hi dan- saw your pictures of the house in seattle. what a nice place and wow a million dollar view. a while back you wrote a message about led bulbs. while the led bulbs seem to put out less heat and last much longer, i think you said they dont put out the right kind of light for tail lights, brake lights etc and may not be legal / safe for operation. 1157 led replacement bulbs are what im talking about . give me a refresher and let me know what you think. thanks bob f

Hi Bob, If you haven’t already done it put all the LEDs you want in. Especially if they are designed as after market replacements and are DOT approved. I say this because some of my early replacements are home made. There are a lot of different auto replacement lights available now in many colors. The benefits are a lot less amp draw and under normal circumstances they last way longer than incandescent. They do not tolerate voltage above there rating well though. The fact that they draw such low amps you will most likely have to use a flash unit designed for LEDs to get the blinkers to work properly. I left the incandescent indecator bulb in the dash and the blinker flashes but it does it real fast. I figure this just makes it more noticeable. The turn signal lights on the car I did this on are separate from the break lights so my little trick might not work on the break/blinker combo. I will find out when I do the van. Also remember to put red lights behind red lenses yellow behind yellow and clear behind clear. A yellow or clear LED behind a red lenses will show yellow or clear and same for other combinations. The car I did the LED switch with is an electric I built and for the first year or so I used an auxiliary 12 volt battery for my lighting. At night when I had the 55watt headlights on they would dim quite noticeably when I stepped on the breaks. I shaved about 5 amps by changing out all the lights except head lights and the one dash turn indicator light. Even before I got a charging system installed the head light didn’t flicker the slightest when the LED break lights came on even after an hour of driving.

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1987 half ton Dodge van

Thanks! Right now the view is of STRAWBERRIES, lots of them that need picking.
You're right. "LED bulbs" are not safe or effective or legal, and you should not use them. This goes for ALL "LED bulbs", no matter whose name they are sold under, no matter what they look like, no matter how much promotional babble accompanies them. There is no such thing as a "DOT approved LED bulb", either. The problem is with the concept, not with any particular brand or model. See here and here and follow the links from those threads. Also be aware the flash rate of turn signals has to be within the specified range (60 to 120 flashes per minute, i.e., one to two flashes per second) and the on and off phases of the flash cycle have to be roughly equal. A super-fast flash rate is not better.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I respect your opinion but you could be a little more civil when you express it. I guess we are doomed because in my travels around the country a good 50% of the eighteen wheelers I see are running LEDs and a good number of new cars are using LEDs. Napa has a LED head light. It’s pricy but it is approved for highway use. LEDs are every where. I have been running LEDs for close to seven years and no one has crashed into me in the dark because they didn’t see me. As a mater of fact LEDs can be seen farther away than incandesants.

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1987 half ton Dodge van

Grumpy, I think where your analysis breaks down is comparing the use of modern lamp housings that are designed to be used with LED bulbs to the use of LED bulbs retrofitted to housings and lenses originally designed for incandescent bulbs.

Put simply, a lamp housing and lens engineered to meet DOT specs while using an incandescent bulb will not meet the DOT specs if a LED bulb is used in the housing and withe the lens. Lamp housings and lenses can be engineered to use LED bulbs and meet DOT specifications, but just putting an LED bulb in an incandescent housing will not meet DOT specifications. This is due to the pattern of light emitted by each bulb type. In candescent bulbs emit a near spherical pattern of light. LED bulbs have numerous individual LEDs, each of which emits a very narrow (comparatively) band of light (on the order of 20-40 degrees).

The new lamp housings and lenses that use LEDs are specially engineered to take the narrow LED light emission pattern into account. The old incandescent bulb housings were engineered for use with a bulb that emitted the near spherical light pattern.

Dan is gruff, but you grow to appreciate it. I have found him to be a very brutally honest source of accurate information. He has disabused me and others of numerous incorrectly held ideas based on "experience" and supposition. While it stings to be corrected, in the long run, we are better for it. I've corrected him a few times too.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

If a person wants to be gruff that is their problem. I have made my living as an artist all my life so I am no stranger to criticism. But if a person is not civil about it I will call them on it whether it is on a chat such as this or we are standing face to face. You on the other hand have stated the case very well in a manor that is informative with out being insulting. I find what you say makes sense and I will look into it. On the after market units I have purchased each diode has a 120 degree span and positioned to reflect off the silver lining much like the incandescent. My home made jobs my very well fail to meet certain standards but I still think they are great. I am still planning to convert the lights on the van and I am still going run the LED lights in my ev until they pry them from my cold dead sockets.

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1987 half ton Dodge van

Yes, but it's difficult for me to do so because you gave unsafe advice, and didn't mention that your advice was based on guesses and assumptions. That makes a real problem for people who don't know enough about the topic to be able to sort good advice from bad.
Actually, the figure is closer to 85%, and they aren't using "LED bulbs". They're using LED lamp assemblies designed, engineered, and built as such.
You appear to be lucky. There are also people who've been smoking cigarettes for 40 years and they don't have lung cancer…yet.
Seeing distance is contingent on intensity, no matter the source of light.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Please keep in mind the safety standards exist for a good reason. A car's exterior lights are safety devices, not toys or fashion accessories or an art project. They have to work properly, and "properly" is objectively defined so that they can quickly and clearly convey their message to the other drivers sharing your same roads. Please think more about the safety of those who share the road with you, and keep in mind that if homemade or otherwise modified safety equipment is found to have contributed to a crash, you can find yourself on the hook for an enormous lawsuit. It can happen. It has happened.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Ok @$$#&!% Dan have them kick me off this forum because I am sick of people like you I am sorry I ever signed up

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1987 half ton Dodge van

Okeh.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Dan......your attitude is inappropriate. Being factually correct does not give you the right to be rude. Please keep with the facts and drop the egotistical rants. You are being a boor again.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

I concur.

CJ

Thanks for the advisory, Ceej and Sandy. I'll look at reeling in my mouth a few large notches. I've gone back and edited all my posts in this thread.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I had an uncle, a grandfather, and a boss like Dan. As Reed stated, you come to appreciate it. I like the bluntness of it all. No room for misunderstanding.

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

I think the name "grumpy" says it all.


"safety first."

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'73 Scamp (the girlfriend): 225ci super/6 2BBL conversion (Almost done!)
'90 Subaru, wagon (the wife): H4-cyl 2.2L

1977 Mercedes-Benz 300D, 5cyl diesel(For sale!)