LED tail light bulbs
#1
03-09-2016, 11:19 AM
LED tail light bulbs
Just wanted to pass on my recent Ram mod. I have always wanted to put LED tail light bulbs in my Ram. About a year after I bought the truck (around 2006) I installed a set of LED blinker (amber) lights in the front using the required load resistors and they have worked out very well. My intention was to install some LED lights in the tail lights shortly thereafter and have finally got around to it in 2016... 10 years later!!!
Part of my procrastination was the discovery that the rear tail light bulbs had to be "CK" type... do an internet search on it if you don't know what that means. Additionally, I reasoned that I would have to have three load resistors per side to make it all work. I did not want to buy whole replacement LED tail lights as I wanted that stock "factory" look with the advantages and "bling" of LED. So, I got off my duff recently and made it happen. My solution was to purchase two stock tail light circuit boards for my truck and re-wire them to accept standard type LED bulbs so that I could simply plug in my stock tail light plug into the re-wired circuit boards and have everything work correctly. That way, if I ever decided to go back to stock, it could be done easily, in a few minutes and without having any cut wires.
Well, as I mentioned, I finally got it done and it turned out GREAT! I am very pleased with the light output and operation of the new bulbs and the fact that you just don't see LED bulbs in these 3rd gen Rams... making it a little unique.
Here are a few pics of the project...
The circuit board re-wire picture does not include the additional wiring for the resistors.
On the picture of the back of the truck, the left side are the LEDs... the right is stock. Hard to tell much difference in the picture, but they look a lot better in person... especially the white back up bulbs.
The two pictures of the bulbs are what I installed.
This project was a lot of work for the benefit, but I like it and I'm pleased with the results. I am planning on now doing LEDs in the 3rd brake light, cargo light and license plate lights so that all exterior lights are LED (except headlights).
If anyone is thinking about doing the same thing, just let me know and I will be glad to answer any questions.
Part of my procrastination was the discovery that the rear tail light bulbs had to be "CK" type... do an internet search on it if you don't know what that means. Additionally, I reasoned that I would have to have three load resistors per side to make it all work. I did not want to buy whole replacement LED tail lights as I wanted that stock "factory" look with the advantages and "bling" of LED. So, I got off my duff recently and made it happen. My solution was to purchase two stock tail light circuit boards for my truck and re-wire them to accept standard type LED bulbs so that I could simply plug in my stock tail light plug into the re-wired circuit boards and have everything work correctly. That way, if I ever decided to go back to stock, it could be done easily, in a few minutes and without having any cut wires.
Well, as I mentioned, I finally got it done and it turned out GREAT! I am very pleased with the light output and operation of the new bulbs and the fact that you just don't see LED bulbs in these 3rd gen Rams... making it a little unique.
Here are a few pics of the project...
The circuit board re-wire picture does not include the additional wiring for the resistors.
On the picture of the back of the truck, the left side are the LEDs... the right is stock. Hard to tell much difference in the picture, but they look a lot better in person... especially the white back up bulbs.
The two pictures of the bulbs are what I installed.
This project was a lot of work for the benefit, but I like it and I'm pleased with the results. I am planning on now doing LEDs in the 3rd brake light, cargo light and license plate lights so that all exterior lights are LED (except headlights).
If anyone is thinking about doing the same thing, just let me know and I will be glad to answer any questions.
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Aafordable121 (07-15-2019)
#3
03-19-2016, 12:04 AM
Sorry I didn't get a picture of that. I used three resistors per side... one for the tail light, one for the brake light and one for the blinker. The resistor must be placed in parallel to the LED bulb. Once I had the circuit board open and rewired to correct the CK requirement, I determined which circuit on the board controlled each function, that is tail light, brake light and blinker. I also determined which circuit was ground. I then simply soldered one end of the resistor to a point on the circuit board that was ground and the other side to the tail light circuit for example... and did the same thing for the brake light and blinker. The resistors exist external to the circuit board... I simply drilled a small hole in the back of the circuit board and ran the wires through the hole and mounted the resistors to the body of the truck behind the tail light assembly. Let me know if this explanation is too confusing and I will try to take some pictures.
Again, I have to say it was a lot of work, but I think they turned out great... glad I did it... it was worth it to me.
Again, I have to say it was a lot of work, but I think they turned out great... glad I did it... it was worth it to me.
Last edited by GA Hemi; 03-19-2016 at 12:06 AM.
The following users liked this post:
Aafordable121 (07-15-2019)
#5
03-19-2016, 11:06 PM
Hope that make sense.
#7
02-27-2019, 01:48 PM
Just wanted to pass on my recent Ram mod. I have always wanted to put LED tail light bulbs in my Ram. About a year after I bought the truck (around 2006) I installed a set of LED blinker (amber) lights in the front using the required load resistors and they have worked out very well. My intention was to install some LED lights in the tail lights shortly thereafter and have finally got around to it in 2016... 10 years later!!!
Part of my procrastination was the discovery that the rear tail light bulbs had to be "CK" type... do an internet search on it if you don't know what that means. Additionally, I reasoned that I would have to have three load resistors per side to make it all work. I did not want to buy whole replacement LED tail lights as I wanted that stock "factory" look with the advantages and "bling" of LED. So, I got off my duff recently and made it happen. My solution was to purchase two stock tail light circuit boards for my truck and re-wire them to accept standard type LED bulbs so that I could simply plug in my stock tail light plug into the re-wired circuit boards and have everything work correctly. That way, if I ever decided to go back to stock, it could be done easily, in a few minutes and without having any cut wires.
Well, as I mentioned, I finally got it done and it turned out GREAT! I am very pleased with the light output and operation of the new bulbs and the fact that you just don't see LED bulbs in these 3rd gen Rams... making it a little unique.
