LED failure

[blackstack]

I mounted 24v led light units that I purchased online from buytruckstuff.com to supplement the brake turn and rear running lights.

Worked great...for a while...the units fail either completely or only light up an arc of lights rather than the whole array...this has happened to three units of the lights..at first I thought it wa a defective single unit and replaced it but now, as two more have failed wonder if it is or can be some sort of electrical failure

any body have a similar experience? I have been rear ended so really like the brightnes of the leds when they are working

these are the lights I bought http://www.buytruckstuff.com/product.as ... &p_gpID=40

[Thomas-E]

Check out the rated voltage of the LEDs. Many of them are rated for 24 volts and...
the Pinz voltage regulator puts out 28 volts. My guess is that your LEDs are just minimally
capable to handle the 28 volts.

Check out other sources, many are now being manufactured that handle from 12 to 30 volts.

If you think about it most cars have 12 volt batteries but when running the system is at 14 volts,
same as a 24 volt battery it still needs to be charged at 28 volts.

When you look at the specs for a light make sure that they have a high enough voltage rating.

[blackstack]

According to the spec sheet the ligh5ts are rated 12 to 38 volts

[krick3tt]

I bought my LED lights from Grote through Lighthouse in San Diego.
They are in conjunction with the stock lights. No problems in three years.

http://s400.photobucket.com/albums/pp88 ... MG3348.jpg

[blackstack]

Thanks for the lead krick3tt......I just got back from a 2k plus trip in the Pinz to the yukon..as soon as i get the mud off I wiil check the grounds and if that isnt it then shop your suggestion

[Jimm391730]

LEDs, especially the "cheap" ones, can and do fail despite their reputation for long life. Since even the 12V ones have several LEDs in series a failure of one will cause the whole string to go dark. Back when white LEDs were new and expensive I bought "cheap" ones from Hong Kong for the backup lights in my taillight boards (the two middle rows) and 10-15 % of them failed within a few weeks/months, but have had no more failures for the 3 years past. The ones that die soon do, but the rest live a long life. But the red tail/stop/turn LEDs that I paid good money for (specifically for the brightness and wide angle of output) have not had a single failure yet with over 500 of them on the back of the truck:



I bought LED marker lights for my truck, and I have at least one of them that have half of the LEDs out -- I'm just going to have to replace it.

If you end up having a significant number die then you will know that you need to get a different brand in the future.

[blackstack]

The lights I bought were made by "AMERICAN SUPERLIGHT INC.". They are/were rated 12 to 36 Volts and cost me 27 USD each. They were sold by buytruckstuff.com and are still listed at the link I gave in my original post

I Notice the GOMER lights recco by Krick3tt are rated to 24 V and cost significantly less (unless I am looking at the wrong ones.

On Monday I plan to call customer service at buytruck and try to find out if they had a bad batch

In the meantime I dont mind my hand being held and a specific make/model be reccomended.

I don't buy cheap and am aware of the 24 volt factor

[blackstack]

I still don't know why my LED tailights failed...However the manufacturer AMERICAN SUPERLITE INC gives a lifeteme guarantee.
I just mailed them the lights that failed and they will replace the lights. I asked that the let me know if they discover the reason for the failure. I found out about the guarantee when I called looking for a tech to tell me why they failed. they are great to deal with!!

[Jimm391730]

Good to know!