Chicken lights

[CaptTom]

Nice lights thread.

You all have some neat stuff.

BTW- here's the LMC clearance lights pages. http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/fd/full.aspx?Page=71

I had to edit cuz the link disappeared, page 71 if it disappears again.

(Can I post links like this here? Did I miss sumpthin in the rewlz
?)

They have a decent assortment of different styles. I was surprised.

My old '84 6.9 had the factory amber clearance lights, they looked great, very much like the HF ones some of you are sporting.

 

[Silver Burner]

Looks like you got same ambers like what I'm running on the 600, 2" or whatever trucker things right? Looks pretty dang good, simple and efficient and not overdone at all. About the lights aiming, I can't do that, I mean I can but I won't - I spend way too much time on empty desolate roads to be willing to sacrifice visibility towards the left side - horizontally I aim my lights as if I'll be driving down the divider line w/ no one around for miles, then I use the vertical aim to adjust for distance and blinding effect - with other drivers present I only use the two small lights on the bottom of the bumper, and to be honest even when I'm alone I rarely run the big ones, factory headlights with the relays mod and Slvania XV bulbs seem to put out quite enough light for my driving habits. Never even been flashed at, but I've been asked by LEOs how I can resist the temptation to use the high-power ones, lol - simple, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, or however that quote goes.

Yep, those are 2" 9-LED recessed ambers that my county uses on all their 5-yarders, sign trucks, bucket trucks, etc... Ordered them from the parts shop at the county. I think I paid about 50 bucks for the 6. The other 2 that you don't see are obviously around on the sides of the bumper. What's nice is they come in 3 separate pieces; the LED, the wire harness, and the rubber grommet, so if something fails, I only have to buy the one part, not the whole assembly. I'm going to do a few red ones on my big rear bumper as well. And at some point, I'll probably buy a half dozen spares. These LED's should be lasting me a LONG time, but who knows, eh? Good thing is they're American made.

 

[Matrix37495]

Aye, diodes are god's gift to the aftermarket lighting installer. By the way, did you know Ford uses diodes w/ spade ends in underhood fuse boxes of many newer vehicles? They look sorta like a fuse, only are solid black in color, and one of the legs is turned sideways so you physically can't plug it in place of a fuse. Well, they also say "diode" on them, and have the symbol to indicate current flow direction cast in their body (as opposed to just printed w/ ink), and they come in different sizes too. IMHO those are perfect for our purposes since you don't have to solder them inline, just use suitably-sized space connectors.

I'll have to remember that. I saw them before but didn't know about the spade terminals...

Shhh, don't let Danielle hear ya! lol But purple headlights ain't nothing, as a kid I remember seeing a freshly-imported Porsche running around w/ RED headlights - that only lasted about a month, he ended up in a head-on collision w/ a big ol logging tractor trailer while trying to pass someone on a 2-lane road - trucker only went through town once a week and lived way out in the boonies so the gossip about the new "fancy" car in town never reached him, he never realized what he sees in front of him ain't two tail lights till it was too late! Oddly enough I ended up driving for him outta high school, he still had that Porsche-killer tractor at the time, complete w/ battle scars in the form of slightly deformed bull bars.

I almost didn't put blue...

That is scary... I dont wish harm on anyone but he was asking for trouble with red headlights...

But seriously, a rear facing AMBER light? What kind of idiot (a person full of ideas, right?) came up w/ that part?

Not sure what you mean by this. Some CA law? I don't have any rear facing amber RUNNING lights, but i will have dedicated turn signals/strobes...

I WANT amber turn signals in the rear. Or something really LARGE telling people I am turning. I really hate the set up that exists now. I am putting on the LED tail bar light thingie along the bottom. Even when I am behind a Ford E or F it's not easy tell if they're turning, especially since most have brake lights out or parking out and.... arg haha

I can understand that. Theres a Dodge around here that mounted 4" round lights just like my taillights under his rear bumper. Just an idea that shouldn't require and mods to your gate or bumper.

