Hi, One of the tail lights on our TT burned out. It's a stop and tail light 3157 bulb with two elements, with the wedge shaped plastic base. This one is a CEC3157. I was looking online for a replacement, and found that I can get LED replacements for less than the standard automotive bulbs. My question is, would these LED replacements work correctly as a plug and play for tail and stop/turn signal functions?HERE is a link to some of these LED replacements on ebay.Thank you in advance.

Be careful. After spending lots of time on eBay I have come to the conclusion that most sellers lie like hell about the luminosity of their LED lamp's They'll sell four and total up the lumens for all four. I purchased a pair of not so inexpensive CREE 1156 lamps that are claimed to be 7 watts. At 12.24 volts, they consume .23 amperes. They are not bright, they are claimed to be 5500K and look closer to 7K.I found at least I hope I found a way to possibly thwart some of the hucksterism, and that is to send a question to the vendor"How many amperes EXACTLY does each lamp consume at 12.0 volts?"If they don't know, the product is almost guaranteed to be garbage.One Vendor replied "If this lamp, in your opinion, is not at least twice as bright as a new incandescent, I will refund your money". He got my business. But it wasn't an el-cheapo bulb, either.

In addition to the luminosity Mex mentioned, there's what I'll call Directionality, or Focus.By that I mean that an incandescent bulb's filament shines 360* but LED's are directional. The lamp manufacturer still builds their reflector and lens to capture the light off the filament in the very best position. But sticking an LED in the socket for an incandescent is quite likely to waste a lot of the emitted light.Our Class C had the Bargman 84/85/86 lights. Two Red Tail/Stop/Turn lenses with a clear Backup lens between. I bought complete Bargman replacement assemblies. Did away with the Bulbs AND the Socket Problems I was having. Not cheap, but they pop your eyes out on Stop and Turn.

crcr wrote:Hi, One of the tail lights on our TT burned out. It's a stop and tail light 3157 bulb with two elements, with the wedge shaped plastic base. This one is a CEC3157. I was looking online for a replacement, and found that I can get LED replacements for less than the standard automotive bulbs. My question is, would these LED replacements work correctly as a plug and play for tail and stop/turn signal functions?HERE is a link to some of these LED replacements on ebay.Thank you in advance.The real answer is no, LEDs retrofitted into in a fixture which was solely designed for incadescent bulbs often results in less than satisfactory results.LEDs are very directional in light dispersion and some manufacturers attempt to make them omnidirectional by putting a bunch of low wattage LEDs in a "corn cob" design to overcome the directionality issue. The light still tends to be uneven and will end up being less bright overall.Then add in that Ebay is FULL of fly by night fleecers selling what ever junk they can get their hands on..Just go and buy the correct incadescent bulbs, they will work better in your fixtures and typically can be had for under $6 for TWO bulbs..If you want LED tail lights then buy new purposely made replacement fixtures with LEDs (you CAN buy surface mount LED fixtures), they will be brighter.

Gdetrailer wrote:crcr wrote:Hi, One of the tail lights on our TT burned out. It's a stop and tail light 3157 bulb with two elements, with the wedge shaped plastic base. This one is a CEC3157. I was looking online for a replacement, and found that I can get LED replacements for less than the standard automotive bulbs. My question is, would these LED replacements work correctly as a plug and play for tail and stop/turn signal functions?HERE is a link to some of these LED replacements on ebay.Thank you in advance.The real answer is no, LEDs retrofitted into in a fixture which was solely designed for incadescent bulbs often results in less than satisfactory results.LEDs are very directional in light dispersion and some manufacturers attempt to make them omnidirectional by putting a bunch of low wattage LEDs in a "corn cob" design to overcome the directionality issue. The light still tends to be uneven and will end up being less bright overall.Then add in that Ebay is FULL of fly by night fleecers selling what ever junk they can get their hands on..Just go and buy the correct incadescent bulbs, they will work better in your fixtures and typically can be had for under $6 for TWO bulbs..If you want LED tail lights then buy new purposely made replacement fixtures with LEDs (you CAN buy surface mount LED fixtures), they will be brighter.I have bought lots and lots of various styles of LED's over the years on ebay, converting the interior lights of every vehicle and TT that I have owned, and they have been very bright (much much brighter than the incandescent bulbs they replaced) and held up very well. And I just buy the lowest price from very high feedback major sellers of whatever item I am purchasing. I also have bought various other items on ebay for years and years, finding the quality of the products on average to be as good as the products I buy anywhere else. Besides, if I should receive a shoddy quality product from an ebay seller, I have recourse through ebay. Ebay is very "buyer friendly" and they will refund you in full including shipping if you are dissatisfied, even if perchance the seller will not.I just ordered two LED 3157 replacements on ebay. Cost shipped was $3.12, which is about what one incandescent 3157 costs. And as I said, if the product turns out to be inferior, I have easy recourse through ebay.

RV 3157 Stop & Tail Bulb -- LED Plug and Play? | Good Sam Community

MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Apr 16, 2014
Be careful. After spending lots of time on eBay I have come to the conclusion that most sellers lie like hell about the luminosity of their LED lamp's They'll sell four and total up the lumens for all four. I purchased a pair of not so inexpensive CREE 1156 lamps that are claimed to be 7 watts. At 12.24 volts, they consume .23 amperes. They are not bright, they are claimed to be 5500K and look closer to 7K.

I found at least I hope I found a way to possibly thwart some of the hucksterism, and that is to send a question to the vendor

"How many amperes EXACTLY does each lamp consume at 12.0 volts?"

If they don't know, the product is almost guaranteed to be garbage.

One Vendor replied "If this lamp, in your opinion, is not at least twice as bright as a new incandescent, I will refund your money". He got my business. But it wasn't an el-cheapo bulb, either.
badboy368
Explorer
Apr 16, 2014
thanks for the link :)

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RV 3157 Stop & Tail Bulb -- LED Plug and Play?

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