LED tailight questions

[HHI VIPER]

Anything else needed besides bulbs for changing to led tailights and turn signals front and rear? On my bike I had to put in a load equalizer to make them work properly. Did a search but couldn't pull up anything. Thanks!

 

[RobZilla]

I changed to LED clears in the front turn signals and the clicker is twice as fast now. Short story I assume that there is something else that needs to be changed to make it work properly.

 

[HHI VIPER]

I changed to LED clears in the front turn signals and the clicker is twice as fast now. Short story I assume that there is something else that needs to be changed to make it work properly.

How is the brightness? Are they equally bright on each side? Thanks!

 

[RobZilla]

Oh yea I love them. Just as bright as the stock but a much more consistent shine and the white looks a ton better than yellow.

I did the red overlays on the back to cover the yellow turn signal lens. Left the stock filament bulb on rears.

 

[HHI VIPER]

Oh yea I love them. Just as bright as the stock but a much more consistent shine and the white looks a ton better than yellow.

I did the red overlays on the back to cover the yellow turn signal lens. Left the stock filament bulb on rears.

Thanks for the info! To make them blink properly I think there is something else that needs to be done. I'm hoping somebody chimes in.

 

[SA HEAT]

Oh yea I love them. Just as bright as the stock but a much more consistent shine and the white looks a ton better than yellow.

I did the red overlays on the back to cover the yellow turn signal lens. Left the stock filament bulb on rears.

Just FYI, white turn signals are illegal in most, if not all states....the lens doesn't matter (unless someone really wants to get picky if they're DOT approved like the stock lenses), but the fronts signals have to be amber and the rears have to be red or amber.

 

[Ratical2]

I changed to LED clears in the front turn signals and the clicker is twice as fast now. Short story I assume that there is something else that needs to be changed to make it work properly.

The LED's draw much less current therefore the old bi-metal turn signal relay's won't work without adding a high watt shunt resistor to increase current.

The best way to go is to change out the old style turn signal relay with an electronic one. Several company's make them. You pick them up at Napa.

 

[MarcRoth]

Just add a load resistor and all will be good.. Done hundreds of them and can be bought at any electrical store. Marc

LED bulbs Load Resistor Turn Signal Fix fast flashing: eBay Motors (item 110576153270 end time Aug-30-10 14:57:27 PDT)

 

[HHI VIPER]

The LED's draw much less current therefore the old bi-metal turn signal relay's won't work without adding a high watt shunt resistor to increase current.

The best way to go is to change out the old style turn signal relay with an electronic one. Several company's make them. You pick them up at Napa.

NAPA is right around the corner...THANKS!

 

[HHI VIPER]

Just add a load resistor and all will be good.. Done hundreds of them and can be bought at any electrical store. Marc

LED bulbs Load Resistor Turn Signal Fix fast flashing: eBay Motors (item 110576153270 end time Aug-30-10 14:57:27 PDT)

Thanks for the info!!

 

[HHI VIPER]

The LED's draw much less current therefore the old bi-metal turn signal relay's won't work without adding a high watt shunt resistor to increase current.

The best way to go is to change out the old style turn signal relay with an electronic one. Several company's make them. You pick them up at Napa.

What about brake and tailights? Resistor as well??? Or just plug in? Thanks!

 

[Compensating]

as I have converted every exterior light on mine..

tails are 3 times brighter.. and look a whole lot better IMO.. plug and play

turns need a Heavy duty flasher to work properly..

this place has everything for what you need.. second item from the bottom..

Super Bright LEDs - Brake Light, Turn Light and Tail Light Bulbs

 

[HHI VIPER]

as I have converted every exterior light on mine..

tails are 3 times brighter.. and look a whole lot better IMO.. plug and play

turns need a Heavy duty flasher to work properly..

this place has everything for what you need.. second item from the bottom..

Super Bright LEDs - Brake Light, Turn Light and Tail Light Bulbs

AWESOME!!! Thanks for the link!

 

[Ratical2]

What about brake and tailights? Resistor as well??? Or just plug in? Thanks!

