Need some HELP! LED Truck-Lite Brake Light Installation

[beltfed34]

Ok, I have a 93' H-1 12v vehicle. I currently have standard military plastic case composite lights grounded to the light, with a running light wire and a brake/turn wire. The NEW lights I have are Trucklite OmniVolt 10-30v lights and seem to work fine on 12v system These Trucklights have 5 wires: a white (grd), blue (brake), red (running), yellow (unk), and a green (unk). So, I hook up the truck ground to the ground wire on the light, truck running light wire to red running light wire (it works fine), and the brake/turn wire from truck to the blue light wire (brake light wire), the brake light works and when the turn signal is on the brake light/turn is on solid, I cant get it to flash. Bottom line, I get everything to work except the turn signal flash. Dang!!

Got frustrated and put the old light back on, it works fine and flashes. Dang!!

Any thoughts appreciated!!!! Electrical is like magic to me!
beltfed@nctv.com

Austin!

43' Ford M8 Greyhound w/Live 37mm
69' Saladin w/demil 76mm (dang!)
43' GPW
93' H-1/HMMWV conversion Armaments Carrier
Lots of Live Machine Guns, Cannons and other cool stuff you can own in the US and Texas!

[Action]

This won't help you, but I had the front turn light on my car burn out. When I used the turn signal for that side, the rear light just stayed on and didn't blink. But, then you mil light wouldn't work, either. Could the other two lights be for a two prong blinker can? The new lights didn't come with a diagram? Try calling the manufacturer for an explanation of the other two wires.

Come to think of it, don't the military rear metal lights have five wires coming out of them? Does your LED have a blackout function?

Jason

[emmado22]

Email sent.

[mak]

hi beltfed,I had a similar problem,Except Im on a standard 24v system m998.I wired everything as per the manual as far as I could see with matching numbers on the loom.As far as I know my loom is all wired ok and my old lighting system worked ok but I had to change it as in the U.K we have to use yellow turn signals and white reverse lamps.So I got one turn and one reverse lamp to bolt under the trucklites.Anyhow when I hooked up the loom turn signal wires to my new turn lights they worked fine but when I hit the brake pedal there seemed to be some kinda overide in the trucks loom which made the turn signals stay on ,[with no flashing] as I applied the brake.Im not too great with electrics either and cheated to solve this by running a new cable from the brake pedal to the trucklites,so the signal didnt interfere with the turn signals .Maybe my problem has no relation to yours but maybe you can cheat too somehow by running a couple of new cables direct from your indicator module,nb I have no idea if this is possible maybe one of the guys that have a H1 may be able to give you a better idea.

[dunsbr]

MAK,

There's a secret to the brake/flasher wiring for those of us in the Commonwealth. (I.e. we need yellow flashers)

The Humvee flashes the brake lights as its turn signals, so as you found out, when you patch in some extra turn signals every thing works fine until you put your foot on the brake.

To overcome this you must cut the brake light wire where it goes in to the turn signal switch and patch it into a unique wire that runs to the back of the vehicle to operate the brake lights.

Austin,

It may be that the LED's aren't derawing enough current to operate your 12V Hummer flasher relay.

I think you have 2 options.

1. Box up the Trucklite lamps and send them to me!!
2. Get a "solid state" flasher relay that will work with LED lamps.

I hope this helps

Cheers

[D Pizzoferrato]

When I built my M151A2 from all NOS parts, I opted to upgrade the electrical system with Truck-Lite Omnivolt Composites and Side Markers. Had the same problem. My first call to Truck-Lite Tech support suggested that the Mil flasher was not compatible. Even though I knew better, I ordered and installed a Truck-Lite flasher unit. Still no change. I fooled with this for a couple of days and started substituting regular incandescent composites for the Truck-Lites on each corner of the vehicle, in a process to eliminate a "perhaps" bad Trucklite. I discovered that with an incandescent lamp in the system, everything worked. I then rigged a "Y" harness and ran an Incandescent composite in series with the rear Truck-Lite composites, first on the left, then on the right. Lo and behold, the side with the incandescant substituted worked. Not being an electrical engineer, I surmised that the Truk-Lites did not draw enough amps to heat the flasher unit, but the incandescants did. On my third phone call to Truck-Lite, I spoke to a female electrical engineer, she informed me that the Truck-Lite Leds did not draw enough amps to cause the flasher to cycle. I informed her that I figured that out on my own, and not being an electrical engineer, I sort of figured out how to make them work, but asked for her solution. She recommended splicing an incandescant bulb in series with the Truck-Lites. After telling her it sounded like a "bubba" fix, that the likes of a shade tree mechanic like myself could and did figure out, there has to be an approved way to make these work, or have they sold the government a contract of non functional units. She gave me some info as to a resistor that could be put in series with the lights (don't recall the value as it's been a couple of years). I told her it sounded like a bandaid fix for a problem that these high dollar lights shouldn't have.

I finally added 2 instrument panel high beam indicators to act as turn signal indicators, and was able to find a large enough wattage bulb to use in the idicators to make these things work (same principle as adding an incandescant bulb in series). Still not happy about it, but I don't think Truck-Lite has figured out a sensible solution. As long as the military is using these to replace either front or rear composites, the system will still work as there will still be an incandescant lamp on the opposite side. If all four are replace they won't work!

I suspect that we will soon be seeing large amounts of these "Non-Functional" Truck-lites being surplussed out.

[battlebuggy]

Hi Dave
Had the same problem with 2 sets of the LED lights from RE Sales also. Spent a lot of time fooling around with them and finally gave up. Plus they were unreliable and a couple failed entirely. I found that if you get one of those special flashers that are not sensitive to load and have a relay built into them they worked, but they were only 12 volt units. The 24 volt flashers were not working with them. I did see a M915 that had the Truck Lites on it and it had the flasher with the relay in it and worked fine. But I am not sure if they were on 12 volts. The M915 can hook up to 12 volt and 24 volt trailer systems.
Regards
Glenn

[beltfed34]

Thanks Guys! Lots of good info!

Austin in Texas!
43' Ford M8 Greyhound w/Live 37mm
69' Saladin w/demil 76mm (dang!)
43' GPW
93' H-1/HMMWV conversion Armaments Carrier
Lots of Live Machine Guns, Cannons and other cool stuff you can own in the US and Texas!