LED Lighting Conversion

Yes let's see!

My current plan is to use the 2 bulb model of resistors from VLEDS on the fronts, Triton V6 amber with the HO red 7443/7440 all aluminum replacements for the back. Because it's the same circuit I hope it would work. I'm waiting to hear from them on this.

I'm also waiting to hear back from them to find out if the systems (Triton V3 or V6) are all plug and play or if I need to splice, can I splice into the LED adaptor wire rather than the factory harness.

Hoping the factory harness plugs into the adaptor for the resistor and the led into the resistor. Then I'll use a little dielectric grease and heat shrink to cover and weather seal everything and have a 100% mint factory harness.

I have time as everything is pre-ordered and expensive as hell.

On a side note they are also releasing a new bulb that will fit in our 29mm dome light but have the same output as the current 31mm that requires a little butchering I'm not willing to do. Due in September.

 

Ok I heard from VLEDS. The Triton V6 system is completely plug in, the resistor and all. They said it will work as described for gen 3s where the DRLs are independent of the turn signals.

So I'll order that up shortly while they are on 20% pre-order sale.

Edit: Ordered. VLEDS claims the Pro resistor which plugs in via a T cable will control both ends, one per side. Model for one bulb, or two depending on how many bulbs you're changing to LED per side.

Will update when products are installed. Looks like Sept.

Last pre-order went from end of July to now showing end of September. So might be October or later.

 

Yup! Just double checked. Resistors get hot with the signals left on I'll see how adding the inline front blinker set-up works and report back.

 

They are supposed to get hot, per their design. Very little heat sink there. In particular if you leave your 4-way hazards on.

 

It's how I know there's current going through and my connections are good...still have hyperflash though...which is annoying. Once I'm sure the inline resistors fix it, I'll mount to something metal

 

Does your underglow come on as you approach the truck? or when you click the fob to unlock?

 

Do you have LED front turns and LED rears? If so, where do you have resistors?

 

Ok, bad news here and there.
I installed front and rear JDM Astar bulbs. Unfortunately signals hyper flash whenever I turn the lights on...

Turns out that the rear harness is still out if stock... A week after I ordered it
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071JNHMP3/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I1KSW3CGN3WGUG&colid=2X0QQWPPVOHOK&th=1
So I cancelled it... Have to find them somewhere else.

On the other hand these ones, for the front, don't fit into the (headlamp) turn signal housing...

$19 PA LED 2x LED 7440 7441 T20 50W 6 Ohm Lights Load Resistor Adapter Fix Hyper Flashing Rapid Blinking Canbus Error Code Eliminator Warning Canceller for Turn Signal Reverse Backup Daytime Running DRL

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06XYKW9MY/ref=ya_aw_od_pi?ie=UTF8&psc=1

BTW, using only front resistors (or replacing front signal bulbs) does not resolve hyper flashing.

I'm a bit reluctant about splicing resistors into factory harness, but if I will not be able to find proper harness, I guess I'll do it

 

Mine are still back ordered from VLEDS but will update when they arrive. They claim just one set of their resistors on the front will fix hyoerflash ifnordered correctly. It was $17.50 per side I believe.

 

So I did a bit of research into hyperblinking.

The reason the truck has hyperblink when the lights are on is that the rear bulbs are a dual filament and are supposed to be ~5w when on and 21w when blinking. The truck doesn't see the 5w draw and when you hit the signal it will blink fast warning you of a burned out bulb.

You don't need to touch the front signal harness for a hyperblink fix.

you need to put a load resistor on the 5w portion of the rear blinkers. The dual resistor circuit will work but you don't need a resistor for the 21w blink, only the 5w running light.

 

OK, that's interesting. Maybe that's why they sell harnesses with dual resistors. In that case, what size of a resistors should I use? If using only on 5w side, I should need 50w resistors, right?

 

So resistance is measured in Ohms, and heat dissipation in resistors is measured in watts.

A little ohms calculation will do the trick here.

V=IR

P=VI

I=V/R

I=P/V

R=V^2 / P

So with that we get...

Resistance = 144/5 or 28.8 ohms.

For the standard blinker (21-25 watts) you need a 6 or 7 ohm resistor.

When wattage decreases you need to increase the amount of ohms to simulate a 5w load.

For all intents and purposes I actually bought a few 30 ohm load resistors to put on the back running lights to see what it does. I have the same problem and have been just beating around the bush not fixing it.

A 30 ohm resistor will pull .4a at 12v and make a 4.8w load. If you plan on trying this I suggest you wait til you hear back from me! It cost me around $4 for a few resistors, and I have wiring harnesses already soldered up for this project. I bought 50w rated resistors so they shouldn't get hot at all.

EDIT2: Had a coffee, ignore this post

EDIT: It's early and I haven't had my coffee yet. If I made a mistake, point it out and I'll fix it.

 

If you've made a mistake, you'll find out and learn from it. Lol. Plus, my knowledge of electric systems, is based on residential wiring...

Anyway, there might be more than one way to resolve our issue. @Orlandoech had some luck with 6Ohm 50W resistors

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/led-lighting-conversion.436865/page-29#post-15744101

 

6 ohm resistors will be fine in simulating a ~25w load at 12v. I looked into that and actually have a few sitting at the house for the blinker portion, even though I won't need them.

Now that the coffee has started to work, I realized that the load resistor will run parallel to the bulb. so none of my math before really counts for anything. I was just doing the math for a simulated 5w load to trick the truck into not hyperblinking, completely ignoring the led bulbs draw. Looks like I'll need about a 3w load increase to make it an even 5w load. So running a 2 watt bulb and a resistor in parallel to make 5w... MAAAAATTHHH.

I'm just going to try the 6ohm resistors I have when I get home. If it works, boom. Magic. If it doesn't then I'll come back and do some engineering!

 

The resistors I used worked just fine, as do the ones from DiodedDynamics.

 

I bet they would work well, I was just trying to figure out the actual resistor values for a 5/21w bulb.

a 6ohm resistor at 12 (14.6v...) will provide 24w of load. This is more than the original bulb, and you'd be running the resistor in parallel with an unknown wattage LED bulb.

The 6ohm resistor also pulls 2a when the lights are on (constantly) so it's going to get very hot and stay hot as long as the lights are on.

I want to keep the heat down and it was just kinda fun doing some math to figure out exactly what I'd need.

 

No worries.

Resistors will get hot, I mounted them with galvanized steel wire to the frame of the truck.

 

Does anyone know how gen 3s turn signal circuits are fused?

It is by front and back, each side or all 4 together?

Thanks.

 

@chan2565 great thread and info thank you!
Could someone tell me what they're using for High Beam LED,
I'm using the same H11 LED bulb as the fog but it doesn't throw a spot-beam like the OEM bulb dose?
I have a 2017 SR5 DCSB and curious if I use the same LED bulb as the headlight/low beam would it throw a spot beam/high beam?
Thank you TW?

 

What's a good LED brand? I've heard vleds.com has good quality lighting but not sure.