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I recently completed a LED conversion on my 80g tailight. I WILL post pics soon I get it figured out but in the meantime I offer the following for your reading pleasure.
We all know the dual bulb tailight is a real watt/ amp sucker. (leave it alone Prom
).I have tried different plug in led bulbs with little sucess, so I did some modifien. I started with a new lens 'cause mine was showing it age. you may be able to skip that $11 expence. I purchased a Trucklite #6050 LED tailight and a 94993 pigtail. Lamp ran 'bout $32 and the tail was apx $4 from NAPA. Stay away from the el cheapos from AZ/Advance/O'Reillys. The Trucklite (Grote is another good one) lamp is well made, has potted electronics and 24 well focused LEDS and is designed to withstand vibrations. I pulled the plate off my taillight and unplugged all the wires ao I could work on it on the bench. I worked the OEM lamp sockets out of the plate, this took a little doing as the grommets have very little slack. I stashed them in my box-o-parts. Lining up the new lamp assembly in the lens, I had to grind some reliefs on the sides to allow the mounting screws to still slide thru. This did not compromise the intergrity of the lamp. I then laid a bead of clear silicone around the face of the lamp and then placed it inside the lens, pressing it down firmly to get a good seal. Let cure overnight. Next day I simply matched the pigtail to the OEM wiring inside the tailight housing. The pigtail unplugs form the lamp so this part was easy. I reattached the mounting plate, plugged in the lamp and reattached the lens. End result was a taillight with the same brightness as the bulbs and a brake light that will sear a cornea, all with VERY LITTLE amp draw. LEDS are real directional and I did not like the lack of side light the bulb layout offered. Also my licence plate light (or lack of) was a sure stop. I removed the lens and added a small licence lamp assembly from Advance. I siliconed it to the back of the new LED lamp assembly and wired it up. Reinstalled and found everything worked well. This conversion can be done without having to butcher up any hardparts, I could put everything back to stock with just the purchase of another lens if I wanted. NOTE: Specials will have a smaller lens and the lamp will not fit. I believe that there is a LED stop/tailight that will fit inside the specials but I did not research it very far 'cause I am just a Standard kinda guy.
We all know the dual bulb tailight is a real watt/ amp sucker. (leave it alone Prom
).I have tried different plug in led bulbs with little sucess, so I did some modifien. I started with a new lens 'cause mine was showing it age. you may be able to skip that $11 expence. I purchased a Trucklite #6050 LED tailight and a 94993 pigtail. Lamp ran 'bout $32 and the tail was apx $4 from NAPA. Stay away from the el cheapos from AZ/Advance/O'Reillys. The Trucklite (Grote is another good one) lamp is well made, has potted electronics and 24 well focused LEDS and is designed to withstand vibrations. I pulled the plate off my taillight and unplugged all the wires ao I could work on it on the bench. I worked the OEM lamp sockets out of the plate, this took a little doing as the grommets have very little slack. I stashed them in my box-o-parts. Lining up the new lamp assembly in the lens, I had to grind some reliefs on the sides to allow the mounting screws to still slide thru. This did not compromise the intergrity of the lamp. I then laid a bead of clear silicone around the face of the lamp and then placed it inside the lens, pressing it down firmly to get a good seal. Let cure overnight. Next day I simply matched the pigtail to the OEM wiring inside the tailight housing. The pigtail unplugs form the lamp so this part was easy. I reattached the mounting plate, plugged in the lamp and reattached the lens. End result was a taillight with the same brightness as the bulbs and a brake light that will sear a cornea, all with VERY LITTLE amp draw. LEDS are real directional and I did not like the lack of side light the bulb layout offered. Also my licence plate light (or lack of) was a sure stop. I removed the lens and added a small licence lamp assembly from Advance. I siliconed it to the back of the new LED lamp assembly and wired it up. Reinstalled and found everything worked well. This conversion can be done without having to butcher up any hardparts, I could put everything back to stock with just the purchase of another lens if I wanted. NOTE: Specials will have a smaller lens and the lamp will not fit. I believe that there is a LED stop/tailight that will fit inside the specials but I did not research it very far 'cause I am just a Standard kinda guy.
I know it says it has lots of reflector technology, but still only 3 leds. The others I posted about have 18 to 24, and they still only draw .3 to .38 amps for the entire assembly!!! And possibly a bit more visible?? YMMV?
So....the 1" deep Ovals are looking better now! The ones that Superbrightleds.com sell are still considerably cheaper than the Trucklite ones, have 56 LEDs in their housing, are quite bright. They are also rated for 12volt systems. Those Trucklite ones state are rated for 13.5 volt TRUCK systems, not sure how that would affect their performance with our weaker 12 volt machines?
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