1157 Bulbs burnt out

helperzack wrote:
My back up light on the driver side burnt out on our last trip. Then when moving the motor home here at the house I noticed the brake/turn signal bulb was out now too.
Removed both covers to find cloudy bulbs. White coating inside the bulbs, guess this just means they just burnt out.
Question is why did manufacture use the same bulb in both sockets? 1157 is a two element bulb and I cannot figure why it would have been used for the back up light? More light if both elements were lit?
Any thoughts?
Thinking about going to led's as I recently put them on my dolly and love the bright light that they put out.

helperzack,
As has been stated, it's merely a cost/more efficient approach to streamlining the manufacturing/assembly process. Our '04 Itasca Horizon, 36GD with the C-7 330HP CAT, is setup the exact same way in the tail light assemblies. It's utilizing the same bulb, in six sockets back there. One on each side is purely running. One on each side is running and brake. And finally, the bottom is backup, on each side and, yep, using the same bulbs. Sure makes it easy to keep a spare bulb on hand. The old adage, "ONE SIZE FITS ALL".
Scott