521 Tail Lights to Improve Visibility

[71-521]

Ok after 10 years of driving this truck, the other night some yahoo almost rear ended me at a light...she skidded off the road but would have hit me had she kept it straight.

I'm not very good at keeping my foot on the brake pedal at lights, so the only thing she saw was my parking lights and thought I was moving...

I have thought about this for some time but never had the time to plan it out...

So today, I did!

 

Problem was to make both lights into parking lights and to make the blinkers brighter...

(I really wanted to make both sets brake and turn signals but they are separate circuits and it just wasn't possible...)

 

I had 2 sets of spare tail light harnesses laying around:

 

then I drew up how the stock wiring was set up:

 

 

and figured out how I wanted to do it by modifying the least:

 

 

So the first thing I did was to cut out the single socket unit I was replacing on the best harness I had.

 

I then cut off the best dual socket that I was swapping in it's place...

 

I hooked up the ground 1st...no brainer, black wire connect to black wire...

 

next was the Green wire with yellow strip on the dual socket getting hooked up to

 

the green wire on the plug (Brighter turn signal!)

 

then I jumpered in the green wire with white stripe to the same colored one on the plug...(gives both bulbs parking lights!)

 

While i was at it, I cleaned up the lenses and backing and replaced the broken frame with a good one ( had that sitting for about 2 years on the to do list!)

 

then I said what the heck and painted the frames blue to help them stand out better...

 

here's what the finished unit looks like:

 

 

here's the leftover parts...anyone need them?

 

 

here's a vid of what they loooked like before the mods (stock):

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y101/UltraSeed/521/?action=view&current=camerapics039.flv

 

And what they look like after the mod:

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y101/UltraSeed/521/?action=view&current=camerapics041.flv

 

Hopefully this will keep those morons off my ass...

I just gotta remember to keep the foot on the brake pedal!

 

maybe someone can improve on this idea?

[datzenmike]

Anything that improves your visibility to others is a good thing! I just raised the tail lights about sixteen inches to eye hight of othe drivers behind me

[Bleach]

why wouldn't you have your foot on the brakes while stopped? How do you keep from rolling forward or back?

 

Install LED bulbs in the stock location and put a 3rd brakelight on the truck. :D ...and use your brakes

[71-521]

LED's will be another project...

[Pacific coast Datsun]

Looks good Paul. They do look alot brighter too.

[tangent]

Is that truck purple and yellow? Awesome.

[Guest DatsuNoob]

I saw a set of aftermarket LED's intalled on a chevy tahoe that are for a universal application. They run in a thin bar of them and fit in the gap between the bumper and stock tail light area. They look really cool and would definitely help other drivers see your blinkers and brake lights better without changing the stock look of your truck. I also saw a 620 with Caddy taillights in the corners of the bed, and a roll pan in place of the stock lights, kinda different, but cool in its own way.