elricfate

I added LED bulbs to the reverse but also hooked up LED Aux lights running off a relay and a DPDT switch so I can run them in conjunction with my reverse lights, completely off, or on whenever I want them.

corey_lax

Well I ordered to Philips bulbs based on one website that said the reverse was a 921 bulb.... Which it is not.... It's a 3156. But the 921 works in my map lights which one was burnt out anyways so I replaced those instead. They are definitely brighter in the cab than the stock ones.

I now just ordered some cheap $11 LED 3156 bulbs and will see how they work when they show up.

elricfate

Yea, the Sylvania website has two entries for our truck and years. One correctly says the 3156, the other says 921, because I did the same thing.

herm59

I added leds to my reverse lights and definitely made a difference. Next I plan to add flush mounted led lights in my bumper and wire them up like you did. Did you run a diode at all?

elricfate

No need with the way I wired them in.

The switch works like this:

Constant On (up position), lights are on regardless of whether I am in reverse or not.

Middle (off), aux lights are off no matter if I am in reverse or not

Trigger On (down position), lights are only on when in reverse, triggered by splicing into reverse lights wire acting as trigger wire for the relay.


The relay is a bosch five pin, 86 goes to the fused block under my hood, 85 goes to ground, 30 goes to +12v, 87 goes to positive on the lights, 87a is left open.

So basically, when the switch is down, the reverse lights feed a trickle of power into it and it, in turn, triggers the relay, which fires the lights with power from the +12v. When the switch is up, there's power being sent to the relay's trigger from the switch, which causes the relay to pull power from the +12v to fire the lights. With the switch in the middle, nothing is feed anything and it's not triggering the relay at all.

This way it's low voltage going to the relay, in all situations, and then full power supplied to the relay, and then to the lights. No need for a diode. I used the below schematic when I wired mine in.

redfishtd

No complaints about the lights but it doesn't quite do it . I found out that the headlights were so bright that when I backed up my eyes were adjusted to brighter lights .
So I added led backup light bulbs . Well they still don't get it, I need more light for trailer hookup etc . So I am thinking about adding some under the bumper . The backup lenses just are not aimed right for me .
I did not tint my passenger or driver window because I saw how dangerous it was when I was working late at night driving . Even tho I fought some pre -cancer stuff on my face .
Now that I am retired I need even more light to see after cataract surgery .
I always knew that the road was the biggest danger in my life . I was close to being killed several times . I was driving 2000 miles a month in my electrical troubleshooting days .

lutter5-0

2000 miiles sounds like a standard month to me. Good thing for cheap gas.

redfishtd

I had to account for company miles each month . Between dodging black feral hogs ,horses , cattle and many Deer late at night . . The cars were the most dangerous ,I always run deer whistles in my grills . I would have loved led lights .
I found out the hard way not to over tint windows regardless of the daytime broiling Florida sun . A lot of us had minor surgery on our faces to remove skin cancer but not seeing clearly at night was really scary.

Bernie963

I picked up a pair of led (3156 equivalent bulbs) at the Hershey pa antique auto show in October for cheap. Mistake, the 3156 stock were brighter. I am in the process of fabricating two below the bumper fog lights. I hug one and it helped, but have moved to a new design so I can hang 2 that are symmetric and will look better. I will post pics when finished a few weeks, too many projects going on at once.

Sarge, thank you for your service.

bernie

DesertRoads

I did a mix of the 3156 LED bulbs super bright and LED lights under the bumper and LED lights mounted to my headache rack. But I need more backing up light than most do for my job. Mounting single row LED lights under your bumper is a good idea. Doesn't take up that much space and you can see better.

WHY do some of you tint your tail lights? In most states it's illegal. Looks cool, but those of us behind you on a bright sunny day can't see you stopping. Just be careful...