LED's again

[MMiller]

Please bear with me, I'm asking about LED's again... ...



We have already decided that replacement LED's in the stock housing will not work without resistors, and are very poor in light production, not are good as stock. What about the larger taillights that are used in flatbeds, and trailers? Has anybody used these with a first gen for taillights? I have bobbed the tail on my 90, and covered the holes were the taillights used to reside. I'm going to mount new round taillights up above the bumper and in the bed. When I get this truck out in the trees offroad, the taillights always get knocked out. #ad




What do you guys know, will they load the system enough to make the turn signal flasher work?



Michael

 

[bgilbert]

Chris Hughes has LED's for all the lights on his nifty flatbed.

 

[tugboatphil]

Michael,



From what I've read, you can change out the standard flasher unit for an electronic flasher. It requires very little amperage to activate.

 

[MMiller]

There you go reading again, huh Phil? :-laf Where did you find this info out?



I guess I'll have to call Chris and see what he has to say, beings he doesn't stop in here very often. Thanks Bill.



Michael

 

[tugboatphil]

There you go reading again, huh Phil? :-laf Where did you find this info out?

Well..... when I said read, I meant that I was looking in one of my picture books.



Actually, I saw it in a post on this board about a year or so back. I also saw it on a site where you can buy LEDs.



Why'd you chop off the back of your truck?

 

[MMiller]

Why'd you chop off the back of your truck?

I'm setting this truck up for offroading. I have an old 75 that I used to wheel(now its just my pulling truck). It too is a long bed truck, and many times when I'd drop off a ledge, or into a hole, the back bumper would hit the ground hard. Also on a few hill climbs, I've had the back bumper dig into the ground trying to get up the climb. This stops forward motion. Basically I'm improving what is called the departure angle.



Also I noticed with my 75 and the 90, that its easy to get the cab and most of the bed around a tree, but both trucks tended to slide into trees after the rear tires got around the tree, basically bashing in the last 25" of the truck and knocking out the tailight. I'm trying to prevent this from happening as much. Eventually I want to get a flatbed, so I have less sheetmetal to worry about.



I'll google LED's and see what I come up with.



Michael

 

[TKingsbury]

Get a Grote (or similar) electronic flasher. They are not load sensitive. Just be sure not to get one that is rated for 16 lights, they take about 3 seconds to start flashing. I have the square one with a redish-purple case. My truck has a problem in the signal circuit causing the lights to blink fast, so instead of trying to find/repair it I put in an electronic flasher. Good to go.

Travis. .

 

[BDanner]

Here is a good LED site for trucks, trailers and accessories.



I do like that chopped backend!!



http://www.superbrightleds.com/led_prods.htm



Bruce in Northern Virginia

 

[ESchoon]

Can't help you on the LEDs, but I sure do like your bobbed bed. Well done!

 

[MMiller]

Thanks for the comments. The black paint hides alot, but its good enough for a trail truck.



I went shopping for taillights today, and decided against the LEDs for now. The cost differnce was too much for me to put into a offroad truck for taillights. Especially since the lights could be broken first time on the trail anyway. I'll post some pics when I get the lights mounted. Thanks for all the input guys.



Michael

 

[Dieselman359]

My 2 cents

Hey now, I've actually been keepin' up, I just never have much to contribute, until now anyway.



I never had any problems with my truck. I tried once changing the turn signals on the front of the truck with replacement 1157 led bulbs. They would flash fast and the brightness sucked, so out they went. Now we all know the advantages of the reduced amp draw, but that in turn is what messes things up. When I had the 1157 bulbs in, if I hooked up to a trailer, they worked fine because of the higher amp draw from the trailer lights. My buddy with his duradud has the 1157 leds, and they've got everything so screwed up that his turn signals on the mirrors light up with his parking lights :-laf



So with what have we learned, this is how dad went about it on his '03. His "lamp out" light would come on, oh I failed to mention that he also has an aluminum flatbed. What he did was to wire up some regular 'trailer' lights under the bed along with the leds so as to draw enough to satisfy the computers needs. :-laf



I'll have to take some pictures tomorrow. Oh, and buy the way I saw some chinese leds at wal-mart of all places for about $26 each. Just make ya up a bracket and mount them up, just watch out for those tree branches.

 

[MMiller]

I'll have to take some pictures tomorrow. Oh, and buy the way I saw some chinese leds at wal-mart of all places for about $26 each. Just make ya up a bracket and mount them up, just watch out for those tree branches.

I probably got scalped in my shopping today, but I picked up a pair of regular oval shaped light kits(with rubber grommet, wiring harness, and light) for $12 each, and a pair of mounts for $7 each. The LED's here at Napa and Arnolds ranged from $28 to $65 EACH. Now do I spend $25 on regular lights, or $55 to $130 for taillights for a truck that doesn't even have liscence plates? :-laf



Michael

 

[Dieselman359]

pictures

Here is dads '03 and my D350.

 

[bgilbert]

:-laf Chris looks like you're dragging something behind your truck there:-laf:-laf... truck must be getting old or it just got out of the shower:-laf!!

 

[ENafziger]

What did you end up going with here?

 

[Mikey-KE7LBB]

Just don't travel into Florida, (which looks like a you know what) since they have banned 'truck nutz' altogether :-laf