My leds are very bright when lit as a brake/turn light. I'm going to be redoing my taillight set up to add reflectors at the corners and have a total of 4 brake lights and 2 dedicated turn lights. If someone rear ends me now, they shouldn't be driving...

 

[1Turbo10]

Ryder Truck parts has the best deal on Cab Lights. I purchased a new complete set for 31.69 inc shipping. Cab Marker Light Yellow, 25760Y, Truck-Lite. Hope this helps.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

I WANT amber turn signals in the rear. Or something really LARGE telling people I am turning. I really hate the set up that exists now. I am putting on the LED tail bar light thingie along the bottom. Even when I am behind a Ford E or F it's not easy tell if they're turning, especially since most have brake lights out or parking out and.... arg haha

Why not do like me and put some 4" truck/trailer lights in rear bumper? Mine light up together w/ factory tail/brake/turns, kinda hard to miss them. I've been thinking of adding another pair of 4" lights and making then tail/brake only (no turn blinky action) but just the thought of cutting them big holes w/ hole saw (no torch cause of wiring already in bumper) in 1/4" thick plate is highly demotivating. Or you could also possibly install them under the bumper, but then I'd suggest having some hoops welded to bumper around lights to protect them from stray shopping carts and such...

Yep, those are 2" 9-LED recessed ambers that my county uses on all their 5-yarders, sign trucks, bucket trucks, etc... Ordered them from the parts shop at the county. I think I paid about 50 bucks for the 6. The other 2 that you don't see are obviously around on the sides of the bumper. What's nice is they come in 3 separate pieces; the LED, the wire harness, and the rubber grommet, so if something fails, I only have to buy the one part, not the whole assembly. I'm going to do a few red ones on my big rear bumper as well. And at some point, I'll probably buy a half dozen spares. These LED's should be lasting me a LONG time, but who knows, eh? Good thing is they're American made.

Oh yah, LEDs are still rather expensive, I'm so glad my 600 came w/ them already installed (and wired up neatly to boot), no way I'd spend that kinda money for essentially just looks, lol. Matter of fact, since I suggested LED strips to RJJP as possible way to get around those silly running lights restrictions, I decided to look into those for myself - holy cow them things are expensive, both RECON and StreetGlow's kits are like $160, couldn't find anything cheaper that is long and still installs as a single assembly per side...

 

[LCAM-01XA]

here's the LMC clearance lights pages. http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/fd/full.aspx?Page=71

I had to edit cuz the link disappeared, page 71 if it disappears again.

(Can I post links like this here? Did I miss sumpthin in the rewlz
?)

They have a decent assortment of different styles. I was surprised.

Link works fine, thanks - part # 49-3700 is what my 1-ton uses, I kinda want the clear-lens LED version but those would be very much like putting lipstick on a pig, lol. Maybe I'll get them for the 600 tho, they'll go well w/ the other LEDs already on it, besides I know a certain little girl who simply loves color-changing lights so all the more motivation there.

Ryder Truck parts has the best deal on Cab Lights. I purchased a new complete set for 31.69 inc shipping. Cab Marker Light Yellow, 25760Y, Truck-Lite. Hope this helps.

It does help, thank you! I'll just have them priced at NAPA first (I don't mind paying a few bucks more if it supports a local business), and if they can't come close to that price I'll order from Ryder.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

I'll have to remember that. I saw them before but didn't know about the spade terminals...

