Brake,tail and signal light conversion to LED

[jim_behr]

I have a 2012 3500 silverado and pull a 14000 lb 5th wheel. I want to switch out the standard tail lights to LED. I'm sure you all have done this, any advise?

[Gdetrailer]

Cummins12V98 wrote:

lpxguy wrote:

jim behr wrote:
I have a 2012 3500 silverado and pull a 14000 lb 5th wheel. I want to switch out the standard tail lights to LED. I'm sure you all have done this, any advise?

are you looking to replace the TV or 5er tail lights?

here are the ones I did my 5er with, stock flasher no problems.

Moderator edit to re-size picture to forum limit of 640px maximum width.

Changed out to these Bargman LED's on our Avion Platinum a few years ago. Amazing how people notice you want to move over with proper lighting. Well worth the bucks.

Those are the same Bargmans I have..

Do yourself a favor and buy an extra pair.. You WILL be replacing them in the near future and it will be better to have a replacemnt on hand so if it fails while on the road you can replace it..

By the way, my marker lights almost foiled my plans of getting my trailer inspected this morning.. The center marker on the rear FAILED to light this morning :M

I was somewhat prepared since several of these lights were only half lighting..

I bought a bunch of THESE modules, added a 200 ohm resistor to cut down the brightness (they ARE extremely bright). Cutting down the brightness also reduces the current drawn and WILL add considerable more LIFE to the LEDS.

Bought amber ones also and I WILL be preparing MORE of these replacements...

Now to "can open" those junky Bargmans and rework them to be reliable :S

[Cummins12V98]

lpxguy wrote:

jim behr wrote:
I have a 2012 3500 silverado and pull a 14000 lb 5th wheel. I want to switch out the standard tail lights to LED. I'm sure you all have done this, any advise?

are you looking to replace the TV or 5er tail lights?

here are the ones I did my 5er with, stock flasher no problems.

Moderator edit to re-size picture to forum limit of 640px maximum width.

Changed out to these Bargman LED's on our Avion Platinum a few years ago. Amazing how people notice you want to move over with proper lighting. Well worth the bucks.

[Heavy_Metal_Doc]

burningman wrote:

The cost is nowhere near what many of us have spent other places in the interest of looking cool!

:C yeah, really......

[burningman]

I put LEDs in my camper and my flatbed trailer for two reasons. First, all those extra lights were a strain on my truck's wiring and I've had issues because of it. Second, my camper and trailer sit outside unused a lot. Every time I use one (or both) I'm always messing with rusty sockets trying to get them all to work. Since going LED, every time I plug in either rig, everything just works.

I've used LEDs in trucks a lot and yeah I know, theoretically they should last half of forever but in real life they don't, but the super-low current draw alone is enough to sell me on them. Plus… they DO look cool.
The cost is nowhere near what many of us have spent other places in the interest of looking cool!

[Keith099]

If you have Command Electronics taillights originally, Command sells a DOT-approved plug in replacement kit. Extremely well-built with its own custom PCB and lens. You use the same backplate, so no new holes or sealant on the camper. Looks clean, and it's DOT-approved.

Amperage on braking lights dropped from 10.5A to 1.1A. Running lights dropped from 4.2A to 0.35A. Since it's less return potential on the ground pin, in theory it should increase trailer braking power by a very small amount.

[Sprig]

Gdetrailer wrote:
...You factory incadescent vehicle tail lights are plenty bright and the bulbs have a long life (I have a 11 yr old vehicle with 200,000 miles on it with ALL the ORIGINAL incadescent bulbs).

Well, in MY experience, I had a rear lamp fail... in about 6 years, with very little mileage.

The LED replacement I used is SIGNIFICANTLY brighter, and uses less power, and makes my TOAD lights a little brighter as well (I suspect due to less voltage drop in the circuit).

LEDS are like new cool electronic toys. I don't take very good care of my electronic toys. I just use them. If they get subject to something that makes them fail, it just gives me a reason for an UPGRADE!!!

So, even if one of my new gizzmo LEDs fail in the reasonably new future, it won't bother me one bit to replace BOTH with the newest generation of LED lighting.

