Chicken lights

[Dieselcrawler]

i have a lighted visor from my crawler, half tempted to put it back on around the cage and wire it back up. lol

 

[flareside_thun]

No one with pics of a single cab longbed with factory truck bed and chicken lights up, down n all around?

 

[Matrix37495]

Go for it Corey...

There's a couple SCLB trucks... need to talk them into going nuts with the lights...lol



Night shot!

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[6.9poweredscout]

The less lights the better, I wish my truck didn't have cab lights they leak like crazy. I have a hard enough time keeping the oem lights on nevermind the rest of them. I couldn't count how many lights I've smashed off my trailer.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

I did that with my factory side markers. just cut the ground wire and wire it to the turn sig wire and it will flash with the turn sig (if parking lights are off) or opposite the turn sig (if parking lights are on).

Seeing how unless you redid your wiring and added more dual-filament rear lights you still have the combined park/brake/turn setup, have you thought what your markers do when you step on the brakes at night? Now imagine having to get on the brakes and hold them several times in quick succession with a state trooper right behind ya... See what I'm getting at? My suggestion to those who want to make their factory side markers (on a dually truck obviously, ya'll SRW kids just ain't cool enough to have those) is to add some aftermarket ones and make those do the fancy action, but leave the factory ones alone.

That said, how does the whole wiring a marker light across the park and brake/turn wire work exactly? I mean I get the whole 12V on both ends turning the marker light off when both the park and the brake/turn lights are energized, but when only one circuit has power how does the side marker ground through the other? Say you have your running lights on, the current path would then be from the running light wire, through the side marker light, into the brake/turn light, and from there to ground - ain't that essentially wiring up your side marker and brake/turn light in series, thus causing BOTH of them to light up only at reduced power?

 

[LCAM-01XA]

A a person who uses a CDL for a living, we sure do appriciate any and ALL lights, factory or aftermarket, when we are playing out on the big roads at night. Sometimes, it's just plain hard to see a pickup truck in a blind spot, but if it's emmiting enough light to rival an asteroid hitting earth's atmosphere, it just might save a life.

You mean like the 1kW greeting I reserve for push-to-talk yappers when they don't pay attention to the road and start drifting in my lane? Aye, I figure if THAT don't make them notice lil ol me and back off they must be passed out cold behind the wheel! At which point it's hydroboost to the rescue then hold back and just watch as their truck carries off to the side and pray the rumble strips or your screaming bloody murder on the CB wake the driver up before he/she wrecks... Don't always play out nice tho, and believe me when I say being first on the scene is not something to look forward to.

As for chicken lights, do those of ya'll who string them flatbed sides and bumpers up with non-recessed lights realize how ridiculously easy tis to destroy said lights? All it takes is one stray shopping cart to completely obliterate an entire section of your hard work! Also using lights on running boards is fine for road queens like Corey's fancy truck, but on a truck that gets to see brush and stuff IMHO tis just asking for trouble, especially if tis a 2wd truck cause of their lower ground clearance - it only took a weekend of field work to rip out the wiring for the running board lights my 350 came w/ and I never bothered to replace it. Now if only it didn't have cab lights either... My 600 on the other hand lights up like a Christmas tree, but all of its lights are recessed and on rubber grommets, and also the lowest-mounted ones are still good 3ft off the ground - I can play chicken w/ shopping carts, tree trunks, and Hondas all day long w/ that one and still won't lose even a single light. Which is good, cause I hate wiring w/ a passion! lol

 

[Dieselcrawler]

all mine are "flush mount" cept for the lolliepop lights under the bumper. i hate lights that stick out.

 

[Matrix37495]

Seeing how unless you redid your wiring and added more dual-filament rear lights you still have the combined park/brake/turn setup, have you thought what your markers do when you step on the brakes at night? Now imagine having to get on the brakes and hold them several times in quick succession with a state trooper right behind ya... See what I'm getting at? My suggestion to those who want to make their factory side markers (on a dually truck obviously, ya'll SRW kids just ain't cool enough to have those) is to add some aftermarket ones and make those do the fancy action, but leave the factory ones alone.

