LED vs. Incandescent

Steve try superbrightleds.com I know they say the 1157 has an extremely low draw , didnt notice a rating

found a rating

40 ma for tail lights 90 ma for brake lights

Most small clearance lamps are in the 5W range per bulb.

Most 1157 stop\turn\tail bulbs are 8 watts for tail,and 28 watts for turn\stop.

So 15 bulbs at 5W each is 75 watts,and 2 at 8 watts brings us to 91 watts for running lamps,and i'm sure there are other on the truck too.Add in the brake lamps gives you another 52 watts,for a total of 143 watts,which is about 12 amps.

The leds would be still under an amp for the same lights.There is no comparison,the LED's win hands down.That's 11 extra amps to charge your cell phone.

Sounds like it would be worth the investment. Thanks!

besides cost, is there any downside to leds?

The cost is the only real downside to LEDs. They are now available with 90 degree coverage so that helps with seeing them from the side.

Pelican said:

My charging system is about maxed out when I plow with my F-350, there's not enough juice left to charge my cell phone.

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You gona switch out all the Stop Tail & Turn lights in the back and put LED's ? You got a dump box or something in the back?

I thought of that idea but just for looks and brightness. Too Expensive thou.. $100 $200 a light. 3 on either side that gets up there. You could go with just the round ones with the 52 LED's like on truck trailers, they are about half the price from what i have seen.

Steve, I think you will notice a little improvement, but I wouldn't think it would be that great of an increase in reserve just by changung a few lights.

www.truck-lite.com and www.pmlights.com will have many of the lights that you are looking for.

I'm going to add the 2" LEd markers on the rear, as well as the slim LED marker lights on my running boards of my truck. I plan to buy Petersons.

Steve, I've bought a bunch of LED lights on eBay. Do a search there, by seller, for "asaddie" or "calboy1". Between them you should be able to find a mess of lights available for a decent price. I've bought from "asaddie" and know he has good stuff and is really good to deal with.

While it may not sound like much,11 amps could be the difference between the truck slowly running the batteries down,and actually staying charged all night.

That's more than a set of headlamps draws when on,and we all know that turning the headlamps off makes a big difference in keeping the truck charged up if your alt is already maxed out.

sounds like theres an advantage to swaping out its just the inital cost sucks... definatly a project to do a lil bit at a time...

I plan on switching over . I feel like I need to save a few amps of draw

Just FYI for those who may not know ... LEDs are more efficient in heavy rain or snow because LEDs really do cut through whatever they can dish out. Incandiscent isn't that bad, but draws more current.

Going a little off topic but anyway...the strobes are worst in these condition because they are very easy to reflect off the raindrops or snowflakes. I have seen that happening on fire trucks in these condition. We currently dont have any type of LEDs on our fire trucks, but I am positive that the next truck we would purchase in future will be equipped with LEDs lighting.

After responsing to hundreds of fire calls in all conditions, and observing vehicles with LEDs on the road, I can tell you that LEDs are more efficient and worth the extra money, just for safety sake.

One other advantage to the LED's they dont burn out like the incandencents do...

LEDS

They are easy enough to find online but I cant yet tell if there are levels of quality or a maunufacturing (assembly ) process that would be more durable

The LEDs I've bought online have all been either TruckLite or Petersen brands.

Adams Plowing said:

One other advantage to the LED's they dont burn out like the incandencents do...

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But the disadvatage is that some of the LED's will burn out and you have to replace the whole light instead of a $2 bulb, but the LED's will last longer then a bulb suposedly.

You can get LED's that will replace your bulb. The shops that sell all the stuff for the street racing cars usually sell them IE APC. I have put those in my taillights in the stop/turn bulb but it makes the turn signal flicker fasten because it’s less current but I am sure there would be something you can do to alleviate that problem if it bothers you.

Wxmn6- I agree with you, the strobes suck in rain and snow, and the incandescent would be next, our newest truck has quite a few LED's on it and when we get to a scene we switch everything but the undercarraige lights and the LED's off so that we don't have the distracting glare and flash back form the other lights. I also tend to shut down everything but the rear bar and four corner flashers on the ambulances I drive to keep the glare down while responding to a call at 3am in a snow storm. I wish that the corps would look into more LED lighting on those rigs!!!

I currently run a twin beam rotator, but that's only due to funding right now- I got a deal off of e-bay on a new light for only $35 delivered, I found the light retail averaged for $189 plus shipping, so I was happy with that. I plan on trying to convert everything I can over to LED's as I can afford it.

Bill
SPC Addict