[Gdetrailer]

riggsp wrote:
Changed all the exterior lights to LED's 2 years ago...Tail/Stop/Turn Signal, and all amber and red running lights...have had absolutely no problems with them and they are brighter than the incandescent lights that I took off, and no troubles with the flasher...the old lenses (only 2 years old) were getting cloudy and falling apart from weather exposure...if I had to do it over, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Mine looked good for the first couple of years but now every year I am enjoying replacing at least one LED module. I am now to the point that I am thinking about can opening those lousy modules a rebuild them THE RIGHT WAY (lowering the current draw) and with better LEDs.

After the first Tail light module bought the farm while traveling I now carry AT LEAST TWO of those modules so I can replace while on the road. Buy them each and they are nearly $50 each or as I wised up just buy another tail light "pair" of modules for about $60.

Spent $7 per marker and now I have 4 markers which are only lighting on half of the marker..

As far as the flasher goes, most vehicles now days use a separate set of fused circuits which use a set of relays FOR THE TRAILER LIGHT CONNECTION. The vehicle in this case DOES NOT see any load change.

HOWEVER if you decide to put LED bulbs in your VEHICLE tail lights you WILL need to add the load resistors. Modern day vehicles use the body control computer to detect the proper bulb current. If it doesn't see the correct current drawn it IS supposed to hyper flash..

Keep in mind HYPER FLASH is if you replace the vehicle incadescent bulbs with LED lights..

[riggsp]

Changed all the exterior lights to LED's 2 years ago...Tail/Stop/Turn Signal, and all amber and red running lights...have had absolutely no problems with them and they are brighter than the incandescent lights that I took off, and no troubles with the flasher...the old lenses (only 2 years old) were getting cloudy and falling apart from weather exposure...if I had to do it over, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

[Heavy_Metal_Doc]

Gdetrailer wrote:

Heavy Metal Doctor wrote:

LED lights do generally last a lot longer, as long at you buy a reputable brand. I have many commercial trucks processed through with Maxxima, Grote and Ttuck-Lite brands and can't recall a customer complaint of a premature failure.

I have the Bargman #84 LEDs which lpxguy posted.. THEY DO NOT "LAST"

Best I have gotten out of them before they quit is TWO YEARS and that is only traveling 2K miles per year..

I got smart and started buying the two module fixture since it IS cheaper than buying a SINGLE "replacement" module.

I regret the day I ever decided to replace the incadescent fixtures, they were dead simple AND cheap to fix ($1 bulb and contact cleaner once every few years).

As far as commercial truck brands goes.. I replaced all the markers with Grote and guess what? Yep, I have TWO intermittent ones that half the LEDs inside quit every once and a while and TWO that have only ONE of the two sets of LEDs still working.. Yep, that there is gonna cost me a cool $20 for more LED markers vs $4 for four incadescent marker bulbs :S :M

You are only fooling yourself if you really think those commercial LEDs last a long time.. My daily commute is an hr each way on very busy trucking routes.. I work near a major Postal bulk mail center on top of that.. I see hundreds of trucks a week and I RARELY EVER see trucks which DON'T have partial or fully burned out LEDs...

I won't recommend folks to change over to them unless they love spending a lot of money constantly replacing expensive modules every few years.. Incadescent bulbs are dirt cheap, LED modules are not..

Yeah, well I'm sorry for your luck and I'm not trying to be an jerk, but I never heard of Bargman 'till I started fooling with RV's - that right there tells me they are likely cheap junk parts and I would never buy them thinking it was an upgrade / expect them to last.

And seeing trucks on the road and working on them for living are different situations. Those trucks you see with burned out diodes could have a half million miles on them. They also may get covered by a warranty, depending on the brand and the deal the supporting fleet shop has on them. I have heard some talk of exactly that situation you pointed out is positive - a few diodes can burn out and you still have light within DOT spec's whereas an incandescent just burns completely out.

I also have yet to experience an LED short and cause a backfeed that makes all the lights on a unit go wacky the way I have with incandescent.....although, I do enjoy those situations when the customer calls in freaking out thinking his whole rig needs to be rewired because of a broken filament making every light glow when he steps on the brakes - I look like a god when I tell them to pull the brake light bulbs out and replace them and they call back with "That fixed it!!! HOW DID YOU KNOW!!!??".....

And I'm not saying I would recommend someone to change either. You are correct, there is no serious NEED for LED's on a travel trailer, but they DO look nicer and standout better in most peoples view so I would not tell someone NOT to switch if they feel like it.....heck if we are gonna tell each other what to do and this or that is a waste or too expensive then we all should permanently park these RV's/5er's/ TT's and not spend a dime on the excess fuel and campground fees and on and on....it's a hobby, there will be bumps and mistakes and parts that don't work out for us after spending money - learn from it, do what works for you (sound like you are), and enjoy it!