Here are a few pics of the project...
The circuit board re-wire picture does not include the additional wiring for the resistors.
On the picture of the back of the truck, the left side are the LEDs... the right is stock. Hard to tell much difference in the picture, but they look a lot better in person... especially the white back up bulbs.
The two pictures of the bulbs are what I installed.
This project was a lot of work for the benefit, but I like it and I'm pleased with the results. I am planning on now doing LEDs in the 3rd brake light, cargo light and license plate lights so that all exterior lights are LED (except headlights).
If anyone is thinking about doing the same thing, just let me know and I will be glad to answer any questions.
Part of my procrastination was the discovery that the rear tail light bulbs had to be "CK" type... do an internet search on it if you don't know what that means. Additionally, I reasoned that I would have to have three load resistors per side to make it all work. I did not want to buy whole replacement LED tail lights as I wanted that stock "factory" look with the advantages and "bling" of LED. So, I got off my duff recently and made it happen. My solution was to purchase two stock tail light circuit boards for my truck and re-wire them to accept standard type LED bulbs so that I could simply plug in my stock tail light plug into the re-wired circuit boards and have everything work correctly. That way, if I ever decided to go back to stock, it could be done easily, in a few minutes and without having any cut wires.
Well, as I mentioned, I finally got it done and it turned out GREAT! I am very pleased with the light output and operation of the new bulbs and the fact that you just don't see LED bulbs in these 3rd gen Rams... making it a little unique.
Here are a few pics of the project...
The circuit board re-wire picture does not include the additional wiring for the resistors.
On the picture of the back of the truck, the left side are the LEDs... the right is stock. Hard to tell much difference in the picture, but they look a lot better in person... especially the white back up bulbs.
The two pictures of the bulbs are what I installed.
This project was a lot of work for the benefit, but I like it and I'm pleased with the results. I am planning on now doing LEDs in the 3rd brake light, cargo light and license plate lights so that all exterior lights are LED (except headlights).
If anyone is thinking about doing the same thing, just let me know and I will be glad to answer any questions.
I know it’s been a while for the last post on this thread, but I’m thinking about doing this myself. The biggest challenge for me is to have the backup light and blinker in one light, so all the ‘red lights’ have normal and brake functions.
Do you remember what connection is for what use?
Further I’d like to know how you changed to regular connection instead of CK. Aren’t the negatives connected in the socket?
Lastly, are the sockets with dual functions available, or does someone have a part number? Since I’m in the Netherlands it might be hard to find that part over here.
I hope you can help!
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#8
03-01-2019, 10:27 AM
Hi,
I know it’s been a while for the last post on this thread, but I’m thinking about doing this myself. The biggest challenge for me is to have the backup light and blinker in one light, so all the ‘red lights’ have normal and brake functions.
Do you remember what connection is for what use?
Further I’d like to know how you changed to regular connection instead of CK. Aren’t the negatives connected in the socket?
Lastly, are the sockets with dual functions available, or does someone have a part number? Since I’m in the Netherlands it might be hard to find that part over here.
I hope you can help!
As for connections, I'm actually at work right now... let me look over the weekend to see if I made note of each connection. I'll let you know what I find out.
To change for the "CK" socket, I had to open the "circuit board" of each tail light and re-wire it to move the ground connection to the proper location in each socket so that standard LED bulbs would work.
As far as the sockets go, I purchased two original Dodge tail light "circuit boards" and therefore used the included sockets. I think I got the "circuit boards" off of eBay.
#9
03-01-2019, 12:37 PM
Hi, thanks for your response. What I want to do is:
a. Make all the lights LED, preferably non-CK.
b. Make all the red light function as taillight and brake, not tail/indicator and tail/brake.
c. Make the reverse lights work as reverse light (white) and indicator (orange) using a dual colored led light. I would have to use the same socket as the other sockets in one unit.
I know this might be weird, but I’ve seen other rams from the same age with the reverse and indicator combined with a dual purpose led light.
if I understand correct: you opened the sockets themselves to rewire them to non-ck types?
a. Make all the lights LED, preferably non-CK.
b. Make all the red light function as taillight and brake, not tail/indicator and tail/brake.
c. Make the reverse lights work as reverse light (white) and indicator (orange) using a dual colored led light. I would have to use the same socket as the other sockets in one unit.
I know this might be weird, but I’ve seen other rams from the same age with the reverse and indicator combined with a dual purpose led light.
if I understand correct: you opened the sockets themselves to rewire them to non-ck types?
#10
03-01-2019, 01:58 PM
Hi, thanks for your response. What I want to do is:
a. Make all the lights LED, preferably non-CK.
b. Make all the red light function as taillight and brake, not tail/indicator and tail/brake.
c. Make the reverse lights work as reverse light (white) and indicator (orange) using a dual colored led light. I would have to use the same socket as the other sockets in one unit.
I know this might be weird, but I’ve seen other rams from the same age with the reverse and indicator combined with a dual purpose led light.
if I understand correct: you opened the sockets themselves to rewire them to non-ck types?
a. Make all the lights LED, preferably non-CK.
b. Make all the red light function as taillight and brake, not tail/indicator and tail/brake.
c. Make the reverse lights work as reverse light (white) and indicator (orange) using a dual colored led light. I would have to use the same socket as the other sockets in one unit.
I know this might be weird, but I’ve seen other rams from the same age with the reverse and indicator combined with a dual purpose led light.
if I understand correct: you opened the sockets themselves to rewire them to non-ck types?
If you get your tail lights to work as you have indicated, would you mind posting your results on this thread? If you can get it to work, I might be interested in doing the same thing.