Well the downside of those is that IIRC they don't have amperage listed on them. And today I learned first hand what overloading a diode does - hooray for melted harness! When I installed the thing I was running just factory lights and 6A diode was fine for them, but add the 4" bumper lights and the current goes high enough to where diode starts to burn my fingers within a minute of holding the brakes on - I can only imagine what would happen if I got stuck in traffic w/ camper loaded and jeep in tow (two more pairs of brake lights, so double the already overloaded current draw). So I spent the whole afternoon and evening today fixing that and adding brake/turn relays so it will never happen again, 40 amp relay per side oughta keep this thing happy now. Also since I was making a breakout harness for the relays anyways I figured tis the perfect opportunity to pre-install the control circuits for some cornering lamps I plan on adding to the front bumper some day - Ford actually has that setup on some '80s passenger cars so I robbed parts off one and whadyaknow, the trigger wires for those cap-relays match the F-series wiring code! Not only that, but there are two wires per trigger terminal (both color coded the same) and since I only need one to trigger the relay from the respective front turn signal the other wire can be used to feed voltage back to my blinky rear marker lights, as per your suggestion, to stop them from going out while I'm on the brakes - I didn't actually run the frame rail wiring for that yet, this will happen after enough Captain consumption some other day, but at least now I have my staring points all easy to access and properly color-coded to boot! But guess what, all this work, and I just realized I forgot to install a new diode to prevent voltage backfeeding into PCM when 4-ways are on - always something, I tell ya, tis a neverending nightmare. Actually since I mentioned that, can you do me a favor? Turn your 4-ways on, unplug the harness from the BOO switch, and measure voltages at the two terminals - one will be constant hot battery voltage, I'm interested in what you get on the other one... Thanks in advance!

Not sure what you mean by this. Some CA law? I don't have any rear facing amber RUNNING lights, but i will have dedicated turn signals/strobes...

Nah, not you - the amber rear marker lights thing came from what RJJP said about MI state law, apparently they allow rear amber markers (or apparently even brake lights provided the markers are red) but severely restrict the number of amber lights you can add to sides and front of truck... And how are you making your strobes work, using the flash-flash-pause pattern alternating sides, or something different? Did you buy a controller, or you're building one yourself?

I can understand that. Theres a Dodge around here that mounted 4" round lights just like my taillights under his rear bumper. Just an idea that shouldn't require and mods to your gate or bumper.

My leds are very bright when lit as a brake/turn light. I'm going to be redoing my taillight set up to add reflectors at the corners and have a total of 4 brake lights and 2 dedicated turn lights. If someone rear ends me now, they shouldn't be driving...

I was also thinking Danielle can run four 4" lights, but have two strictly for turn signals, and use the amber LEDs that light up in the shape of an arrow for them - don't think the message can get any clearer than that. Then the other pair of 4" lights can be tail/brake, or just brake for maximum effect, in the "packed w/ gazillion tiny LEDs" red variety.

 

[RLDSL]

Chicken lights is a modern abreviation. Originally we called them Chicken Hauler lights , the name coming from the fact that we used to run some stupid fast trucks for hauling chicken out of Arkansas to get basically next day to 2 day at most delivery almost anywhere in the country. THe loads paid good and a lot of guys had those rigs lighting up the sky going down the road. Many stopped doing it when some of the more pain in the neck DOT states started stretching the laws regarding minimum clearance lighting and writing tickets for ANY bulb found out in ANY fixture on the rig, regardless if it is one that is beyond the minimum required ( and even then the secondary bulb is supposed to be a redundancy , not a requirement ). We started seeing a lot less of those rigs when guys started pulling away from the scale houses in CA and MN with $300-$900 tickets for partial clearance lights out, and that was over 20 years ago
Personally, I learned to make my rig look as plain jane as can be to make it look like a company truck so i'd be left alone. All those lights was just begging for a ticket. It just tells cops that you have too much money burning a hole in your pocket and they want some of it too. I would imagine same goes for personal trucks. They see a bunch of shiney things and they see too much money that they aren't getting part of. It's just begging for trouble

 

[Brush 6]

General rule of thumb is, for me: You ain't got no real truck unless you at least have clearance lights on the cab. Here is mine. This is before I cut the messed up wiring harness for the bed.