[Gdetrailer]

Heavy Metal Doctor wrote:

LED lights do generally last a lot longer, as long at you buy a reputable brand. I have many commercial trucks processed through with Maxxima, Grote and Ttuck-Lite brands and can't recall a customer complaint of a premature failure.

I have the Bargman #84 LEDs which lpxguy posted.. THEY DO NOT "LAST"

Best I have gotten out of them before they quit is TWO YEARS and that is only traveling 2K miles per year..

I got smart and started buying the two module fixture since it IS cheaper than buying a SINGLE "replacement" module.

I regret the day I ever decided to replace the incadescent fixtures, they were dead simple AND cheap to fix ($1 bulb and contact cleaner once every few years).

As far as commercial truck brands goes.. I replaced all the markers with Grote and guess what? Yep, I have TWO intermittent ones that half the LEDs inside quit every once and a while and TWO that have only ONE of the two sets of LEDs still working.. Yep, that there is gonna cost me a cool $20 for more LED markers vs $4 for four incadescent marker bulbs :S :M

You are only fooling yourself if you really think those commercial LEDs last a long time.. My daily commute is an hr each way on very busy trucking routes.. I work near a major Postal bulk mail center on top of that.. I see hundreds of trucks a week and I RARELY EVER see trucks which DON'T have partial or fully burned out LEDs...

I won't recommend folks to change over to them unless they love spending a lot of money constantly replacing expensive modules every few years.. Incadescent bulbs are dirt cheap, LED modules are not..

[Heavy_Metal_Doc]

Some vehicle mfr's are doing separate circuits for trailer wiring and / or using electronic flash controllers that don't care about the resistance of incandescent or LED bulbs on the trailer circuits.

Sure, it will will give a fault indication when a bulb is out on the TV, but it won't tell you about the trailer because there are to many variables there for them to set the system to proper resistance sensitivity.
Connect up a different trailer with a different number of lights and the flash rate would change. This used to happen on old resistance flashers when you spliced trailer lights directly into the tail lights of the TV.
The newer vehicle circuitry is also why it is not uncommon to have all lights working on the TV and nothing on the trailer plug - separate circuits with their own fuses.

LED lights do generally last a lot longer, as long at you buy a reputable brand. I have many commercial trucks processed through with Maxxima, Grote and Ttuck-Lite brands and can't recall a customer complaint of a premature failure.

[Gdetrailer]

RCMAN46 wrote:
With your 2012 3500 Silverado you will not have a problem with the flash rate. The output comes from a computer in the truck. It does have dedicated fuses for the trailer.

Umm.. the "computer" is designed to detect the current draw of the bulbs as a SAFETY FEATURE to let the driver know when an IMPORTANT BULB is no longer working.

If the computer does not "see" enough amperage drawn it WILL go into hyperflash mode.

Hence the reason one would have to add a resistor when changing incadescent to LED on a vehicle. The resistor SIMULATES the filament of a bulb by WASTING current as heat..

Pretty much a DOT thing.

There is really no good reason to change from the factory incadescent bulb to a LED other than wasting your money AND you will have to defeat a safety item to do that anyways (LEDS DO FAIL, if you don't believe me I HAVE a failed set of $60 Bargman trailer tail lights laying around).

You factory incadescent vehicle tail lights are plenty bright and the bulbs have a long life (I have a 11 yr old vehicle with 200,000 miles on it with ALL the ORIGINAL incadescent bulbs).

[RCMAN46]

With your 2012 3500 Silverado you will not have a problem with the flash rate. The output comes from a computer in the truck. It does have dedicated fuses for the trailer.

[DHDB]

You might want to check out Bargman and see if they make a dirct replacement for your current taillight.

http://www.bargman.com/content/default.aspx

[LarryJM]

jim behr wrote:
I have a 2012 3500 silverado and pull a 14000 lb 5th wheel. I want to switch out the standard tail lights to LED. I'm sure you all have done this, any advise?

Just be careful if you live in a state with vehicle inspections since the vast majority of LED replacement bulbs and even a lot of LED assemblies are not DOT approved and might result in a failed vehicle inspection depending on your particular state vehicle inspection requirements.

Larry