LED Bulbs

[Silas_Carpy]

Getting ready to open and re-seal my clearance lights. I’ve read that it’s a good idea to replace bulbs with LED. 2 questions: I know u usually get what u pay for, does anyone know why there is such a big difference in price for same size bulb. About a buck apiece or less on Amazon up to 10 bucks each at parts store. Is there that big a dif in quality? 2nd, are they worth the extra expense for sometime rv’er? I know they save money on electric in house but I’m not paying electric in rv, use rv a few times a year. Will incandescents last long enough? Thanks.

[RAS43]

We have owned our trailer for 15 years and the previous owner had replaced all the marker lights w/leds. We have not replaced any of them and travel 3-5000 miles every year. So there may be different quality levels in lights. These are Grote lights.

[Gdetrailer]

JimK-NY wrote:
Personally I would not trust cheap internet bulbs. I just replaced the entire fixture for $5 each from Tweety's. That decreases the concern that the old gaskets might leak. The new units are sealed so a little chalk behind the unit assures leak free installation.

The bad thing I discovered going the route of complete new sealed LED fixtures is when they die.

They DO die and it is always at the worst possible moment.

Bought a 18ft flatbed trailer to haul things back in 2010, purposely specified LED fixtures, paid a up charge for the LED fixtures.

So far, I have had to replace 1 Red round marker and both oval stop/turn tail lights and they randomly started failing after only 5 yrs of ownership. That trailer typically gets 2K or a bit less miles per yr.

If you go the sealed route, make sure you buy spares of everything as you will most definitely use the spares.

My TT, was lucky when I bought new LED Oval markers, they were not sealed, the lenses are removable.. Those started randomly failing after 6 yrs of summer use..

I wished I would have just replaced with incadescents.. But I forged on and found commercial signage LEDs that just fit inside.. Added a resistor to reduce brightness to the same level as the original LEDs(which will increase longevity) and this spring finished replacing the other 4 that had not failed yet.

If you think for one second replacing incadescent bulbs with LEDs will reduce replacements think again.. Been around this block multiple times.

I do like the brightness, not impressed with how manufacturers over drive them which drastically shortens their life..

[JimK-NY]

Personally I would not trust cheap internet bulbs. I just replaced the entire fixture for $5 each from Tweety's. That decreases the concern that the old gaskets might leak. The new units are sealed so a little chalk behind the unit assures leak free installation.

[Mel_Stuplich]

Because "marker lights" are seldom used while boodocking replacing them with LEDs to conserve power is not advantages/(not worth the expense).

[Gdetrailer]

Silas Carpy wrote:
Checked the Jdm on Amazon, moderately priced, I’ll give them a try, will do brake lights as well. Hadn’t considered the boondocking, valid point. We may be joining harvest hosts when wife retires and that’s all boondocking. Thank you all for replies.

Interior bulbs you might want to check out other vendors as the JDMs "white" are typically 6,000K color temperatures or higher which will give a pretty narly blueish light for inside use.

Inside color temps can get tricky, incadescent is roughly 2700K which has a warm yellow look.

3000K-4000K much less yellow.

5000K and up gets you into blueish tint.

[Silas_Carpy]

Checked the Jdm on Amazon, moderately priced, I’ll give them a try, will do brake lights as well. Hadn’t considered the boondocking, valid point. We may be joining harvest hosts when wife retires and that’s all boondocking. Thank you all for replies.

[Gdetrailer]

wopachop wrote:
If you live in cold climate and dont care about power consumption the LED lights are not as beneficial.

OP is asking about retrofitting "marker" or "running" lights, which are on the outside of the trailer. Not so much about heat savings or power consumption, more about whether LEDs in marker light fixtures will outlast incandescent bulbs in the same fixtures.

For certain applications like Stop/Turn tail lights, LEDs fast turn on speed and high intensity compared to incandescents may make the difference between to driver behind you noticing quick enough to avoid hitting you or not. Typical incadescent tail lights barely show up in bright sunshiny days, where properly designed LED tail lights tend to be extremely intense and visable day or night.

To that, LEDs have the "potential" of 50K hrs of life on paper.

In reality however and in real life, most LEDs will last far, far less than 50K hrs. Much comes down to how hard the LED bulb maker decided to push or drive the LEDs and current drivers up to and sometimes past the published specifications for the LED.

Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing how much the LED bulb maker decided to push the LEDs so real life use may be only a few hundred hrs or it could be a few thousand hrs..

OP might buy some that last 10yrs or some that after a yr or two start dying. That is just part of the game we must play.

If OP wants LEDs in the markers, they should buy enough to replace what they currently have plus a few spares.

Get Amber LEDs for the Amber markers and Red for the Red markers, you will get the best brightness for the replacements when converting from incadescents to LEDs in the markers.

For Tail lights, get Red LEDs for sure, however, with LEDs the light pattern is vastly different and retrofiting LEDs into tail lights not designed for LEDs are a hit or miss proposition.

For a recommendation, I have had very good results with JDM ASTAR brand I get from Amazon. Have used their LED retrofits for Backup lights and license plate lights. Been using those in vehicles for 5yrs or more and so far, none have let me down.

[valhalla360]

For exterior lights:
- I would give serious thought to LED Brake lights...not for power savings but the speed they light up. An incandescent is typically around 0.5sec to light up. An LED is typically around 0.05sec. That means drivers behind you have almost an extra half second to react and brake. Plus the good ones are brighter.
- Running lights...If you feel like it fine but power consumption isn't a big deal with the motor running, especially if you don't do a lot of driving at night they aren't typically on anyway.
- General outdoor illumination: This is where power consumption savings can be beneficial. These lights are on for long periods of time when there is no charging source active. Quality is important as some LED light sources create a harsh light that some people find uncomfortable but that's becoming less and less of an issue.

[jdc1]

For those of us who boondock, LED's use less power, allowing us to use charging sources less. LED's also last 10 times longer than incandescent's. LED's are cooler too. If brightness matters, there is a whole rangee of lumenescents to choose from.

[Sandia_Man]

It is your call which exterior/interior lights you deem need LED replacements, no doubt they are not as power hungry, put off way less heat than incandescents, and in most cases deliver more lumens than their counterparts. As for online LED quality compared to store bought overpriced LEDs, it all depends where or who you purchase them from. I have purchased our LEDs from both types of sources and it has been a toss up, we purchased over 90% of LEDS online from reputable sources, at a fraction of the costs of store bought we have been pleasantly surprised with zero duds over the many years.