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05-19-2016, 11:45 AM
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#1
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Skoolie
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 102
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Exterior LED lights
so i wanted to replace all my existing exterior lighting with LED versions. Ive been looking around and cant seem to find much. where is the best/cheapest place to find these? is there a pack i can buy or do i need to buy them induvidually?
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05-19-2016, 12:04 PM
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#2
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Bus Nut
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: The Valley - Arizona
Posts: 644
Year: 1999
Coachwork: Thomas
Chassis: Freight-shaker (Freightliner)
Engine: Cat 3126b 250 HP
Rated Cap: Only 1 seat
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I buy all of mine from amazon.com. They have tons of styles, just make sure to get some that are water proof and have good ratings!
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05-19-2016, 12:45 PM
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#3
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Bus Geek
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Willamina, Oregon
Posts: 6,409
Coachwork: 97 Bluebird TC1000 5.9
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I've seen LED conversion packages designed for specific buses, but you wouldn't like the price. You're better off to follow an example from this forum.
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05-19-2016, 12:55 PM
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#4
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Skoolie
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Monrovia California
Posts: 151
Year: 1984
Coachwork: Blue Bird
Engine: 3208 turbo Cat
Rated Cap: 78
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05-19-2016, 12:56 PM
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#5
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Skoolie
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 217
Year: 2002
Coachwork: Thomas
Chassis: Freightliner HDX
Engine: CAT 3126B250
Rated Cap: 84
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I went to Etrailer and Raney's. I also picked up a set of 7" round generic led lights, amber and red from a school bus supplier. I'd be willing to sell those for a bit less than I got them for because I changed my mind on the style.
Depending on the style of your bus, your front turn signal is also a parking light, requiring a 2 function light, while the ambers on the rear do not.
Depending on your budget, the 7 inch rounds go for $30 to $50, sometimes $60 or $70 for specific lights, like the front amber one.
http://www.raneystruckparts.com/led-lighting/
https://www.etrailer.com/dept-pg-Trailer_Lights.aspx
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05-19-2016, 02:33 PM
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#6
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Bus Crazy
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Salt Lake City Utah
Posts: 1,635
Year: 2000
Chassis: Blue Bird
Engine: ISC 8.3
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I've purchased lamps and rolls of primary wire at Ryder Fleet Products a few times.
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05-19-2016, 03:08 PM
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#7
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Bus Crazy
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: EHT New Jersey
Posts: 1,134
Year: 2003
Coachwork: AmTran
Chassis: International 3000RE
Engine: T444E/AT545
Rated Cap: 75
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RHOMBUS
I also picked up a set of 7" round generic led lights, amber and red from a school bus supplier. I'd be willing to sell those for a bit less than I got them for because I changed my mind on the style.
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I did that as well, through Amazon (including LED park/turn lights for the front). And since I changed my mind and decided to do a more MCI-ish taillight pattern, they'll up for sale as well. I ordered all replacement LED clearance lights from one of the school bus warehouses online.
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05-19-2016, 03:15 PM
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#8
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Bus Crazy
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Colorado
Posts: 2,356
Year: 1993
Coachwork: bluebird
Engine: 5.9 Cummins, Allison AT1545
Rated Cap: 2
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Please post your lights!!
what could be better than the 7"rounds?
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05-19-2016, 04:53 PM
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#9
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Bus Crazy
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: EHT New Jersey
Posts: 1,134
Year: 2003
Coachwork: AmTran
Chassis: International 3000RE
Engine: T444E/AT545
Rated Cap: 75
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Quote:
Originally Posted by turf
Please post your lights!!
what could be better than the 7"rounds?
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Lights I plan on using from Super Bright LEDs-
In this pattern (with dimensioning)-
I might high mount these-
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05-19-2016, 05:10 PM
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#10
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Bus Crazy
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Vacaville, Ca
Posts: 1,634
Year: 1988
Coachwork: Crown / Pusher
Engine: 8.3 Cummins
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One important piece of information to remember about LED lights, they do not produce heat so if you drive in cold weather areas with snow & ice they will freeze over very quickly with ice & snow buildup.
