brake light shut off switch?

[desi arnaz]

dose anyone have any ideas on why my p/o 2wice removed would install a switch to shut the brake lights off? i have had the bus for 2 years now and just found out what this switch was for as i was trying to get my trailer lights to function properly.

[buswarrior]

Besides nefarious reasons...

The brake lights are illuminated on most coaches by the use of the parking brake, as well as the brake pedal.

So, sitting parked and running, the brake lights blaze into the night.

Perhaps there were times the PO didn't want to be bothering others with the lights?

I could see that in a truck stop/rest area setting, if the coach was to be left running.

Or as you air up in the campground early in the am?

If you keep it, it would be good if there is an indicator light to remind the driver to return the switch to "lights on" while driving.

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[TomC]

I have a similar switch on my hot rod (but for different reasons).  I also have a pilot light inside that lights up duplicating the stop lights in back-so you can tell what position the switch is in.  Good Luck, TomC

[desi arnaz]

my thought was it might be for an electric brake for a trailer?

[Lin]

It looks to me like BW's reason makes sense.  It could also, as you say, been used to disable the trailer brakes if the bus was parked and running, but that could be accomplished just by pulling the plug, but maybe, he wanted to disable the trailer brakes while backing up into tight spaces, etc.

[Busted Knuckle]

While BW's idea is probably the most likely and sensible.

I am like TomC and used to have one on all my big trucks for those late night high speed dashes across the desert where the occasional need to quickly and secretly slow down in a hurry was necessary.
(had one on a hot rod or 2 also)

Now a days I just abide by the law and have no such need for those devices!
  BK 

[biff]

On my mc8 there is two brake light pressure switches. one is for the service brakes, the other one is for the parking brakes. I put a toggel switch in series with the parking brake pressure switch that lets me turn the brake lights off when parked.if i want to!

[demodriver]

And I thought I was the only one to have a toggle on my brake lights... Mine killed all of the lights tho

[buswarrior]

BK, those were some of the nefarious reasons I'd have such a switch...

Damn radar aimed from behind, cop gives a blast, radar detector goes off, you nail the brakes, expose yourself as having a detector, or expose yourself as the speeder, whichever....

Also good when playing games after dark where you wanted to dodge into a driveway around the bend in the road and not indicate it to the sap following in the slower car.

oh, the fun we tried to have in our youth, and so many try to prevent the kids from having today...

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[JackConrad]

Back in my much younger days, I had a 66 Doge Charger. The tail/brake lights were a series of 6 bulbs that went all the way across the rear of the car.  I installed switches inside the console that allowed me to individually control both tail and brake function of each buld separately. Go into a corner with tail lights all the way across the rear and come out with only 1 tail light on each corner. As with BK, Don't need any of that now.  Jack

[biff]

On the subget of switches i put one in that makes my headlights wig wag. like on a police car. I use it when i haft to swing out in the left lane to get in my driveway.

[Busted Knuckle]

oh, the fun we tried to have in our youth, and so many try to prevent the kids from having today...

happy coaching!
buswarrior

  BW I think the reason we try to keep kids from having the fun we did is we lived to tell about it, and still wonder how we ever survived some of the STUPID things we did. And we wish to protect the next generations from doing such stupid stuff in case they aren't as lucky as we were.

Some friends & I used to "bumper race" @ night out in the country near a lake (can you picture hilly twisty lake roads) in our souped up mustangs, cameros, chevelles, cornets, etc with NO lights on.
This was one of my first anti-brake light switch installations on my '65 Rustang 302 Boss C-4 w/full manual valve body.

OK first off your talking 1/2 dozen teens in various "hot rods" some w/passengers some w/o. But all racing on these twisty back roads at night and only depending on moonlight (not always the greatest thru the trees) and reflections off the guy in front of you's back bumper and occasionally some brake lights. (I was the first of my friends to install the switch, once everybody learned I'd done it they were all paying me to put one in theirs too!~)

Imagine my surprise one particular night when I got an exceptionally bad start out of the "parking area" we used as a staging starting line and knew I was in dead last place but charging hard and really making good time catching up with the quick little blips of lights in front of me when I came down a hill and hit my brakes hard knowing it was a 90* turn at the bottom and I got rear ended!
Now I'm in dead last place, and I know this, and I got rear ended.
Farther more while I'm trying to figure out who just rear ended me the red & blue flashing lights in my mirror scared the you know what out of me.
So I pull over and get out of the car. As the Sheriff's car pulls up behind me and stops I notice his grill is busted and radiator is steaming. He is hopping mad when he gets out of the car and tells me he's ready to take me to jail for racing, no lights, and non-working brake lights.
I looked at him and told him he must be mistaken but last I checked my brake lights worked. He told me to prove it.
When I opened the door and stepped on the brake pedal both lights lit up. I then told him he must of mistaken the sudden slowing action of my down shift (full manual valve body transmission) as braking. And farther more how was he going to explain that he didn't have any lights on either when pursuing me?

Oh he was mad I mean mad. He told me since there is "real" damage to your car, you just go on and don't let me catch you out here doing this again! As I was getting ready to get in the car I heard him telling dispatch he needed a wrecker at such & such location he'd just hit a dad gummed deer!

We still raced on them roads after that, but we got more clever and had a "decoy" go thru ahead of us, and then had someone bring up the rear with headlights. Never did meet up with officer friendly again.
 BK  

Just one of the fine example things I still wonder how we survived!

[buswarrior]

If we were smart enough, and our folks were good enough to pretend not to know...

If we close the door on the conditions that made us who we are....

Then why are we wondering why the next generation has no get up and go and no gumption?

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[DMoedave]

Hahaha, muct be the busnut gene that carries over to running with no lights. all kids should experience gravel roads and semi friendly police who can make a on the road decision with out worrying that he could get in trouble later.

[Just Dallas]

We use to make a lot of runs between Roswell, NM and Santa Rosa. Sometimes through Vaughn on 285 and sometimes cutting off on 20.

You've never seen a night sky so beautiful or so full of stars. We put switches in on the brake lights so the people behind us could see them also. It wasn't unusual to have a truck with 10 or 15 cars behind it and no one with lights on, hauling balls at 70 mph in the middle of the night.

You can also get some of the same effect on Wolf Creek Pass or around Durango on the back roads.

Even without a moon, the stars are so bright at 02:30 on a clear night that you can see mirages on the road. You can also see for 10 miles or more.

Someone hitting the brakes to turn off the cruise would ruin your night vision for the next 20 minutes.

As for circumventing the LEO's, I plead the 5th, or maybe it was a quart! I would never do such a thing, and since you don't have any photographs, you can't prove it!  BW and BK however have admitted to it and should be put in stocks and horse whipped! (That's the only fair way isn't it)?