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[Silver Burner]

Oh yah, LEDs are still rather expensive, I'm so glad my 600 came w/ them already installed (and wired up neatly to boot), no way I'd spend that kinda money for essentially just looks, lol. Matter of fact, since I suggested LED strips to RJJP as possible way to get around those silly running lights restrictions, I decided to look into those for myself - holy cow them things are expensive, both RECON and StreetGlow's kits are like $160, couldn't find anything cheaper that is long and still installs as a single assembly per side...

You wouldn't spend 50 bucks to make your truck look nicer?? Wow....

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Personally, I learned to make my rig look as plain jane as can be to make it look like a company truck so i'd be left alone. All those lights was just begging for a ticket. It just tells cops that you have too much money burning a hole in your pocket and they want some of it too. I would imagine same goes for personal trucks. They see a bunch of shiney things and they see too much money that they aren't getting part of. It's just begging for trouble

I agree, which is why my 350 (the "work" truck) has no LEDs other than those inside the cab used as indicators for stuff, and the only extra lighting are the pair of 4" tail/turn/stops in the bumper and the pair of triple small marker lights (all of that is actually cheap trailer equipment from TSC, I have probably only like $25 in them so hardly a bling item), and the only reasons I have them is for redundancy purposes and also better visibility in foul weather conditions (almost got rearended on the interstate once cause of dense fog swallowing up the light from my factory tails).
My rolling christmas tree truck, well there simply ain't no plain-janeing an MDT w/ 4 doors and 22.5s and 150-gallon tanks w/o making it look commercial-use, which is the last thing I want it to look like. I actually took the aluminum flat bed off and replaced it w/ factory F350 dually bed, essentially turning the truck into one big toy - I still gotta roll through scales cause of the GVW but I don't get hassled for logbooks and all that, really the only time I can recall being questioned was while hauling the fiancee's H1 but that's just the nature of the vehicles involved. Truck also has a monster Aliarc-ish bull bar up front, rolls on WB steers, and to top it all off is painted bright yellow in color - so you see, the gazillion LED side markers don't really make much difference when you look at the complete package, if anything they probably help make it look less haul-for-hire and more like the owner has no money for a real F650 but instead has lots of free time on his hands and also access to big truck parts.

You wouldn't spend 50 bucks to make your truck look nicer?? Wow....

You misunderstood me, $50 for your LEDs is just fine - I was referring to the cost of LEDs on my "fancy" truck, thing has so many of them it's probably like $500 or more for all! And now thanks to CaptTom I'll be adding another $100 to them in the form of LED cab lights - yup, the brotherhood is always more than willing to help you spend your money, lol

 

[Silver Burner]

You misunderstood me, $50 for your LEDs is just fine - I was referring to the cost of LEDs on my "fancy" truck, thing has so many of them it's probably like $500 or more for all! And now thanks to CaptTom I'll be adding another $100 to them in the form of LED cab lights - yup, the brotherhood is always more than willing to help you spend your money, lol

Ahh, I did misunderstand you. My apologies.

 

[CaptTom]

You misunderstood me, $50 for your LEDs is just fine - I was referring to the cost of LEDs on my "fancy" truck, thing has so many of them it's probably like $500 or more for all! And now thanks to CaptTom I'll be adding another $100 to them in the form of LED cab lights - yup, the brotherhood is always more than willing to help you spend your money, lol

Well heck!!!

If Agnem can make me spool over a highlighter, headliner.... or whatever that thing is... I will gladly suggest a less costly alternative to my truck swag cohorts!

What a buncha truck hoes.... sheeesh.

Can I say that??

 

[Dieselcrawler]

all the AUX lamps on mine came from Iowa80 truckstop. total cost, 329.30 dollars. costs alot to look good. lol

 

[Matrix37495]

New front turn signal mod.

Lights off:

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Lights on:

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My camera phone cant tell the difference at night, but in person its very noticeable.