I am thinking about making my lights brighter, so I will be seen on the highway better. Should I just replace the bulbs with LED ones? Would they make it brighter? Looking at bulbs online, I see 130 lumens, 250 lumens, etc... How many lumens does it take to be brighter than the old incandescent bulbs? And if a LED bulb is rated 12 volt, but the data sheet says 8V to 30V, could it be used in place of a 24V bulb?
Or should I replace the fixtures? My bus is a 5C, same lights as a MC8. 7" stop lights, and 5" tail and turn signal lights.
I would prefer just replacing the bulbs if doable.
JC
I don't recommend the LED replacement bulbs. I tried a couple in my upper corner lights in my rear cap. The problem with bulb replacements is that they are uni-directional, which means
basically they have a limited angle of output, so if you're not looking directly at them, you can't see them. While this might work ok for rear tail lights, I think it's quite limiting. Also,
the replacement bulbs have a limited real estate where LEDs can be placed, so the brightness is limited. I recommend replacing the whole fixture which will have LEDs over the entire
real estate of the light surface.
This was about 10 years ago, so maybe the bulb replacements have changed. I ended up building my own boards to replace mine. They are very bright, but still have a limited angle. I
left incandescent bulbs in the upper corners where the limited angle was a problem.
I am confused as to why people can't see a huge bus going down the highway.
But anyway, if the spec sheet says it will run at 30v it should run at 24v. I say get one and try it against the others to see how it does. Hard to determine if it will be brighter than the old bulbs because there are a lot of factors with the old bulbs that can impact the brightness and without knowing what the actual lumens are of the old bulbs, in your old fixtures, with your old wiring, on your old bus, it is hard to say how many lumens you need to be brighter than that.
They make what is called a tower LED light that has LED's all around for 360ยบ coverage. You can try them-I like the dedicated LED fixtures better. Good Luck, TomC
JC -
If you notice, a lot of skoolies nowadays have the big 7" LED brake lights, so that should be an easy swap.
As for the tail and turn signals, if you clean the cans real well and paint them with a bright white paint, you'll be amazed at the difference in the brightness once you put the lenses back on. One rattle can of paint should be more than enough.
You might need new lenses for the LH side, as IBME w/ MCIs that those darken over time due to the constant diesel exhaust soot.
If you want to spend the $$, you can pull the old tail & turn cans and replace them with the new sealed LED units truckers are using that are suspended in a rubber trim ring. Not sure what the voltage rating is on these, but a search of Truck-Lite or Grote should come up with some specs.
FWIW & HTH. . .
;)
I am making the change to LED inside and outside of the bus, replacing the 7" round fixtures they are much brighter, there are several available on line, I am going with Doran brand they sell several different styles.>>>> John.
When I did mine there was one company that made 28 volt 7" dual running stop lights, I bought a set. They are very expensive and a special order. They are marginally larger in diameter than the old style sealed beam stop lights, so I had to spend an hour grinding them down a bit, and grinding the ID of the MCI base a little larger. They work great. Now I see there may be a couple of other choices. example http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Lights/Optronics/STL90R24B.html (http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Lights/Optronics/STL90R24B.html)
No one makes LED upgrades for the stock MCI 5" lights. It's not legal per DOT to put LED lights in a fixture that was designed for incandescent lights, the radiation pattern and colour mix won't meet the FMVSS rules. What you can do is put 4" diameter LED lights in with a trim ring to make them out to 5". http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Lights/Optronics/STL23R24B.html (http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Lights/Optronics/STL23R24B.html)
If you put the 7" LED lights in they won't draw enough current to turn on the tell-tale light in the dash, which is there to let you know if one of the stop lights is out. There is a work-around possible, but I didn't bother.
Brian
Quote from: RJ on December 09, 2014, 09:29:09 AM
JC -
If you notice, a lot of skoolies nowadays have the big 7" LED brake lights, so that should be an easy swap.
Guy near me just found some (roughly) 7" X 5" rectangular amber turn signal lights from a Thomas school bus (it's good to be in NC sometimes) - he's going to use them on a trailer but they'd be fine for a bus. They have a board in them so you can just feed them power and the flash is internal. Yeah, there is some NICE LED stuff out there.
I changed out the 4 red 7" lights in the back for the 7" LED. The only problem was, since the LED stop light (2 of them) draws so little electricity, my King Cruise would not pick up the stop light. Installing a 100ohm resister (grounded) to the circuit cured that. Good Luck, TomC
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-0geIfHCRjOQ/UzTaUqllcwI/AAAAAAAAXBY/MXilDaeNLtY/s1152/IMG_20140327_200651_356.jpg)
Thanks for all the replies and info guys. I ended up taking RJ's advice and this afternoon I washed all the lenses in hot soapy water with a brush. Cleaned up the cans and spray painted them gloss white. They were a bare sort of shiny metal, starting to look rusty. The bulbs get dusty. And sooty on the left side above the exhaust pipe. Noticeable difference. Didn't cost me anything either! LED fixtures is now a project on the bottom of the list...
JC
PS: looking for a new bus. Must be cheap. And in like new shape.
Just kidding... ha, ha.
I changed all of my rear lights to LED's but mine are rectangle. I also changed all the red and yellow running lights to LED's and have gotten many compliments on the brightness!
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Ace did you replace just the bulbs, or the whole fixtures?
