The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay LED Park Lilghts

I have a '51, 3100 w/12 volt sys. I recently installed LED taillights/brakelights/turn signals. LOVE them.

Is there a supplier for LED Parking Lights?

I used the search function here but saw nothing.

Thanks for you help

Thruwurkin

Everyones going with the new fad of LED lights. But,,as youll see in a couple years when they burn out,,or just a couple of the little single LED's burn out in a row,youll have to throw the whole thing away. You see it on traffic signals too. Theyre not cost effective to repair.
I'm already seeing vehicles going down the road with a row of lights burnt out,and now what? Another 50 or 60 dollars?
Im stickin with my 1157's

I agree with Marty..."Im stickin with my 1157's" They do look cool but...$$$

I think it is important to remember why companies started putting LED's into their vehicles. So you can see them. UPS and others install them because they ARE cost effective. A couple of $30.00 lights is a lot cheaper than removing some distracted (read cellphone)driver's SUV from the side of one of their trucks. I have put a lot of time, energy, and money into my old ride who's lights were not great to start with. Anything I can do to prevent damage to it AND me, I consider money well spent.

I've only driven the firetruck at night twice but looking at the light bulbs(1157) currently in use, they seem bright enough for the folks behind me to see. I like the LEDs but I'm still trying to keep the truck like it was back when it was a 6v system. I do worry about getting hit from behind everytime I take the truck out. And that would be during daylight hours also.

HMMM,,I just read that you cant use your regular flasher with these LED units. Now You hafta buy a special electronic flasher.
More $$$ ?
I just bought the extra bright 1157's at about 1.00 ea.

Still trying to figure out the special flasher needed part?
Funny because when our shop started installing LED lights in our trailers as replacements to the bulb type, no special flasher was needed! The stock flasher worked fine with the LED's!

"Funny because when our shop started installing LED lights in our trailers as replacements to the bulb type, no special flasher was needed! The stock flasher worked fine with the LED's!"

They worked fine in the trailer because the towing vehicle still had incandescent bulbs to provide some resistance. Mechanical flashers work off resistance. If you're using all LEDs in your truck, you'll need an electronic flasher.

If you go up above, to Tinys post, and click on the highlighted part, it says you need to buy the electronic flasher to work with the LED's.

I was told by my local big truck shop, you didn't need a special flasher if you only used the tail lights as it didn't really make much of a power draw reduction. The thought was if you switched to all LED's, the power draw would be significantly reduced hence the need for a "special electronic flasher."

What Cletis said.
FYI..I have LED tail lights and regular front turn lights and use a regular flasher.

I have what Blue50 has.Three LED's quit on one light,E-mailed the maker,they said sent it in.It was repaired and sent back no charge.I did pay mailing one way however

Yes, an electronic flasher is required if you change over to leds on both ends, and in some cases, even if you only do one end. In my case, I did the front first, with hi-wattage halogens in the rears. Std flasher worked fine. But when one of the halogens burned out, and I re-installed the std bulb, they would only flash very slowly. I now have leds both ends and an electronic flasher ($11 at Auto Zone), they work fine now. I also put the same flasher in my beater Blazer (still incandesant for now), it seems more reliable that the old style.

I have rear LEDs and nothing extra was needed to work...besides you can buy LED 1157s ...has anyone given these a try?? With those you get the original look, but with LED performance...or at least I would think you would.

I tried them, front and rear. They worked ok in the front, but on the rear the bulb is located somewhat low in the housing. This made for it only illuminating the lower area effectively. It didn't help that I have blue dots. I ended up using a Technostalgia kit that uses a panel od leds instead of just thbulb part. It illuminates the whole lens evenly. I did make a modification to it to allow the blue dod to work. I basically made a mall bracket with a blue led license plate bolt, along with a sheild to block the red light, and mounted that behind the dot. I have also recently changed out the 9 element leds that I had in the front to 21 elements leds for better visibility. I will warn anyone considering these, they will not fit into the housings on a '55-'57 Chevy without some modification. Seems that the base is too short to go all the way down into the retainer slots to lock it. I modified the slots by grinding in my own. They do look good now that i have them in.

Thanks for all the input. I bought the flasher because the vendor that sold the LED taillights to me said I needed it.

I will come here first next time.

I love the bright lights in the rear and will sacrifice a little cost for a lot of safety.

I understand that OTR drivers are having problems with them because they produce so little heat that they don't keep the snow and ice melted off them.

Thanks again

Thruwurkin