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05-19-2016, 05:16 PM
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#11
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Bus Geek
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Columbus Ohio
Posts: 18,755
Year: 1991
Coachwork: Carpenter
Chassis: International 3800
Engine: DTA360 / MT643
Rated Cap: 7 Row Handicap
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also if your bus has a flasher that requires high current to flash you may end up with issues using LED's unless you put a dummy load resistor on... or swap the flasher out for a low-current required / electronic
-Christopher
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05-19-2016, 05:18 PM
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#12
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Bus Crazy
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Vacaville, Ca
Posts: 1,634
Year: 1988
Coachwork: Crown / Pusher
Engine: 8.3 Cummins
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cadillackid
also if your bus has a flasher that requires high current to flash you may end up with issues using LED's unless you put a dummy load resistor on... or swap the flasher out for a low-current required / electronic
-Christopher
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True, when I put led tail lights on my truck I had to get a new flasher that had a ground wire installed on it.
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05-20-2016, 11:58 AM
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#13
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Skoolie
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 217
Year: 2002
Coachwork: Thomas
Chassis: Freightliner HDX
Engine: CAT 3126B250
Rated Cap: 84
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The red and amber are Optronics Glolights. They have a little glow ring for the parking light and a ring of LEDs lights up for brakes or blinkers. The red and yellow flashers at the top will be wired in to these so I will have high and low brake lights and blinkers. The upper reds should satisfy the rear clearance light requirement from the DOT. The only thing I am uncertain about is if it is okay to leave the amber rear "parking" lights illuminated along with the reds while driving at night. I have also thought about putting the visors over the lower red and ambers.
The rear bay door is aluminum, so stainless steel screws are a must in my book.
I thought I had read somewhere that rear facing constant ambers were not allowed but can not find that information now.
For the front, I will switch the reds for ambers, remove the original ambers and haven't decided what to put there yet. I'd like to put some fixed spot lights, but then there's all that noise about covering auxillary lighting. I also don't know what to do with the driving lights. Getting LED replacements for the Freightliner face are $70 each and honestly, I'm not going to pay that much for something that's basically just a marker light. I have looked at fog light options, but if I pick a clear light that projects white light, that would be 6 forward facing white lights, requiring at least 2 to be covered. I kinda want to do an over-and-under light set, centrally mounted light a train, but I'm not going to climb up and down to add or remove covers every time I want to turn them on.
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05-20-2016, 12:59 PM
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#14
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Bus Crazy
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: EHT New Jersey
Posts: 1,134
Year: 2003
Coachwork: AmTran
Chassis: International 3000RE
Engine: T444E/AT545
Rated Cap: 75
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I'll be rewiring my bus entirely, since all the wiring for the light is single wire, not pos/neg/ground.
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05-20-2016, 03:23 PM
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#15
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Bus Crazy
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Billings, MT
Posts: 1,269
Year: 2003
Coachwork: Thomas
Chassis: HDX
Engine: Cat C7
Rated Cap: 84 passenger
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stu & Filo. T
One important piece of information to remember about LED lights, they do not produce heat so if you drive in cold weather areas with snow & ice they will freeze over very quickly with ice & snow buildup.
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Actually, they DO produce heat, although not in significant amounts. Easy enough to fix - fill a spray bottle with Isopropanol as a deicer.
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05-20-2016, 04:04 PM
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#16
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Bus Crazy
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Billings, MT
Posts: 1,269
Year: 2003
Coachwork: Thomas
Chassis: HDX
Engine: Cat C7
Rated Cap: 84 passenger
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RHOMBUS
The red and amber are Optronics Glolights. They have a little glow ring for the parking light and a ring of LEDs lights up for brakes or blinkers. The red and yellow flashers at the top will be wired in to these so I will have high and low brake lights and blinkers. The upper reds should satisfy the rear clearance light requirement from the DOT. The only thing I am uncertain about is if it is okay to leave the amber rear "parking" lights illuminated along with the reds while driving at night. I have also thought about putting the visors over the lower red and ambers.
