Attention: TDR Forum Junkies I thought I’d give everyone a quick review of 2 add-ons I did recently to the truck. These were done mostly for looks. I don’t normally add stuff to the truck just for looks. I’m much more inclined to add for functionality with looks as a secondary consideration. But in these cases, the priorities were switched. There’s a little bit of functionality improvement in each, but mostly it was for looks.
I’ve become convinced that LED lighting is the wave of the future in most all applications – auto particularly, and in the home in the future. So I’ve purchased a set of replacement LED tail lights and a new LED 3rd brake light. To balance the load I also purchased replacement LED turn signal bulbs for the front (www.autolumination.com, or www.superbrightleds.com). This also required that I replace the turn signal blinker module in the fuse panel on the left end of the dash due to the reduced electrical load from the LEDs with one compatible with LED bulbs. Those can be had at autolumination.com, though I bought mine at the local AutoZone.
Both the tail lights and the 3rd brake light were purchased off eBay. They are Chinese made aftermarket products. There is some compromise for that, but not too bad.
The first, picture below, is the tail lights. I chose the non-smoked version for maximum lighting. The brake/turn signal lights are an array or 24 LEDs. There are a couple of LEDs on the side for improved side visibilty. There’s pigtail with a plug that matches perfectly the plug on the wiring harness that now plugs into the factory bulb. The backup light still uses a standard incandescent bulb. You can use an LED bulb, but I suspect it wouldn’t be as bright. Years ago I replace my backup bulb with a higher wattage bulb from a local accessories shop. It’s a small halogen bulb, I think. In this tail light, they are vast improvement over the little smoked lens and standard incandescent bulb in the stock tail lights. These bulbs run hot but they are only on for a short time.
Overall, this was a fast, nice looking improvement that has gotten attention. They fit and work well and only took about 5 minutes apiece to replace with a torx driver. I’ve had a couple of people ask me where I got them and I’ve noticed others in my rear view mirrors taking notice. Figure about $150 more or less with shipping with buy-it-now.
The 3rd brake light, pictured below, I added in just the last few days. This had a few more compromises. There are a couple of different versions available on eBay. One uses all LEDs for both the brake lights and the bed lighting. Some are smoked. The one I chose uses LEDs only for the brake lights. My hunch was the incandescent bulbs were going to be much brighter for the bed lighting than LED bulb/clusters that can be prurchased given the small area the bulb resides in. Mine uses 2 rows of 6 red LEDs each. Quite bright. For any of these figure about $45 to $60 with shipping using buy-it-now. But if you buy them from some vendor’s web sites directly, you can pay $100 before shipping!
The first compromise is the foam gasket used to seal out water and the overall fit with the slight contours of the cab roof. If you buy one of these, plan on getting the stock factory high mount brake light foam gasket (about 10 or 11 dollars) and scraping off the cheap, light weight one that comes with the light. The factory gasket fits well with no modifications. After removing the stock 3rd brake light, I cleaned the metal surface with a little adhesive remover then rubbed it down polishing compound. Just before I screwed the new light into place I applied a thin layer of black RTV sealant to the gasket along the top edge to seal the joint between the gasket and the cab roof.
The second compromise is the light housing. Once mounted, the new housing leaves a slight gap between it and the cab roof – about 1/16th to 1/8th inch. Later, I may add a thin bead of black RTV to fill this gap and further reduce the chance of a water leak.
Coming up, in a few weeks, if my under-hood lighting mod works out, I’ll show you that.
-Jay
I’ve become convinced that LED lighting is the wave of the future in most all applications – auto particularly, and in the home in the future. So I’ve purchased a set of replacement LED tail lights and a new LED 3rd brake light. To balance the load I also purchased replacement LED turn signal bulbs for the front (www.autolumination.com, or www.superbrightleds.com). This also required that I replace the turn signal blinker module in the fuse panel on the left end of the dash due to the reduced electrical load from the LEDs with one compatible with LED bulbs. Those can be had at autolumination.com, though I bought mine at the local AutoZone.
Both the tail lights and the 3rd brake light were purchased off eBay. They are Chinese made aftermarket products. There is some compromise for that, but not too bad.
The first, picture below, is the tail lights. I chose the non-smoked version for maximum lighting. The brake/turn signal lights are an array or 24 LEDs. There are a couple of LEDs on the side for improved side visibilty. There’s pigtail with a plug that matches perfectly the plug on the wiring harness that now plugs into the factory bulb. The backup light still uses a standard incandescent bulb. You can use an LED bulb, but I suspect it wouldn’t be as bright. Years ago I replace my backup bulb with a higher wattage bulb from a local accessories shop. It’s a small halogen bulb, I think. In this tail light, they are vast improvement over the little smoked lens and standard incandescent bulb in the stock tail lights. These bulbs run hot but they are only on for a short time.
Overall, this was a fast, nice looking improvement that has gotten attention. They fit and work well and only took about 5 minutes apiece to replace with a torx driver. I’ve had a couple of people ask me where I got them and I’ve noticed others in my rear view mirrors taking notice. Figure about $150 more or less with shipping with buy-it-now.
The 3rd brake light, pictured below, I added in just the last few days. This had a few more compromises. There are a couple of different versions available on eBay. One uses all LEDs for both the brake lights and the bed lighting. Some are smoked. The one I chose uses LEDs only for the brake lights. My hunch was the incandescent bulbs were going to be much brighter for the bed lighting than LED bulb/clusters that can be prurchased given the small area the bulb resides in. Mine uses 2 rows of 6 red LEDs each. Quite bright. For any of these figure about $45 to $60 with shipping using buy-it-now. But if you buy them from some vendor’s web sites directly, you can pay $100 before shipping!
The first compromise is the foam gasket used to seal out water and the overall fit with the slight contours of the cab roof. If you buy one of these, plan on getting the stock factory high mount brake light foam gasket (about 10 or 11 dollars) and scraping off the cheap, light weight one that comes with the light. The factory gasket fits well with no modifications. After removing the stock 3rd brake light, I cleaned the metal surface with a little adhesive remover then rubbed it down polishing compound. Just before I screwed the new light into place I applied a thin layer of black RTV sealant to the gasket along the top edge to seal the joint between the gasket and the cab roof.
The second compromise is the light housing. Once mounted, the new housing leaves a slight gap between it and the cab roof – about 1/16th to 1/8th inch. Later, I may add a thin bead of black RTV to fill this gap and further reduce the chance of a water leak.
Coming up, in a few weeks, if my under-hood lighting mod works out, I’ll show you that.
-Jay
