Glowing Results - 70's Trillium Taillight Improvement

[John in Michigan]

We installed new old stock taillights (w/incandescent bulbs) on our recently acquired Trillium 4500, but DW pointed out that the turn signals / brake lights were not bright enough to be easily seen, particularly in full daylight. Trillium taillights have no reflectors, just a white plastic baseplate. We tried covering the baseplate with foil, but that provided little improvement. Then we tried JDM ASTAR 1157 bulbs with LED chips on the sides and end. These bulbs were fairly bright, but there wasn’t enough difference in intensity when the brakes were applied. Next we tried HOT SYSTEM 1157 bulbs with more LED chips on the end, but none on the sides. These bulbs weren’t as bright as the JDM ASTAR bulbs, but provided greater difference in intensity when the brakes were applied.

At this point, I looked into other 1157 bulbs, didn’t find any that were significantly brighter that also had great reviews. So I decided a design change was needed; I decided to try adding two additional 1157 sockets to each taillight. This did the trick. We tested the modified taillights with various combinations of the above-mentioned LED bulbs. The turn and brake signals now appeared much brighter, perhaps as bright as modern auto taillights.

Note that our Trillium 4500 has original wiring throughout. The taillight wire gauge is NOT sufficient to handle the amperage of three incandescent 1157 bulbs, but it can easily handle the amperage of three 1157 LED bulbs. Thus, LED bulbs should be used for this improvement.

[David B.]

Good thinking.
Dave & Paula

[oilcanman]

Hi John,
It's Dale from Harrow! Can you tell me exactly where you were able to get these LED sockets/lights? Thanks.

[John in Michigan]

Hi Dale!

If you are asking about the 1157 bulb sockets (with pigtail wires), I don't know where I got them, but they are available on Amazon.

If you are asking about the LED bulbs, bought the HOT SYSTEM 1157 bulbs on Amazon. Here's the link:

"HOTSYSTEM 12V 1157 22 SMD LED Bulbs for Car Brake Light Stop Light Tail Light Reverse Lamp White 10-Pack"

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Not sure where I bought the JDM ASTAR 1157 LED bulbs.



While I would say that this approach (adding two more sockets and bulbs to the fixture) works fairly well, its still not ideal, i.e., not bright enough. I would recommend doing what others have done which is to buy an LED taillight fixture that fits INSIDE the current Trillium fixture.

[Borrego Dave]

John, you say they're still not bright enough. Just an idea, but it looks like you've got plenty of room to install a sealed LED strip(s) in place of the 1157s. Should be a lot brighter too.

[thrifty bill]

I gutted the inside of mine and installed sealed LED lights in their place. If I did it again, there are longer and narrower LED units that would do a better job filling the light.

The "trick" is finding lights that are clear, as the lens supplies the color.

I really need to get pictures at night.

fullsizeoutput_a72 by wrk101, on Flickr

fullsizeoutput_a73 by wrk101, on Flickr

[John in Santa Cruz]

With red LEDs, it doesn't matter if their covers are red or clear as the light is already monochromatic red.

[thrifty bill]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

With red LEDs, it doesn't matter if their covers are red or clear as the light is already monochromatic red.

Not true in my case, as the light out of the LED was white, not red. You can find LED tail lights that have clear lenses, but are colored, or you can get LED tail lights that are all white. The all white are harder to find.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-X-6-10-LE...53.m1438.l2649

[John in Santa Cruz]

putting white LEDs behind a red filter isn't very efficient, those LEDs went to a great deal of trouble to generate green and blue light, and your red filter is blocking all that, and wasting the power too.

[thrifty bill]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

putting white LEDs behind a red filter isn't very efficient, those LEDs went to a great deal of trouble to generate green and blue light, and your red filter is blocking all that, and wasting the power too.

I kind of wondered about that. Ive got to see them at night. Its one reason I haven't recommended the lights I installed. Need to see them in action!

How well do the red LEDs illuminate the license plate?

[John in Santa Cruz]

ah, I have seperate license plate lights on my trailer. I think if I was putting red LEDs behind a red lens assembly that had the white window for the license plate, I'd add a couple small white LEDs specifically for the license plate 'window'