Switch to LED Tail Lights

Night time

Old park lights

Led park lights

Old turn

Led turn

Oh...thank you RLS7201 for keeping me straight. I absolutely don't pretend to understand it, just my take on what my buddy told me. Your explanation is appreciated.

Thank my mechanic friend in Orlando - certainly nothing I would have ever imagined. He was telling me about this while putting a brake controller on my F53 chassis. Glad it helped someone!

conceptumator wrote:
Check one thing on the Ford, though - VERY important! The torque converter is unlocked by the power draw in the brake light circuit when you stop. LED lights don't draw enough power to make it unlock and it can burn up a transmission. Simple solution is to add one incandescent bulb somewhere in the circuit and wrap it in electrical tape to hide the glow.

Well now isn't this interesting?

Lately, I've noticed that when I turn on my blinker to change lanes at highway speeds, the torque converter unlocks. It's been bothering me for months as to why in the world this happens. I guess I now have my answer. Yes, I'm on a Ford F53 chassis. Who knew?!

conceptumator wrote:
Check one thing on the Ford, though - VERY important! The torque converter is unlocked by the power draw in the brake light circuit when you stop. LED lights don't draw enough power to make it unlock and it can burn up a transmission. Simple solution is to add one incandescent bulb somewhere in the circuit and wrap it in electrical tape to hide the glow.

You're right but you got the problem back wards.

There is some inductive voltage on the stoplight wires that is pulled down by the stoplight filaments. Once the incandescent filaments are removed the computer sees the inductive voltage and won't let the torque converter go into lockup. In some cases the cruse control won't engage either. I had this very problem on my 95 F53 when I changed over to Bargman's replacement LED assemblies.
As you properly stated, the addition of small incandescent filaments to the stoplight wires will cure the problem. In my case I added a 912 incandescent bulb to each side. Engineering at Bargman acknowledged the problem and concurred with my resolution to it.
I would warn against wrapping the bulb in tape. The bulb could generate enough heat to start the tape burning.

Richard

Changed mine to LED in 2005, Coach is a 2005. Mine are easier to find though.

Check one thing on the Ford, though - VERY important! The torque converter is unlocked by the power draw in the brake light circuit when you stop. LED lights don't draw enough power to make it unlock and it can burn up a transmission. Simple solution is to add one incandescent bulb somewhere in the circuit and wrap it in electrical tape to hide the glow.

One other thing that a lot of people don't think about....

It's small, but it adds up. LED's use considerably less power than standard 12V lights. With many class A RV's they have a ton of running lights amongst other lights. It can put a lot less stress on the alternator and/or more charge into your house batteries while driving.

Many of us don't mind the power hogging nature of RV's, but they really are. Any steps that we can do to save power, better MPG's, and be more "green" are good things. LED's are the tip of the iceburg and not much, but it's a tiny step to making things better.

I changed my TT over to those. I'm sure glad I didn't have to buy that many!
They look good though.