A resistor is only neccessary for the turn signal modification if you don't have an electronic flasher. Brake lights some times need a 10K-15K ohm shunt resistor ( parallel to the LEDs, .5 watt is suffient capacity) to create enough resistance not to trip the lamp out sensor.

In some cars equiped with ABS, the brake lamp circuit is part of the ABS system and will cause problems if the circuit load is changed from the original design. Typically the addition of the shunt resistor will fix that problem. Not sure if this the case with the Viper ABS design or not.

One more public service announcement concerning LED retrofit.
Led's do improve you safety zone or buffer because of the way they turn on.

Because LED's turn on faster then an incandescent bulb, when a car with LED brake lights in front of you slams on his brakes, you have more time to react and stop your vehicle. At 60MPH, the difference in turn on time equals 18ft of distance traveled.

Incandescent: Current flow to generate heat to generate light
LED's: Current flow= Light

Many if not all LED bulb retrofits don't meet the SAE requirements. They may appear brighter to the eye while directly behind the vehicle but the further of center that you go will be dimmer.

The reason for this:

The reflector/ lens assembly was designed to capture and redirect light from a lambertian ( 360 degree) light source. This light comes from the bulb in all directions and the reflector redirects it or collimates it to the back of the car. The final lens redirects the collimated light to a somewhat oval shape or radiation pattern of plus or minus 15 degrees vertical by plus or minus 30 degrees horizontal off of center or 0 degrees.

A LED BULB doesn't have the same radiation pattern and because of this, the reflector/lens assembly does not do the job that it was designed to do. Mainly putting the light into the oval radiation pattern described above.

Not trying to say you should or shouldn't. I just wanted to let you know that just because the LED bulb has the right base and plugs into your lamp socket, doesn't mean that it will perform the same way as the original bulb that was designed in.

This concludes the public service announcement. We now return you to the regularly scheduled broadcast.

I would love to see pictures of compensating LED conversion.

 

[Compensating]

Ratical has a good point about the reflector lens..

the LED bulbs I got for the tails have the LEDs on the back side of the bulb as well.. putting light into the reflector directly. since the viper tails are NOT completely transparent they catch the light from all directions distributing it evenly. you cant even tell where the bulb is at night. the whole lens glows evenly.

I would post some pics but i am currently deployed until the first of the year (air force)

 

[Ratical2]

Compensating, I tip my cap to you and thank you for your service. I wanted to join the Air Force way back when but a car accident left me with too much metal inside to qualify for service. I would have loved to fly an F15.

Back to the LED's, the site that you provided is very complete, even to the point of educating the buyer about what an LED is and the difference's that one can expect. They even have some retrofit bulbs with our LED's. Great find!

I have an extra set of rear lamps for my GTS that I want to do a complete retrofit, custom reflector or fresnel with the lamps existing pillow optics but just haven't had the time. I am always interested to see what someone has done.

 

[Jance GTS]

I have changed out all my lights inside and out on my Viper with leds. I had to get a load eq for the turn signals, but everything else is plug and play.

I helped with the production of ALL CLEAR turn signals and reverse lense on the Gen 2's! Well all I did was send in my OEM ones.

Long story short, since I have a set of all clear lenses, I used 2 pairs of white/amber switch back leds and both sockets have been wired together. So now, my entire lense lights up for the turn signal AND for the reverse light seperately!

I also have the switchbacks in the front so the running light is white and the signal is amber. This is one trick Viper with all LEDS! I will try to get some night time pictures in the next couple of days! LEDS make it look 10 times better

I even changed out my gauge lights for white leds as well. I get all my leds from V-leds.com

 

[ZexZo6]

Ratical has a good point about the reflector lens..

the LED bulbs I got for the tails have the LEDs on the back side of the bulb as well.. putting light into the reflector directly. since the viper tails are NOT completely transparent they catch the light from all directions distributing it evenly. you cant even tell where the bulb is at night. the whole lens glows evenly.

I would post some pics but i am currently deployed until the first of the year (air force)

Where are you stationed at StateSide? I am at Seymour Johnson.