) provide the option on their ordering sheets to have the signal molded straight poly or with glass reinforcements in the plastic. What shattered here to bits was aluminum. It is really surprising the fixtures didn't shatter.
They are just poorly made. They're sold cheap and cities love that that dont have to pay as much for signals. A McCain signal doesn't look bad brand new.
They did a 15 minute clip on the Discovery Channel show "Factory Made" they showed the production of both aluminum and plastic signals
But they use a lower quality aluminum that corrodes to dust in just about any environment, and cheap powdercoating that isn't properly baked on, and comes off in sheets after only a few months.
Their plastic signals are a step above the metal ones, but still cheap quality.
---------------
EDIT:
Another collector posted the clip from Factory Made online. Hopefully this link takes you to the correct movie.
The exterior shots of McCains building are the headquarters in Vista, CA. The shots of the foundry and production lines are in Tijuana, Mexico
McCain is still very common here, and is used in lots of new signals at least by the state. Most of the cities use different brands though.
Lakewood used a lot of eagles, and I think they use CH as a new signal replacement.. Lakewood only uses Aluminum signals, never polycarbonate.
The city of Denver seems to only use Aluminum too, there older setups were a lot like lakewood (except for the streetlights and LED modules used in them) but the newer setups are different, but still use Aluminum. And not McCain either.
But McCain is still very common here, I haven't seen any fail but they are all Polycarbonate, and those seem pretty durable..
McCain programmable heads are made of the same garbage aluminum as their standard vehicle heads. Their quality is all over the board with most of it consistently corroding after a few years. The hinges are known to freeze up. I had the chance to see one of these up close once, and the back lamp housings looked ok from the outside. The inside was all corroded, and the metal itself felt like cheap tin.
All McCain wanted was a quick and cheap jump into the PV signal market with 3M by copying the entire optic design, same bulbs, same diffusers, same wire shields, same optical limiters...hell, same light focus length! All the design work they had to do was slap together their own signal housing specific for the line. The doors and visors came from their regular signal line, and the back lamp housing door is just a re-tooled 8 inch McCain housing. Because of all the cheapening out...the signal cost about $1000 less than a 3M.
Production on the 3M signal ended 5 years ago and was a much, much more quality signal...just was a huge maintenance headache.
There is good news in all this...from what I hear McCain is aggressively updated their powdercoating and finishing lines and bringing over half its production back from Mexico. So we will see what unfolds
I've seen the McCains in the Buffalo area...some have lost the paint to the point where you can see the corroded cast aluminium.
One thing I've always wondered is why unpainted aluminium Powerlites cobraheads from the 60s and 70s are still in very good condition but these McCains which are painted are falling apart after after a few years.
I guess it's all in the quality of the cast aluminum itself. My PEEK signal has very lightweight housings which either means it's low quality metal or just very thin. I've heard the ITT lights corroded pretty badly, which explains why so many get removed here on a regular basis.
Login
And TiCoune66--The french fries are top notch quality!
They did a 15 minute clip on the Discovery Channel show "Factory Made" they showed the production of both aluminum and plastic signals
But they use a lower quality aluminum that corrodes to dust in just about any environment, and cheap powdercoating that isn't properly baked on, and comes off in sheets after only a few months.
Their plastic signals are a step above the metal ones, but still cheap quality.
---------------
EDIT:
Another collector posted the clip from Factory Made online. Hopefully this link takes you to the correct movie.
The exterior shots of McCains building are the headquarters in Vista, CA. The shots of the foundry and production lines are in Tijuana, Mexico
Lakewood used a lot of eagles, and I think they use CH as a new signal replacement.. Lakewood only uses Aluminum signals, never polycarbonate.
The city of Denver seems to only use Aluminum too, there older setups were a lot like lakewood (except for the streetlights and LED modules used in them) but the newer setups are different, but still use Aluminum. And not McCain either.
But McCain is still very common here, I haven't seen any fail but they are all Polycarbonate, and those seem pretty durable..
All McCain wanted was a quick and cheap jump into the PV signal market with 3M by copying the entire optic design, same bulbs, same diffusers, same wire shields, same optical limiters...hell, same light focus length! All the design work they had to do was slap together their own signal housing specific for the line. The doors and visors came from their regular signal line, and the back lamp housing door is just a re-tooled 8 inch McCain housing. Because of all the cheapening out...the signal cost about $1000 less than a 3M.
Production on the 3M signal ended 5 years ago and was a much, much more quality signal...just was a huge maintenance headache.
There is good news in all this...from what I hear McCain is aggressively updated their powdercoating and finishing lines and bringing over half its production back from Mexico. So we will see what unfolds
One thing I've always wondered is why unpainted aluminium Powerlites cobraheads from the 60s and 70s are still in very good condition but these McCains which are painted are falling apart after after a few years.