And that is exactly why I DON'T have one. :D

If you guys weren't so dam nice..... ;)

More lighting updates coming soon! :D


Sneak Peak:

Attachment 29780

As you have seen in my earlier posts I just replaced my old smoked tail lights with lenses that seemed to be more "blacked out" than smoked. I feared a rear-ending was in my near future at that time. :icon_flamethrow:

After replacing my tail lights I wanted to focus my attention to the now more apparent eye sore, my 3rd brake light.


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Another member and I recently did some swapping which included a new 3rd brake light. Yes this 3rd brake light is original style, and I know I just replaced my tail lights with pretty new clear-lens LED's, but I have not been impressed with the look of the 3rd tail lights available from the aftermarket from what I have found so far so I decided to perform a fixer-upper to the original style ;)


I recently became obsessed with ChrisFix from youtube and watched all his videos(thank god that binge over....) Anyways one of his fixes included restoring an old faded set of headlights and also a 3rd brake light. I have seen those kits to restore headlights but the UV thing always plagued them. So I steered clear of those for a long time.

His fix is simple and seemed correct. Basically I sanded down the old yellowed lens with several grades of sandpaper, then I used clear coat to bring it back to life.....and hopefully stay that way!

So far I am very happy with the results.


Before:

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After:

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Now at this point I decided to order up some LED's to replace the bulbs inside. I did my measuring of the lenses and ordered them up from the best place I know, superbrightleds.com

I wanted to make sure I got the brightest yet not go too crazy on price. Here is what I was dealing with:

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921-NW13-CBT replaces the 921's in the 3rd brake light(outside bulbs) for the cargo lighting.
WLED-RHP5 replaces the 921's(inside bulbs) for the brake lights.
194-CW5-CBT replaces the 921 inside cab cargo light.
3157-NWHP28-T replaces the 3157 reverse lights in my new tail-lights


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I wanted the cargo lights to be as bright as I could get without breaking the bank. Those 921 led's i got are 170 lumens natural white 4400k. Pretty cheap too. Well after they arrived and were installed I realized the halogen 921's are 260 lumens so i screwed that one up somehow... I will replace those down the road when I order more replacement LED's.

The WLED-RHP5 are red color. They too are only 90 lumens. So i will also replace those soon. Ugh...

However at night they seem to pretty bright so they aren't bad for right now... Just goes to show you make sure you research better on these LED's and compare lumens with halogens.

The cargo light 194 led for the inside rocks though, its also natural white and only 85 lumens but its a canbus and its much brighter than the original with its more white light. I'm very happy with that replacement. Canbus ensured the system saw signal with LED bulb and my keyless entry will be happy when I fix it lol.

Now the real upgrade here, and I really did my research on this one.... My new tail lights were all nice LED's, but they kept the same halogen reverse bulbs.... So i upgraded them. The 3157-NWHP28-T are 550 lumens :D Where the original halogens are only 402. These suckers are bright. They were pretty close to not fitting either, but they measured out ok and I am very happy with the results.

Pay close attention to these pics, I want you to look not at the bulb, but the ground outside of the bulbs they illuminate....


Here is a pic of the new bulb in action, notice the opposite side however and the ground it illuminates:

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Now here is the old halogen bulb, yeah you can barely tell any difference directly looking at it, its a bit yellow on camera, BUT CHECK OUT THE NEW LED ON THE OTHER SIDE AND THE GROUND ITS ILLUMINATING!!!!!

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Here are the rest of the photos.

3rd brake light, cleaned up and new seal to keep water out:

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Cargo Light Inside Cab:

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Now here you can see how white the light is. The front map lights are still the old halogens. You can see the yellow on left vs the right side white light.

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Tail Light Reverse Lights:

Old:

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New:

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You really can't tell the difference on camera how yellow the old lens(right side reverse light) looks compared to the new lens(left side). Easier to see at night.

I will update again when I get new brighter LED's for the 3rd brake light.

Nice work on the lights!

I need to do the same with the 3rd brake light. I think my white lights are burnt out. Honestly, i'm not even sure how to turn them on, didn't know they kit up like that. Had the truck for 3 years now...

Thanks! On the light knob in the truck you turn it till it clicks once for internal cabin light, then turn it more for second click and that turns on the 3rd brake light cargo lights.

Also, under the truck there is an available plug if you you have a camper shell or tonneau cover like I do it allows you to connect bed lights to that and it will work with your headlight switch!! I plan on installing bed lights soon :D

Thanks for the tip! I'll have to take a look at mine.

Where's this plug of which you speak?

I actually found out about it in the owners manual on page 133(Slide-In Campers) section. And actually you have to purchase a wiring harness which installs under the brake booster(plugs into the chassis harness) and allows this functionality, provides power for an interior light, CHMSL power and grounds...

Mopar PN: 82401212