Turn Signals Gone Bad...

[JLinder]

I recently removed my bed to install a flatbed. I had my bed off and nothing what so ever on the back of my truck for a while. Now that I got my bed on and I wired up the lights (LED's if that matters) the turn signals flash extremely fast. All 4 corners work with the blinkers on. The only thing I can think of is that the LED's draw so little they still think the bulb is blown. Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

[Shelby Griggs]

It is the low current draw of the LED's. I have a flatbed with LED's, same problem. I have searched high and low, for a non current sensing flasher of the 5 terminal type, no luck yet. I did recently learn that Tridon EP 27 is a direct replacement, but I can't find one locally. A guy with a Jeep at rockcrawler.com did a LED mod on his jeep, and found that the EP 27 fixed his rapid flash. Other models of the Tridon EP series indicate that they flash at 120 FPM if a bulb is out, so I have my doubts if this will be any better than OEM. I am thinking of buying one when I can find one, and taking it apart and seeing if it can be bombed. There must be some way to disable the rapid flash. Tridon does make other flashers that do not have this feature, but not in a five terminal pinout. I have contacted Grote, the maker of my LED's and they do have a flasher for LED's, just not in a five pin configuration.



For awhile I added a resistor, but that defeats the purpose of the low current draw LED's and is not very high tech



If anyone figures this out, I would like to know. In over a year of looking, the Tridon EP 27 is the first flasher that I have found, except OEM, that will even plug into our trucks.



Shelby

 

[Royk]

I have a '95 2500 gasser, so I'm not sure if your '01 is different. Mine has two flashers in the fuse panel. Try swapping them. I believe the second flasher is heavier duty and is provided for towing. Perhaps your turn signals are using the heavier duty one instead of the normal one. Or perhaps I have no idea what I'm talking about! My owners manual makes absolutely no mention of these flashers, so this is all just assumption on my part. All I know is that I need to swap them when I attach my snowplow or boat trailer, otherwise I get the fast blink. Only takes about 5 seconds to try it and see.

 

[Shelby Griggs]

Royk,



Different animal starting in 2000 or thereabouts. Only one flasher for everything, and it has 5 terminals. After market flashers are rare to non existent. The quest continues.



Shelby