The rear bay door is aluminum, so stainless steel screws are a must in my book.
I thought I had read somewhere that rear facing constant ambers were not allowed but can not find that information now.
For the front, I will switch the reds for ambers, remove the original ambers and haven't decided what to put there yet. I'd like to put some fixed spot lights, but then there's all that noise about covering auxillary lighting. I also don't know what to do with the driving lights. Getting LED replacements for the Freightliner face are $70 each and honestly, I'm not going to pay that much for something that's basically just a marker light. I have looked at fog light options, but if I pick a clear light that projects white light, that would be 6 forward facing white lights, requiring at least 2 to be covered. I kinda want to do an over-and-under light set, centrally mounted light a train, but I'm not going to climb up and down to add or remove covers every time I want to turn them on.
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How'd you run the wiring to sister the rear lights top to bottom?
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05-20-2016, 05:25 PM
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#17
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Skoolie
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 217
Year: 2002
Coachwork: Thomas
Chassis: Freightliner HDX
Engine: CAT 3126B250
Rated Cap: 84
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I will be running jumper wires between similar lights. The left and right side have their own connections all the way to the panels by the driver. Side marker lights will also be tied in, including 3 lowers on each side tied in to the blinking circuit. I will be isolating the marker lights with a switch and momentary-off button to "wink" at larger vehicles as necessary, as well as an interrupt for all exterior illumination except the headlights. The side marker lights can also be flipped to blue if I choose to help me identify my bus at night in a conjested area, such as burning man.
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05-20-2016, 09:52 PM
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#18
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Bus Crazy
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Vacaville, Ca
Posts: 1,634
Year: 1988
Coachwork: Crown / Pusher
Engine: 8.3 Cummins
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptSquid
Actually, they DO produce heat, although not in significant amounts. Easy enough to fix - fill a spray bottle with Isopropanol as a deicer.
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I'll have to go back & read what the Japanies did, their the ones who discover the problem because after they went all LED on their street lights & signal lights discovered that the LED didn't produce enough heat to melt ice off their street lights.
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05-20-2016, 10:32 PM
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#19
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Bus Geek
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Columbus Ohio
Posts: 18,755
Year: 1991
Coachwork: Carpenter
Chassis: International 3800
Engine: DTA360 / MT643
Rated Cap: 7 Row Handicap
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nice looking lights!!
in MOST states you are not allowed to have constantly operating amber lights on the rear of a vehicle or constantly operating red lights on the front of a vehicle...
alot of these laws came back into enforcement in the 90s when all the kids were doing the glow-rods all over their cars... Neon tubes and what not.
one thing about LED lights and winter time... on my Jeep wrangler I installed LED fog lamps.. which were VERY bright and projector style... however in snow they definitely snowed over and wouldnt melt off until I stopped for quite a while.. the wind blowing cooled off about any heat they made.. im guessing the flat nature of bus headlights would be a problem with LED headlamps installed..
on the newer cars that have LED headlamps, notice how they tend to be the cars that have a severe slope in the light lense which tends to allow snow and precipitation to blow off in cold weather...
id only think that snow and ice flying up from the bottom to cover the rear lights would be an issue if you dont have mud flaps installed..
otherwise during your pre-trip in winter you would clear the read lights off so seems in the rear its mostly a non-issue..
-Christopher
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05-21-2016, 06:55 AM
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#20
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Bus Crazy
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: EHT New Jersey
Posts: 1,134
Year: 2003
Coachwork: AmTran
Chassis: International 3000RE
Engine: T444E/AT545
Rated Cap: 75
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You could also do what Volvo did with the 850/960 series cars (when Volvo was still Swedish), and add a wiper and spray nozzle for the windshield washer fluid. I'm leaving my headlights halogen. Only the other lights are going LED
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