3rd brake light recommendations? brightest cargo light?

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hemi1300

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currently have recon 3rd brake light installed, but the cargo light is pathetic for seeing anything in the bed at night. Any recommendations for a nice led smoke 3rd brake light that has bright cargo lights? There's a bunch floating around ebay for $20 or so, but not sure if there crap. Wondering if my best bet would be getting an oem unit, lightly smoke the lens with vht spray tint, and install high powered led's in the cargo lights
 

LB3711

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my plan is oem is tinted and when theres some good 921 bulb LEDs I'm butting them in and calling it done. Mine is nice and dark LOL so I need bright LEDs

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blackout11

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Dont think if its tinted its really going to light up the bed no matter what you use run some led's down the side of the bed
 

Stangshcky12

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I just got a set of tinted LED tails for my girfriends truck
I spray tinted the third and left the cargo lights clear but I'm not really sure why haha
I do like the way it looks though I haven't even really looked at the cargo lights since lol
I second putting led in the bed
Here's what I did for my dad
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4-10" led strips were $1.50 each on eBay
Another $15 in a switch, wire etc

I have a bunch of LED strips at home for my girfriends truck that I'll be putting in next weekend when I'm home
 
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hemi1300

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man those bed lights are awesome, was the wiring difficult though? Where did u run the wires to tap into power? Would be cool if i could run the wiring and tap into the cargo light wire, so all i need to do is hit the cargo light button below the headlight switch and the bed would be lit up. Think i might have a new project lol
 
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hemi1300

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where do u have the switch mounted, and did u tap into the tailights for constant 12v power? Starting to get an idea, have always wanted bright lights in my weatherguard tool box, i could put 2 light strips inside the box and 2 light strips under the bed rails, somehow tie them all together, and have a switch mounted maybe inside the tool box. Would need a dis-connect coupler under the toolbox so if i remove it, just pop the connector loose and pull the tool box
 

Stangshcky12

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For his I just tapped into the accessory 12v on the 7pin triplet plug and ran the wire up through the stake pocket and brought it out under the bed rail
I ordered a waterproof switch from superbright LEDs an am just going to drill a hole into the plastic bedliner since its a pretty flush switch
LED need to be run in parallel so just branch it all from your power wire and run it to any ground, mine all use a common ground

For my girlfriend I have 2-2' strips for under the bed rails and a 4' for under te lid of te tool box. I put a lot of thought into how I wanted to wire them. I was hesitant about have a switch in the be since it doesn't have a cover and we stuff a ton of hay into it but I figure since we always get into the bed/ toolbox from the rear the switch is the best bet
I may still tie them into the cargo lights eventually
There is a bundle of wires the run under the driver side rear sill plate two blacks, a white with a tan tracer and white with brown tracer
I know te white with brown tracer goes to the cargo lights but have heard that one of the blacks actually is 12v
 

Stangshcky12

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CAnt really compare lights like that, electricity will take the path of least resistance so the incandescent won't light up as bright as it normally does
 

Stangshcky12

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I'm not arguing that the LEDs arent much brighter but to be fair the incandescent will be dimmer with an led in the other side then it would be with another incandescent
Just being fair lol
 

LB3711

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CAnt really compare lights like that, electricity will take the path of least resistance so the incandescent won't light up as bright as it normally does

not really. Same power is going to both. Its a color difference and a lumens difference. Power has nothing to do with it. You can use 2 seperate 12 volt power supplys and still see the same thing you see with his plate.
 

Hunterok411

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I just ordered some spray tint. Gonna tape off the clear part of the third brake and lightly smoke the red. That's whats gonna happen to mine anyways. I'm not planing on gettin bent over on Recon's prices. haha
 

Stangshcky12

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Sorry shouldn't have said path of least resistance but since the lights are in parrellel the current supplied to each is proportional to the resistance
Typical LED forward resistance is 1ohm while a similar 912 12.8w incandescent bulb is 11.5-12ohms since voltage isn't regulated
Since we can act like the lights are resistors in parallel, theveniens equivalent tells us that voltage is the same in both lights and the total current is split between the two lights
Total resistance in the circuit is .923 ohms with an LED and an incandescent (2 incandescents total resistance would be 6 ohms, 2 LED would be .5 ohms) so V=IR so total current in the circuit would be 13 amps
Current through the LED would be 12v=I*1ohms so it would have get 12 amps while the incandescent equals 12v=I*12ohms so it would only get 1 amp
With two incandescent bulbs they would get 2 amps each do when you switch one bulb to an led you cut the power of the incandescent in half (P=IV so your 12.8W bulb is now only dissipating 6.4W of power)
So like I said yes the LED is definitely brighter but to be fair to the incandescent it's not to it's full power/potential Energy while there is an LED bulb in the other side
Im happy with how well my VHT tinted third matches my tinted LED tails
 
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