That said, how does the whole wiring a marker light across the park and brake/turn wire work exactly? I mean I get the whole 12V on both ends turning the marker light off when both the park and the brake/turn lights are energized, but when only one circuit has power how does the side marker ground through the other? Say you have your running lights on, the current path would then be from the running light wire, through the side marker light, into the brake/turn light, and from there to ground - ain't that essentially wiring up your side marker and brake/turn light in series, thus causing BOTH of them to light up only at reduced power?

Only my front factory side marker is wired this way. Brake lights have no effect on it since its on a turn only circuit. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but the turn signal doesn't light up at all unless i want it to. I think although it's grounding through the turn sig filament, the draw from that one bulb is so low that it doesn't light it up. I have led bulbs in those side markers, so that may be part of it. I've had several vehicles wired this way from the factory.

If you wanted to have the factory dually fender bulbs flash like this you'd have to run the ground wire forward and tap into the front turn signal wire, which does nothing when you're only braking.

 

[Jake_IN]

Did somebody say chicken lights?

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[6.9poweredscout]

Oh yes, I've spent some time looking at those japanese trucker things... Its definately quite hysterical. They have stacks laying on the roof, out the back, sides, all over, then the crazy air dam things and the millions of randomly lost leds.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Only my front factory side marker is wired this way. Brake lights have no effect on it since its on a turn only circuit. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but the turn signal doesn't light up at all unless i want it to. I think although it's grounding through the turn sig filament, the draw from that one bulb is so low that it doesn't light it up. I have led bulbs in those side markers, so that may be part of it. I've had several vehicles wired this way from the factory.

Oh, oh, front markers - I thought you were talking about the ones that go on the rear of the flat bed - nevermind then, you're in the clear from bear attacks. And now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure some of the 80s passenger cars are wired this way in the front as well... You're probably right about the single #194 bulb not flowing enough current to illuminate the other circuit of the dual-filament light, however I'm working w/ three #194 bulbs (wired in parallel) per side - those wired across the tail and the brake/turn wires of two #1157-bulbed 4" lamps in my bumper (so three 194s per 1157) produce a residual voltage of about 0.47V in the entire brake/turn circuit. When I disconnect the 4" lamps and the markers attached to them from the main harness the residual voltage in the brake/turn circuit drops down to 0.17V, and I forgot to measure it w/ 4" lamps hooked up but w/o makers wired across them (too late for that now, markers are hardwired in). All measurements taken at the 7-way in the rear bumper, so good 20ft of wiring between it and the now-blinky markers.

That 0.47V residual when everything is hooked up ain't enough to make the brake/turn coils of the 4" lamps to even attempt to glow, however it may be enough to **** off an E4OD brain - that critter supposedly monitors the brake lights circuit to know when to unlock the torque converter, and there have been reports of a burned out brake/turn light making it angry - to me this makes no sense as my diagrams indicate the PCM reads off the BOO switch and is looking for 12V there (which it will always get regardless of how many dead brake/turn bulbs there are), but I ain't gonna argue about an issue I have not personally experienced. So if anyone decides to light up the rear of their E4OD-equipped truck like a Christmas tree and then get the urge to make all them running lights do fancy stuff, keep in mind ya'll may wanna have a pair of diodes on standby to install inline between the PCM and your brake/turn light to prevent residual voltage
back-feeding into the BOO switch. Alternatively you can use a single larger diode right at the BOO switch and also solve the annoying converter lock/unlock cycling w/ them 4-ways while you're at it.

If you wanted to have the factory dually fender bulbs flash like this you'd have to run the ground wire forward and tap into the front turn signal wire, which does nothing when you're only braking.

