LED tail light bulbs

[Radio_Flyer]

This past weekend we were following a fellow RW owner in the rain and very cloudy. The marker lights and tail lights were not very bright and that included the brake lights. Has anyone swapped to LEDs? Thinking one of the new CREE LEDs might be the ticket. Thanks.

[hoosierguy]

Originally Posted by Radio_Flyer

This past weekend we were following a fellow RW owner in the rain and very cloudy. The marker lights and tail lights were not very bright and that included the brake lights. Has anyone swapped to LEDs? Thinking one of the new CREE LEDs might be the ticket. Thanks.

I am considering upgrading to the LED lights also for the tail lights. www.etrailer.com sells an Optronics part that appears to be an exact (LED)replacement for the 4 inch tail lights on the Redwood coaches.



I think the LED "tail/brake/turn" will show up better in daylight and rain based on what I see on the trucks these days.

[Radio_Flyer]

Thanks for the reply and info. I've been emailing etrailer about replacements. I think if anyone has been behind one of our rigs they would see how dim the lights are. I'm replacing the markers with LEDs just need something for the tail lights. I'll let you know what I end up doing.

[lwg]

I was worried about this very thing. Let us know what works. It looks to me like a standard sized tail light, shouldn't be too hard to find an LED replacement.

[hoosierguy]

I placeda my order today from etrailer.com. Should have the new LED replacement tail lights by this weekend. Hopefully, these newtaillights will fit the existing mounting flanges.

[Radio_Flyer]

I have had them out already, the three prong plug is standard. They are siliconed in, so it takes a little pulling. They are a throw away unit, nothing replaceable in them. This is what I was looking at to replace them - http://www.etrailer.com/<wbr>Trailer-Lights/Optronics/<wbr>STL43RBX.html Should be direct fit because the grommet is what attaches them. If you get them installed, let me know how it worked out.

[Diesel chaser]

Please post results as we are interested in changing ours also.

[atom ant]

X2 that would be cool.

[hoosierguy]

Originally Posted by Radio_Flyer

I have had them out already, the three prong plug is standard. They are siliconed in, so it takes a little pulling. They are a throw away unit, nothing replaceable in them. This is what I was looking at to replace them - http://www.etrailer.com/<WBR>Trailer-Lights/Optronics/<WBR>STL43RBX.html Should be direct fit because the grommet is what attaches them. If you get them installed, let me know how it worked out.

I took a quick look at the link above. Please be aware that the STL43RBX is not an exact replacement for what is currently used on the Redwood, but, I believe it could be made to work. The existing tail lights with mounting flange are 5.5 inches in diameter. The STL43RBX is 5.75 inches in diameter so it will havedifferent dimensions for the mounting 3 mounting screw holes. It does have the refective mounting flange as an integral assembly which may be a plus.



I ordered the STL43RB(red) and STL43AB(amber) along with the seperate mounting flange P/N AB45BB (non reflective). I plan to replace the back up lights (they have no value for me) with the amber lights and re-wire so that they come on with the turn signals in addition to the regular red turn signal.



I should have everything by Friday and will take pictures once I have them installed.

[lwg]

I've always thought it would be handy to have the bottom orange running lights on each side blink with the blinker like some of the semi's do. These trailers are really long and it's possible that someone is hanging our right in the middle of the trailer and can't see any of your turn signals when you're trying to change lanes.

[Radio_Flyer]

I did this on my Montana. Found the module where the pigtail wire connects and ran wires from it back along the frame rails to mid ship and used the same light for an amber turn signal. May try to do the same on this rig. Wasn't difficult to do, just finding a safe way to run the wires.

[Radio_Flyer]

Thanks. Looking at the descriptions, your choice would be the better fit. Would love to hook up the Optronics Glo lights, would really look good against the RW paint. Can't wait to see how yours turns out.

[atom ant]

Originally Posted by lwg

I've always thought it would be handy to have the bottom orange running lights on each side blink with the blinker like some of the semi's do. These trailers are really long and it's possible that someone is hanging our right in the middle of the trailer and can't see any of your turn signals when you're trying to change lanes.

Those are called midturn lights. The most effective are those that take the standard stop-turn bulb so one low wattage filament for marking lights and a bright one for turning.

I replaced a side maker light on each side of my Montana with Peterson midturn lights, and installed a huskey hitch european diode converter that prevented them from coming on with the brake lights. They were extremely effective.

I haven't had the heart to do it on the Redwood yet.

[hoosierguy]

Originally Posted by Radio_Flyer

Thanks. Looking at the descriptions, your choice would be the better fit. Would love to hook up the Optronics Glo lights, would really look good against the RW paint. Can't wait to see how yours turns out.

I have installed the new LED tail lights and they look great. By visual observation, I would estimate that they are at least 3 to 4 times brighter than the original incandescent lights. Plus, with the added amber lightsin the position where the original backup lights were located, they really get your attention. I wired the amber lights so that they only come on with braking or turn signal.



I have tried to take pictures to compare the LED with the incandescent but both lights tend to "burn" through and appear of equal brightness in the picture. Not at all what you see with your eyes.

[Radio_Flyer]

Sounds like that's the solution. Mine should be here next week. Any modifications to make it fit?

[rcflame]

I replaced my taillights with the Tail-4Round-Red from M4 Products. (If you've read any of my other posts concerning LED's, I'm really hooked on their products.) It's a perfect replacement for the Redwood taillights and it has 61 Led's. It comes with the wiring harness which you won't need, and the rubber mounting if you want to use it instead of the 3 bolt reflector ring originally on the Redwood. I was thinking about trying the rubber mounting, but I would have had to enlarge the hole slightly to get it to fit correctly, so I went with the reflector ring but held onto the rubber mounts incase I want to do it later on. I think they were $14.99 each.

[Diesel chaser]

Ordered tail lights, backup lights, and all the markerlights tonight from M4- same tail lights that rcflame recommends. Will see when they get here might have to order more markers and switch out the cab marker lights on the F350 also.

[Radio_Flyer]

I've replaced the tails, markers, backup lights and interior lights on my Ram so far. Nice and bright and you'd be lying if you said you didn't see my truck. Putting on the tail lights for the RW this weekend and I've already replaced the amber marker bulbs on the RW. All the interior lights in the RW have been swapped to LEDs. Where my rig is kept when not traveling, I pay electricity quarterly. The LEDs made a huge difference. I was planning on taking pics of the tail light swap this weekend.

[lwg]

Definitely take some pics. Anxious to see what's involved although I suspect it's quite simple. I always travel with my lights on and was looking at the OEM tail lights on the RW last night and those things are just really, really dim. You can't really even tell they're on in the daytime.

[Radio_Flyer]

Thats why I started this thread. I was amazed at how dim they were and that I couldn't make out the lights in a rain storm. I will post up pics this weekend.