The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Opinions on tail lights

So I have more than once seen people behind me slam on there brakes as if they didn't see my brake lights on. I purchased some new led bulbs that are supposed to be twice as bright as tail lamps. Don't look like it. Fronts look good rear not really happy. What are you all using in the rear for lights. Not opposed to changing assembly. Pics and info please.
First picture is brake light
Second is brake and tail light

I cleaned and rebuilt my lamps and sprayed the inside white to reflect more light
Then I painted the outside black
Made sure all contacts and grounds were perfect
And it made a big difference
But I agree the whole lens area is rather small and not up to modern needs
-s

My taillights use standard 6v dual filament bulbs. They are as bright as any modern car. Those are just the taillights in the photo below. The brakes are even brighter. Headlights are also standard halogen sealed beam.

If yours are dim, you need to check /replace your connections and/or your wiring.

2MT is right about the reflector. White reflects a lot more light than silver.

Each light has separate ground so I would think one would be brighter than the other if that were the case. I will do some checking on that.

Do those LED bulbs aim straight reward when installed in the original sockets? If not, there's your trouble. Those LED bulbs will only shine light in the direction where that their flat surface is aimed.

Breezy, if your truck is 6v, make sure you don't have 12v bulbs in the taillights.

You coud check out https://www.superbrightleds.com.
They offer multi-directional LEDs and different colors and brightness. You should always choose the LED bulb the same color as the lens it will be shooting thru.
And like was already stated....adding white painted reflectors will help with multi-directional bulbs.

Don’t try to make a small area extra bright to compensate
That’s really annoying and distracting
If you want more light
Make the area larger
Don’t fall for the false idea of making the source brighter
That’s the difference between well designed lighting and bad modern led setups
You want to avoid a speculare source situation because that causes the point to be focused back on retinas of the people looking or not looking at your light and getting blinded by a spot that is just too intense.

Opinions on tail lights…….
Those people behind you stopping suddenly:
That may just be the way people are driving nowadays…..
And if it’s in multilane highway traffic, people are so used to blinding bright
brake lights up on the top of the rear windows, they might not respond to regular brake lights down at the
regular tail light location. Yes, I’d hate to have to drive in that situation.
Bright bright LED lights seem to be the order of the day everywhere.
Police cars , doing duty by the roadside seem to be required to run far too blinding
an array of colored flashing lights to the point that poor old men like me are
blinded and in danger of hitting someone or something while passing in the dark!
But I know that they are also in danger all the time from getting hit, so,
hopefully it protects them.
But, yeah, we want to know our brake lights are visible!

I am 12 volt. So after a little investigation I figured out the standard 12 volt bulb had 50 lumens. The new led has 100 lumens. In my mind I thought that should be pretty bright. After converting candle power to lumens on a standard 1156 they are 420 lumens. No wonder my bulbs look dim. But 1156 won't fit in the brake light position in the assembly. So I'm going to swap the wires and try the 1156 in the tail light position. I believe it will fit there and solve my problem.

It may not be your lights. I am appalled by the way people drive nowadays. I am 80 years old and when I go out I am usually not in a rush. So I drive the posted limits, and people pass me like I am standing still, not an overstatement. The main street from my house to the far end of town, is called the bypass, and that is what everyone does to me, bypass. On the north end near me the speed limit is 35 mph so I have set my cruise at 35 and make every green light along the way and the ones that fly by me get halted by stop lights. Halfway along it turns to 40 mph to the end of town. And the same thing happens, I am constantly passed. All of that is to point out it may not be your light but that people today are so impatient and inconsiderate. And I should not have been in so much of a hurry by not reading Steelonsteel.

Agree with that. I just don't want to get rear ended. I'm pretty slow myself I live about 3 miles from town and leave 2 hours before I have to be a work. I do sit at the liars table at the coffee shop for an hour. But I always get tail gates all the way to town. Small county road.
.

Yeah I need to put multi meter on it first.

Hi Breezy, I deleted my post because I saw 3 or 4 new responses , including yours stating you have 12v, so my post was somewhat redundant.

But yes, the same rules apply to 12v - good connections, good grounds, good wiring insure bright lights.

Shouldnt you be using a 1157 blub?

That would be great. But this is designed with two single element bulbs. Not sure if that's the way oem was or not. I believe it was. An 1157 would have same lumens on brake circuit as 1156. So that is what I'm going to shoot for.

1157 is a dual filament bulb. You need two single filament bulbs.

You say the 1156 won't fit in the socket. I don't know what the difference is in the stud placement on the bulb base between 12v bulbs and 6v bulbs but is it possible that your taillights have 6v sockets and that they won't accept 12v bulbs?

I don't know. Just speculating.

When you turn on the taillights, does just ONE of the two bulbs light up? When you step on the brakes, do BOTH of the bulbs light up?

Maybe there are supposed to be two dual filament bulbs in each fixture that each light up for taillights and all 4 filaments light up for brakes?

Single element sockets. One bulb each. 1156 will fit socket but lens won't go on. The mount is at an angle so brake bulb has to be small like a #67. But because of the angle i believe the 1156 would clear the lens in the parking light position. So I'm going to see after work. If it does i will flip flop wires. At least then I'll have a 420 lumens bulb for brakes.

Ok so had some free time at work. Checked voltage good. Ended up moving bracket to other side of mounting tang? Made just enough room for the 1156. It is literally against the lens I'm thinking once bolted in. But its alot brighter now. Not modern day bright but hopefully good enough. Thanks for all the input fellas.

I take it is a glass Lense. Plastic will from the heat of the bulb.

George

Otto, the original tail lights use single filament bulbs, and 6 and 12V sockets are the same for those, with the bayonet pins at the same depth on both sides.
Dual filament bulbs use the same diameter socket, but with the bayonet pins offset so that the bulb only goes in one direction, aligning the contacts with the proper wire. Again, 6 and 12V bulbs are interchangeable (as far as the socket is concerned.)
Dual filament bulbs are 1154 (6 volt) or 1157 (12 volt), and single filament bulbs vary with candle power. The 48-51 Shop manual calls for 3 CP #63 tail light bulbs and 21 CP ((#1133 is advertised as 32 CP) brake light bulbs. I don't know the 12V equivalents of either the tail or stop light single filament bulbs.

From some old timey bulb ad in another post on the forum
(That I can’t find at the moment)
63 changes to 67 for 12v
1133 changes to 1073 for 12v

OK. That's good to know. I can't remember now what all bulbs were tried but if It were me, I'd find the bulbs that 2MT listed above - 67 and 1073 which should fit the socket and be 12v compatible.

If they're still dim, then you'll know that the problem is with the wiring, etc.

Otto's "etc." could be the ground path as well.