my LED tail light project Nov 2nd UPDATE

[universalexports]

well I have got my LED running lights working now I am working on LED tail lights.

I ordered 4 LED tail lights and chrome trim rings with visors from www.hyper-lights.com

I plan on doing 4 LED tail lights in the rear a lot like I rigged up on my 59 deluxe below. (see pic)






Well I am having a few issues, I ordered my lights and chrome trim from hyper-lights, but the trim rings do not really fit the lights, the light and hole are the same size exactly, so the best you can do is mount the trim ring flush against the light, which is fine but then you have nothing to mount the light to???

I happen to have another 4 lights I bought before I decided to use LED's, and those came with metal "cups" to sit them in, I can use those but I had to really cut up the light to get it to fit in the cup, I think I am going to have to cut the back out of the cups. I need another 1/4 inch for the plug.

I also did not like the lens that came with them, it is red but a bit more orange than my other lights that are a nice dark red, so I am switching out lenses. (see pic)

on the plus side even with a 9 volt battery as power they are nice and bright, they are the 3 prong stop/turn/tail lights


here are a few pics.


with 9 volt as power not sure why the LED's look white, they are red, red, red.




FINAL PRODUCT




Cutting the back off and grinding down lip on side so they fit in the cup





light in cup




lens comparison red and orangish red

[harrison429]

nice job, it came out great and i like it! and you're right, that red sure looks orange to me too.

[universalexports]

I think I am going to have to do away with the wire plug and just solder wires to the leads, I was going to just cut a hole in the back of the light "buckets" but due to the thin walls I think the other way will be to thick for the wall.

I used a continuity tester to figure out which plug hole is which wire, so I can just hard wire it.


black/ground
green/tail lights
red/stop & turn

[universalexports]

well an update on my LED tail lights, it's been a lot of work and figuring stuff out, getting them wired, modified to fit in the box for a regular light etc. but I got two installed today and they work!!!

the chrome eyebrow covers have about a half inch longer eyebrow on them then my other chrome covers. so I used the longer ones.

here are some pics.

I used a 9 volt battery to light them up.

[vikx]

Universal, is this your Deluxe?

[offspringin]

That looks pretty sweet man. I ran across a trailer the other day (posted it on here, the compact sized zipper). That was the first time i had seen LED lights on a vintage trailer in person and they looked good too. I like the look of the double lights and the little eye brows add some flair. Good job!

[universalexports]

no I sold my deluxe, I had put the same style tail lights in the deluxe, but they were not LED's

[vikx]

Thanks, I remember that now! New lights are cool...

[universalexports]

well I made some progress today, I have all four tail lights installed and wired up. and also have the 2 rear side marker wires ran, and the license plate light ran but it is getting dark and I am tired.

here they are hooked up and running while hooked up to my truck.

not sure if this is the best way, but I am running an actual ground wire all the way to the lights, not using the aluminum for the ground like some were. I did splice into the ground at the rear and ground it again to the frame of the camper for a double ground, all is working, tail, turn and brake lights.

[offspringin]

I did the same thing as far as the ground is concerned. When your running new wiring anyways it doesn't hurt (at least i don't think it does) to just go ahead and run the ground to each light as well. i did it for ALL our lights, the 14 clearance lights and our 2 stock tail lights. Didn't want to have to deal with a possible bad ground connection from the skin though there shouldn't have been an issue.

Lights look really good. Looks even better seeing all 4 up and working.

[universalexports]

well I got my LED side marker lights hooked up today, they rock!!! it was getting dark, but you get the idea.

[universalexports]

here are some daytime pics, i still am waiting on the LED light for the license plate to arrive

[universalexports]

just an update, I finally got my LED lights for my license plate, I ordered it off ebay, for about 4 bucks, turns out it had to be shipped from Hong Kong!!!

they are flexable, with double sided tape on one side, so I taped it inside the Light housing and glued in place on two corners, they look great, not to bright, but just enough to serve it's purpose. you can see the strip inside the lens if you look close.











NOT QUITE DARK OUT







DARK OUT SIDE