Replacing taillights

I just went to Harbor Freight and bought their trailer leds for a few bucks and wired them in in place of the old bulb burners and then sealed around to keep dry. Everything worked as before just brighter.

4x4van wrote:
If your trailer turn signals are simply wired in to your tow vehicle's turn signals, the "fast flash" likely won't be an issue since there will still be sufficient load on the turn signal circuit because of the tow vehicle's lights.

OOPS....the word "trailer" didn't sink in with me I guess.

Absolutely right if it really is a trailer and the lights are bridged to the towing vehicle. LEDs should work fine.....either replacement bulbs OR replacing the fixture with an LED strip made for that purpose. (as was mentioned in the previous post I now see)

Sam Spade wrote:
If they also serve as turn signals, putting in a high output, dual use LED (expensive) will probably result in the turn signals flashing too fast.......and they may not be any brighter at all viewing angles than your originals.

Actually this is wrong

If he is doing a trailer the change over will make NO DIFFERENCE on how fast the lamps flash.. Not one bit.

Now if it is the tow vehicle.. Then perhaps.. however when I changed my Motor homes.. No difference... I still have standard lamps in the front.. now if they fail.. BIG DIFFERNECE, but they do not often fail. More likely for the right front on my car to fail.. But I think I've fixed that. (And again the symptom is fast flashing).

Here is another example of trying to make one answer fit all questions.

If you tow vehicle has a BCM (Body Control Module) computer or something similar and the turn signals and flashers are "timer controlled" then the flash rate is set by the program and will not go fast.

If you have an older TV with a current sensing flasher module (The round ones that click) then a low current draw bulb will allow faster flashing, just like a burned out turn signal bulb.

These LED taillights should work fine. Seal everything. The only problem is lights for the license plate.

I just went through and replaced all of my running lights, along with tail and back up. I found everything on Amazon fairly easily and inexpensive. I did end up getting the brake and backup lights from E trailer. I just couldn't find what I wanted in these on Amazon. One thing that did bother me a little about all of the new lights is they are a LED circuit board. If it goes out you cant just replace the board. You'll end up needing to take the entire light off and replacing it. The technology in the ones I bought were old school diode as well where most leds are turning toward SMD technology which has proven to be much more reliable. My interior lights I used all cannon base replacement bulbs rather then doing the entire light and these were SMD. The back ups are so bright they almost look like floods









Ed