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LED tail lights?
Post by knave on Sept 7, 2006, 2:50pm
Long ago there were some posts on some stock looking(ish) LED tail lights...
I've been searching all morning with no luck. Anyone converted stock or almost stock 24v tail lights to LED? What's generally considdered the "right" tail lights to get if I want a stock looking rig? It's not gonna be perfect but I want to keep the military feel.
Do we do the same for the front marker lights?
Any input on LED on our trucks would be helpful.
Re: LED tail lights?
Post by brute4c on Sept 7, 2006, 3:45pm
One member some time back took off the stock housings, had to cut out some of the inside "lumps" and opened the face plates up...then installed 4 inch round Grote LED's in there....
Several members have used the mil surplus LED lights from other mil vehicles...pricey but they work...not exactly the same housing and shape...most people would never know.
Re: LED tail lights?
Post by knave on Sept 7, 2006, 4:11pm
Are the "Hummer" style lights LED? I've seen these mentioned form time to time. I thought that they were just brighter and more visable.
Mil surplus LED's...? How pricy are they?
Re: LED tail lights?
Post by twodogs on Sept 7, 2006, 4:35pm
You can get the non-LED military units for M-35's and Hummers on Ebay for under 35 bucks, sometimes.
These were about a century each as I recall:
http://www.truck-lite.com/webapp/wcs/sto....4204&lan gId=-1
Nice, but not worth 100 bucks (to me, anyway).
Somebody here had 4 inch round LED's mounted in the tailgate. I thought that was a cool look, and they stay up out of the muck, too. Those are about $25 each from Truck-Lite, but you have to run four or use a converter with the original wiring. Separate brake/turn circuit and all that. They work on 12 or 24 volt. No problem.
Re: LED tail lights?
Post by compexp on Sept 7, 2006, 4:48pm
I used these:
http://www.truck-lite.com/webapp/wcs/sto....0332&l angId=-1
Pricey, but VERY bright.
Re: LED tail lights?
Post by k8icu on Sept 7, 2006, 6:15pm
Didn't Beast put some LED into the original round "cats eye" lights?
Re: LED tail lights?
Post by compexp on Sept 7, 2006, 6:48pm
http://www.buytruckstuff.com/ledlights.htm#
Re: LED tail lights?
Post by barrman on Sept 8, 2006, 8:17am
I installed these M35 lights on my truck yesterday. You may have read other post about my wiring switch over. I didnt' want to mess with rewiring the stock small lights at the same time I was trying to make the entire system work. The rear ones bolted right on with no modification. The front ones required me to put about a thumb width of space between the light and the little plate it bolts to. Without the spacer, you will need to cut the front valence up.
These lights have the LED b/o lights, but are normal filament running and blinker/brake bulbs. I personally like the small light look and will switch them out once I get all the bugs worked out of the wiring system.
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/8201/p9080020ps4.jpg
http://img461.imageshack.us/img461/9792/p9080021jv1.jpg
I know this doesn't answer your question directly, but this is an option that is pretty easy and painless to do if you want LED NOW!
Re: LED tail lights?
Post by beast on Sept 8, 2006, 8:48am
Quote: <TABLE class=bordercolor cellSpacing=1 width="90%"><TBODY><TR><TD width="100%"><TABLE class=quote cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD width="100%">Didn't Beast put some LED into the original round "cats eye" lights? </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Yes, I mounted 3" x 1/2" LED strips into the black out slot. These LED are aftermarket accessories for motorcycles that have both running light mode and brake light mode. I wired the running light mode to the blackout system so that it still works as a blackout when switched on. And then wired the brake light mode to the brake light wire with the regular bulb above it. So when the brakes are applied it lights both the regular bulb in the cat eye and the super bright LED in the blackout slot. Works real nice and was a fairly easy mod to do. Here is a pick, you can see the LED strip in the blackout slots.
http://www.davidallenracing.com/DSC03396.jpg
Re: LED tail lights?
Post by outlaw on Sept 9, 2006, 11:12am
Beast, what a wonderful truck that is. Mine isn't nearly as nice, but dammit, it's original. I wanna do a frame-off pictoral just like you. You're my hero.