Improve Reversing Lights

[lozz]

[steve_earwig]

Not Croatian Man Fits Smaller Fuse To Reversing Light Circuit On Ford Transit

...and wonders why the fuse blows every time he puts the air con on... Damn, damn, damn

[CBDSonline]

Are we any further forward on the better reverse lights ?.. My 406 d9 is a taxi and i seem to do quite a bit of reversing in and out of punters gardens/drives so need to see whats going on. Reversing sensors seem to help when the windows are all misted up and trying to reverse blind (ish) out of tight spaces. But i would still like to be able to see out on my wing mirrors and see the light (oooo the magic light of reverse) as countryside is quite dark in the dead of night up her just now.

I did have a bad earth on one side so maybe the feedback was comming from the bad earth lighting my china led reverse lights up ?? i will try them again poss tomorrow and see if they still stay on when the sidelights are on..

Chris

[Doggy]

I may be proven wrong, but while I accept that LED's can be very bright to look at they generally aren't great for seeing by. I think you need to look at additional lights, (unless there's anything wrong with your original filament lamps / lenses / wiring).

[trem1]

what about something like this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Super-Slim-8- ... ed7&_uhb=1


theres a 406 estate i see regularly with a pair of slimline fog/spot lights boltef under his rear bumper, obviously because of this issue. i will try and get a sneaky pic sometime when i'm passing it

[CBDSonline]

I have just tried the LED's i bought a few months ago with the bad earth now fixed the LED's stay off. Light is not any better than the 21w normal bulb so i have also orderd 2 new 43w LED lamps t give them a try.

They should be here tue or wed this week coming so will find out if they are any better.
If so i try and grab a few pics in the dark to show off what they are like If they are just as pants as the 21w normal bulbs then its back to the drawing board again in a search for bright reverse lights

Cheers

Chris

[CBDSonline]

New LED's arrived and seem to be bright. but alas just the same once in the rear cluster. pish poor light coming out of the smoked light cluster so it looks like its back to the drawing board. I have a few pics to show the difference in light but not had time to upload them yet. I will get round to it soon tho

Any one know if the cluster will tear down. Maybe i could line the reflector area with silver foil to try and reflect the light a bit better just like i done on the door card puddle lights

Updated with pics. (a few and big)

G4 43w LED


P21w Style LED


Standard Lamp


G4 43w LED


P21w style LED



Standard p21w Bulb


G4 43w LED


P21 style LED



Standard p21w


G4 43w led from about 3 meters



G4 43w Leds from about 8 meters

[steve_earwig]

Bugger At least you tried. I need to get on and order those Crees.

I reckon the problem with the G4s is there's no reflector so all the bulbs on the sides won't be doing much, and perhaps the P21 styles just don't have enough LEDs.

I was also wondering if it helped to turn on the fog lights while you're reversing. Maybe it would even be possible to wire in some diodes so that the fogs and brake lights come on at the same time as the reverse lights. Or maybe that would give the BSI a nervous breakdown

[Doggy]

Some possibilities, (which may not be practical)

Adapt to take a twin filament 6/21W & use both filaments
Think I've seen some 24W filament lamps, intended for DRL's
Could a 12V PAR38 (or similar), be adapated to fit - at least they've got decent relectors

Taking steve's suggestion a morsel further - maybe the unused L/H fog could be pressed into service, perhaps witha modified lense?

[CBDSonline]

I tested the g4s out on a country car park last night at the edge or town and due to the poor camera on my hd7 could not get a picture of the road or the bushes beside the car park. The only thing i noted was that everything was a cleaner light The light was just like fitting blue headlight bulbs so i could see a bit better thru wing mirrors.. This weekend is due soon so will give them a good try in the country and see how they get on.

I have thought about adding DLR led strips either under the spoiler (prob look naff) or between the number plate lights facing the rear and wired up to the reverse lights.

[steve_earwig]

Look http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-1156-BA15 ... 337d14dc47 It even has free postage to Croatia

I bought some of these a while back (the ones in the link have gone but it still brings up similar lights) but I finally had a chance to look at the these in the dark the other night, I had one standard 21w and one Cree bulb in the car.


Can't see much difference in the daylight:




Not really much at night either:


I did take some pics with the mobile but, as there's not much I can do with the settings on it, all I got were two black jpegs All I can say is standing in front of one bulb and then the other, there was a noticeable improvement but it's still nothing to write home about. I'll stick the other in there anyway but, without modifying the light clusters somehow, I don't think changing the bulbs is ever going to be effective. Ah well, the bulbs cost less than a fiver

[azazel]

Very interesting thread. DO you think the LED made a worthwhile improvement? Can you get two, one either side into an estate? My reversing lights are rubbish and only any good as a warning to thers that Im reversing.

[steve_earwig]

Improvement, yes. Worthwhile, dunno. I'm not driving the Pug much at the moment but I did notice a great deal more light as I backed it into the shed the last time.

We seem to be having a parallel thread to this one here viewtopic.php?f=3&t=21486&p=216357#p216357

[azazel]

Thanks, thats how I found this thread. I have some 12v led clusters which I might fit somewhere.

[gumby6371]

I was just thinking could the reflector from a cheap torch be fixed to the bulb to force more light in the right direction?

I can see a trip to the shed with a pound shop torch and some masking tape coming on!