LED turn signal clearance lights

[drive805]

want to change over to LED lights for all clearance lights but front and midship lights don't work as clearance/turn signal lights as they did with incandescent lights..... checking wiring green is light brown is turnsignal. Can i wire an LED to work as previous incandescent or can i not change to LED

[Dtwallace]

You can change it to work any way you want, but first you'd have to identify what wires do what, and match up your new lights from the supplied wire diagram.


If you don't have a diagram for the lights you want to use, try doing an online search.


Good Luck
DTW


DTW

[markmiiler]

LED lights are polarity sensitive.

[Bobog]

You know how your turn signal flashes very quickly if you have a burned out incandescent bulb? If you go with LEDs, the effect is even greater and they may appear to not be flashing at all.
You may need to either change your turn signal and 4 way flashers to electronic LED compatible ones or wire in an electrical resistance pack to enable your existing flashers to work properly.

[mel s]

Originally Posted by drive805

want to change over to LED lights for all clearance lights but front and midship lights don't work as clearance/turn signal lights as they did with incandescent lights..... checking wiring green is light brown is turnsignal. Can i wire an LED to work as previous incandescent or can i not change to LED

drive805
My incandescent clearance lights are working perfectly fine and they're 20 years old.
Is there something wrong with yours?

Sometimes trying to fix things that aren't broken opens up a can of worms.

Mel
'96 Safari

[FIRE UP]

Originally Posted by drive805

want to change over to LED lights for all clearance lights but front and midship lights don't work as clearance/turn signal lights as they did with incandescent lights..... checking wiring green is light brown is turnsignal. Can i wire an LED to work as previous incandescent or can i not change to LED

Can't quite understand this part of your statement:
" ....checking wiring green is light brown is turn signal." Huh? And, the term
CLEARANCE normally means lights that are up high on the coach, as in the upper corners to help identify where the corners of your coach is, in the darkness. Running or, tail/marker lights are regular tail lights and front "marker" lights that may or may not be up high.

Now, back to your issue. Do you have side marker lights that also act as turn signals, that are half way down the length of the coach? Are those what you're trying to convert to LED? Converting any marker lights to LEDs is normally without issue. It's where you want to do a turn signal is where issues start to happen. The ultra low resistance is the problem because regular flashers depend on resistance to work correctly.

And, in the case of either front/side fender or, possibly midship (your term) being used as a running AND turn signal, it get's fairly complicated with that scenario. You see, in many cases, a side marker light that is also used as a turn signal, has what's called a "FLOATING GROUND".

And it even get's more complicated if the running lights are on or off. The ground in those changes if the running lights are on, or off. So, I don't know if this kind of thing is effecting your changeover or not.
Scott

[Johndale]

Originally Posted by drive805

want to change over to LED lights for all clearance lights but front and midship lights don't work as clearance/turn signal lights as they did with incandescent lights..... checking wiring green is light brown is turnsignal. Can i wire an LED to work as previous incandescent or can i not change to LED

I know what you are talking about. Min is just the front lower so I am installing a second round LEDs for the turn signal.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/371250310276
Easy install.

[mcolgate42]

Don't know about the wiring but, I found out (the hard way) if replacing a bulb behind a RED lens, make sure you get a RED LED!

[TBS-POPS]

You have to have a dual function led marker/turn light to do it.

[skypilot_1]

My experience with converting to LED lamps on car/RV turn signals (as other poster pointed out) the flasher doesn't see enough resistance to function as designed. I install a resister in system to "trick" the flasher to doin what its suppose to down. You may have other faults, However, can't tell from post.

[drive805]

I guess i should use a little better punctuation. Checking the wiring, Green wire is for the running light, Brown wire is for the turn signal. My term, midship light, i got from camping world when i asked about the side marker/ turn signal , i was corrected that its a clearance light( and also said midship) . So thats where that came from, Either way its the front corner and midway down the coach lights, They broke and or were shorting out bulbs. So i wanted to try LED lights they are brighter, last longer, and i think give a clean look. But as you said, i believe there's a floating ground for these lights and the LED's wont work that way i would have to get a three wire light i'm sure. So im figuring that i have to replace with new incandescent lights

[l1v3fr33ord1]

drive805-

If an existing light has three wires, you need a three-wire LED replacement. As these lights can be mounted in multiple places, the wire color on the lights are usually red, black and white. The wiring on your coach may be any color, but if it corresponded to "standard" colors it would be:

Left turn: Yellow
Right turn: Green
Park/Marker: Brown

This is backwards from what your post states, indicating you may have two wires reversed.

There is nothing magical about replacing incandescent light fixtures with LED fixtures (except as immediately below). Testing with a voltmeter will sort out what signals are coming from the coach.

LED replacement magic: As pointed out, if you replace all or most of your turn signal fixtures or bulbs with LED fixtures or bulbs you will have to replace the turn signal flasher with one designed for LED use. An alternative is to install one or more resistors at the LED "bulbs," which is usually more work than the flasher replacement.

Note that you can have a mix of incandescent and LED turn signal bulbs and the flasher may work correctly. That's because the incandescent bulbs draw enough current to keep the old flasher working. At some point in the switchover, there are not enough old bulbs, and the flasher (usually) starts "hyper-flashing," that is flashing very quickly. That's when you need to switch to an LED (electronic) flasher, or put a couple of the incandescent bulbs back in the circuit.

Finally, rather than replace fixtures you have the alternative of buying LED bulbs for your existing fixtures. This eliminates rewiring and replacing the fixtures. An LED-capable flasher (or resistors) is still required should you change out enough turn signal bulbs.

[mel s]

Originally Posted by skypilot_1

My experience with converting to LED lamps on car/RV turn signals (as other poster pointed out) the flasher doesn't see enough resistance to function as designed. I install a resister in system to "trick" the flasher to doin what its suppose to down. You may have other faults, However, can't tell from post.

skypilot_1
Doesn't a resistor add back the amp draw that the LED eliminated?
If so switching from an incandescent to an LED to lessen amp draw and then having to add a resister seems counterproductive.

[windsorbill]

Originally Posted by mel s

skypilot_1
Doesn't a resistor add back the amp draw that the LED eliminated?
If so switching from an incandescent to an LED to lessen amp draw and then having to add a resister seems counterproductive.

Mel,

I think you're correct, but I believe the OP wants the 'crisp' look the LED gives that the incandescent bulb doesn't. I don't think energy consumption is a concern here.