Disappointed in life of LED lights

[belfert]

I installed 6 Bargman LED lights on the back of my bus two years ago to replace the brake lights, tail lights, and turn signals.  One of the combination brake/tail lights is dead already.  It works as a tail light, but not brakes.  I put plugs on all of the lights to make any replacement easier.  I switched plugs with another brake/tail light and it still doesn't work.

These darn things should last longer than two years.  I suspect I'll be buying a new one unless Bargman will do an advance replacement.

[scanzel]

This is one reason I stayed with a basic bulb. In my daily travels I see too many brand new cars and trucks with rear leds that have failed already. A $1.00 bulb is a heck cheaper than some of the leds. To change to leds would have cost me hundreds of dollars, sure they are brighter but how bright do you really need them. Just my thought on the subject.

[boxcarOkie]

I installed 6 Bargman LED lights on the back of my bus two years ago to replace the brake lights, tail lights, and turn signals.  One of the combination brake/tail lights is dead already.  It works as a tail light, but not brakes.  I put plugs on all of the lights to make any replacement easier.  I switched plugs with another brake/tail light and it still doesn't work.

These darn things should last longer than two years.  I suspect I'll be buying a new one unless Bargman will do an advance replacement.

A great many LED tail lights require a regular bulb wired into the circuit for resistance, this might be the problem, I have been running mine for quite sometime and I don't have any problems.  As for a one dollar replacement (next post) well, I don't know where it is that you find these. 

A buck doesn't buy much anymore.

BCO

[belfert]

In this case it isn't even the LEDs themselves that went bad.  They come on fine at half brightness for tail lights.  They don't come on at all for brake lights.  Some circuitry in the light itself is fried.

I went with LEDs because the sockets for my light bulbs were corroded all to heck.  The bulbs would randomly quit working.  The sockets were not anything standard so I had to get them through MCI and they were expensive and out of stock for two months.

LEDs seem to have gotten better.  Transit buses used to almost always have bad LEDs in the brake lights, but newer buses almost never have a bad LED.

[belfert]

The good news is at least Bargman/Cequent is going to send me a new light advance replacement so I should have it in plenty of time before my trip.  I was thinking I might just have to buy another one.

[luvrbus]

Bargman has never been a high quality light even the bulb type it is the light of choice for the S&S jobs KD,Truck/Lite and others are better  lights but they cost more 

good luck

[rv_safetyman]

Brian, as you point out, LED lights consist of the LEDs themselves and the circuitry to drive them.  All electronics have a statistical characteristic called "infant mortality".  Loosely translated that says that a certain percentage of components fail very early and if you get past that period, the components last a very long time. 

In the early days of transistors, the military demanded a "burn-in" process.  That dictated that all transistors (and some other components) be subjected to full operation for a period of time.  The "survivors" could them be shipped.

Over  the past many years, electrical components have become more reliable, but it is impossible to totally avoid the early failure characteristic.

As has been touched on, not all electrical components are supplied by the best vendors.  That said, if you get past the early failures of even the "cheap" components, they should last a long time.

Jim

[belfert]

I choose Bargman because they had a style of light I liked.  Cost wasn't really any lower than other options.  I wasn't aware they have issues with their lights.  If Truck-Lite or Grote had something comparable I might have choosen their products.  Unfortunately, I don't think anyone makes LED lights in the USA.

I have LED lights on my bus from about every manufacturer out there.  Bargman, Maxxima, Grote, and Truck-Lite, and Optronics.  I couldn't find one vendor that had every style of light I was looking for in LED.

[luvrbus]

I have never saw Bargman for sale at the truck stops or any truck dealer fwiw maybe now but not in the past I never saw those used for OEM on trucks or buses only RV's 

good luck

[belfert]

I'm not too worried about buying replacement lights on the road.  I have two brake/tail lights on each side along with two turn signals on each side.  I placed a second set of turn signals down low on the bumper in case I was stuck on the side of teh road with the engine hatch open.

[Ace]

I hate to say it but to me it sounds more like a wiring problem in the bus. My bargman leds work fine and have been since I installed them.

[belfert]

I hate to say it but to me it sounds more like a wiring problem in the bus. My bargman leds work fine and have been since I installed them.

Wiring was the first thing I checked.

It turns out it is not a wiring problem in the bus.  I put Weatherpack plugs on all of the lights when I installed them in 2009.  There are two identical lights next to each other.  I swapped the plugs between the two lights and the problem follows the light, not the plug.  I then cut the plug off the bad light and stripped the wires.  If I apply 12 volts between ground and brake it doesn't work.  It does work between ground and tail light.

I originally suspected a wiring problem, but swapping plugs between the lights pretty much killed that idea.

[luvrbus]

When I bought my Bargmans LED they were a direct replacement for the Bargmans on the RV I bought  from some guy in Texas forgot his name but they failed in a year so he put in touch with Bargman for answers nice people btw.
I was on the phone for over a hour the guy telling me the m/a draw on the lights it was all Greek to me till we got to the operating temps seem like AZ heat will kill the LED light because the m/a needs to be reduced and that part is not built into their light.
Sean or others could probably do a better job explaining how they work I still have no idea on how to increase or reduce the m/a for temperature, Mexican I could work with but Greek noway lol  they did replace the lights for no charge


good luck 

[belfert]

I got my replacement light from Bargman yesterday.  Surprisingly they sent the entire assembly with two new LED lights instead of just the one light that was bad.  I guess I have a spare now.  I didn't have time to install a plug on the light and get it installed last night.

[ruthi]

We have had a couple go bad too. We got ours at the Chrome shop in Florida. They guarantee them, and replace any that go bad. They keep your info on file, and ck it, and if it is bad, they replace it.