JC
The whole fixture! Remove old, plug in new and install. Done!
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Hi JC, cleaning and painting the reflective surface is definitely important, led or incandescent, don't forget the color temperature, daylight (appears bluer) seems brighter with the same lumins, go to a hardware store and look at the Phillips display with the 2 or 3 different color led bulbs, they use so little electricity, they can cause problems, with heat and amperage based relays, merry christmas, tom...
Quote from: lostagain on December 09, 2014, 08:44:10 AM
I am thinking about making my lights brighter, so I will be seen on the highway better. Should I just replace the bulbs with LED ones? Would they make it brighter? Looking at bulbs online, I see 130 lumens, 250 lumens, etc... How many lumens does it take to be brighter than the old incandescent bulbs? And if a LED bulb is rated 12 volt, but the data sheet says 8V to 30V, could it be used in place of a 24V bulb?
Or should I replace the fixtures? My bus is a 5C, same lights as a MC8. 7" stop lights, and 5" tail and turn signal lights.
I would prefer just replacing the bulbs if doable.
JC
There are many directly LEDs that directly replace bulbs.
There is one problem with turn signals. a resistor is necessary to make the low power LED operate the blinker.
LEDs are no brighter, brightness depends on design, the LED advantage is life and low power draw. The disadvantage is high cost and getting an LED to throw light in the correct direction, there are dozens of configurations. Their greatest advantage on a bus is for tail and running lights because there are so many of them and they draw a lot of power.
So far I've found none suitable for HL.
LED's can be brighter than an incandescent bulb. Just compare some late model LED brake lights on a car with the incandescent brake lights of a car next to it at your next stop light. Quite a difference. But as Gus said, depends on design. Cheap LED lights can actually be dimmer. If you put LED's in your front and rear turn signals and don't change anything on the side marker turn signals running down the side of the belt line of the coach, you won't have an issue with your blinking rate changing. No need for a resistor. I'm running LED turn signals and brake and tail lights without issue. They are from American Superlite and they work well. Rated for 24v. My clearance lamps are superbrightled brand and they are 12 volt.
(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftapatalk.imageshack.com%2Fv2%2F14%2F12%2F11%2Fcd2a78b33f7ee5d5ef404c5bb3067d14.jpg&hash=ef67072a793c40ef8f268e0eab39076d7a015faf)
(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftapatalk.imageshack.com%2Fv2%2F14%2F12%2F11%2Fdd05aea9aef2f36e11e07feaaeb10775.jpg&hash=96ada99c8835d5d22d9354be11dc36373b888a20)
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Scott, my brake light is a 24v superlite 7" unit fwiw. Are those the 4" units just held in with a rubber gasket inside the 5" holes in the MCI plinth? That would be exactly the upgrade I'd like to see for my bus.
Brian
Yes sir. The top and bottom came like that matching the holes. The center one as you can see wouldn't fit, so my uncle
Mike fabbed an aluminum ring that I riveted in place. Never got around to painting it black tho
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I have to replace my bodyside turn indicator lights, so I was thinking of having two LEDs per side instead of the present one incandescent per side. I'll be keeping my front and rear incandescent turn indicators, so each turning side will have two incandescents and two LEDs in total. Will this still work OK with my present flasher, or will I need a resistor? I'm hoping the overall load per side won't be much different than now.
Thanks, John
It depends to some extent on the flasher. Old ones were quite current sensitive, and the "feature" was they changed speed with even one bulb out. Other ones were "trailer" flashers, so they flashed the same speed if the trailer was connected or not. Solid state ones flash the same regardless, even if there is no bulb or LED at all. Mostly you will find that if you keep one incandescent per side you'll get some kind of flash, regardless.
Brian
Quote from: bevans6 on December 11, 2014, 01:15:12 PM
It depends to some extent on the flasher. Old ones were quite current sensitive, and the "feature" was they changed speed with even one bulb out. Other ones were "trailer" flashers, so they flashed the same speed if the trailer was connected or not. Solid state ones flash the same regardless, even if there is no bulb or LED at all. Mostly you will find that if you keep one incandescent per side you'll get some kind of flash, regardless.
Brian
True, sometimes they flash super fast, but you never know for sure until you try one.
I tried some just recently on my minivan with double filaments and they didn't work.
Thanks, I'll give it a try. Maybe if they flash slightly faster it will get people's attention better, maybe? That's another mini-project to do, along with all the other mini- and maxi-projects . . . (I've learnt to always have a simple mini-project at the same time as a bigger project, so if/when I hit a snag I've still got something else to do!)
John
If you want to stick with incandescent lighting, simply putting in new bulbs should make a noticeable difference.
The main advantage to going with LED is the speed in which they illuminate. Next time you are beside a tractor trailer watch the timing difference between truck and trailer. If one is much faster then those are the LEDs. You can actually see a difference. It may not make a difference city driving but could relate to illuminating as much as 50 feet sooner.
Quote from: krank on December 12, 2014, 12:53:42 PM
If you want to stick with incandescent lighting, simply putting in new bulbs should make a noticeable difference.
The main advantage to going with LED I think is the speed in which they illuminate. Next time you are beside a tractor trailer watch the timing difference between truck and trailer. If one is much faster then those are the LEDs. You can actually see a difference. It may not make a difference city driving but could relate to illuminating as much as 50 feet sooner.