This is an excellent idea, however I really wanna strangle you for putting it in my head - ya know what kinda pain it is to run any extra wiring inside a frame rail that already has factory lights, E4OD, and trailer harnesses, then another harness for flood lights for field work, then 4awg cables for a high-power connector in the bed, and an air line on top of that? Busy is a understatement there, lol. So for now them blinky markers are wired in w/ my bumper tail/brake/turn lights, whenever I get the motivation for it I'll run the extra wires to tie them into the front turn signals instead. Factory markers and tail/brake/turn lamps remain untouched to keep LEOs happy an minimize the risk of a major lighting failure should a marker light decide to go stupid.

 

[Danielle]

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Just put on the smoked black (but light up yellow LED) cab lights. Replaced the stock ones. My parking lights are blue LED, they look brighter than they are I think.

 

[Matrix37495]

Oh, oh, front markers - I thought you were talking about the ones that go on the rear of the flat bed - nevermind then, you're in the clear from bear attacks. And now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure some of the 80s passenger cars are wired this way in the front as well... You're probably right about the single #194 bulb not flowing enough current to illuminate the other circuit of the dual-filament light, however I'm working w/ three #194 bulbs (wired in parallel) per side - those wired across the tail and the brake/turn wires of two #1157-bulbed 4" lamps in my bumper (so three 194s per 1157) produce a residual voltage of about 0.47V in the entire brake/turn circuit. When I disconnect the 4" lamps and the markers attached to them from the main harness the residual voltage in the brake/turn circuit drops down to 0.17V, and I forgot to measure it w/ 4" lamps hooked up but w/o makers wired across them (too late for that now, markers are hardwired in). All measurements taken at the 7-way in the rear bumper, so good 20ft of wiring between it and the now-blinky markers.

That 0.47V residual when everything is hooked up ain't enough to make the brake/turn coils of the 4" lamps to even attempt to glow, however it may be enough to **** off an E4OD brain - that critter supposedly monitors the brake lights circuit to know when to unlock the torque converter, and there have been reports of a burned out brake/turn light making it angry - to me this makes no sense as my diagrams indicate the PCM reads off the BOO switch and is looking for 12V there (which it will always get regardless of how many dead brake/turn bulbs there are), but I ain't gonna argue about an issue I have not personally experienced. So if anyone decides to light up the rear of their E4OD-equipped truck like a Christmas tree and then get the urge to make all them running lights do fancy stuff, keep in mind ya'll may wanna have a pair of diodes on standby to install inline between the PCM and your brake/turn light to prevent residual voltage
back-feeding into the BOO switch. Alternatively you can use a single larger diode right at the BOO switch and also solve the annoying converter lock/unlock cycling w/ them 4-ways while you're at it.


This is an excellent idea, however I really wanna strangle you for putting it in my head - ya know what kinda pain it is to run any extra wiring inside a frame rail that already has factory lights, E4OD, and trailer harnesses, then another harness for flood lights for field work, then 4awg cables for a high-power connector in the bed, and an air line on top of that? Busy is a understatement there, lol. So for now them blinky markers are wired in w/ my bumper tail/brake/turn lights, whenever I get the motivation for it I'll run the extra wires to tie them into the front turn signals instead. Factory markers and tail/brake/turn lamps remain untouched to keep LEOs happy an minimize the risk of a major lighting failure should a marker light decide to go stupid.

That was quite a read with a ton of info. Thank you for taking the time to get the voltage measurements. Not having the E4OD, I have no idea what the volt difference will do. It sensing voltage at the BOO switch makes sense though... You could use the leds i have to replace the 194 bulbs. They are non-polarized so the work well with the flashing marker mod. Not sure on current draw though...

I'm sorry you want to stangle me now... I need to bundle my wiring better...throughout the whole truck...

 

[rjjp]

I want more, but from a legal stand point, I'm already over the limit.

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[Danielle]

Corey gimme that visor