Custom Hitch Decor??? Need help!

Today I bought a small skeleton decoration. It's in between 2 and 3 ft tall. The head is about the size of a softball. And the eyes light up red. So I immediately took the head off of the skeleton and got rid of the rest of the body. And I already know how I can attach it to where my hitch is. So Basically my question is does anyone out there know how I can wire this thing so the red "eyes" (just two LEDs) can light up with my break lights? I can post pics if needed. It runs off of 3 AAA batteries but I figured if I do this correctly it won't need them. I think this would be an awesome custom piece but I can't figure out how to do it. I have some adapters and cords for attaching a trailer so maybe there's a way I can do it with the wires? Thanks

 

The 12v might burn the LED's, if wired directly...I could be wrong.

 

I was thinking the same thing, hopefully it'll be fine. I managed to peek inside of it and I did see a resistor. I'll post pics tomorrow of the inside and outside.

 

LEDs need to run on about 1.5 volts DC each. Some circuits wire multiple LEDs in series or lots of LEDs in a combination of series and parallel circuits, then use a resistor to work out the final voltage. So, in other words, unless someone knows exactly what they're doing, it would by very easy to fry the LEDs.

There are some LEDs that you can buy individually, that are already set up with a resistor to run in a car/truck. It may be easier to get some of those and fit them to your skull.

 

Once you get the LED stuff figured out, you just need to get a trailer end 4 way flat, hook both the left and right turn signal to the left and right eyes respectively. You'll get one eye flashing for left turn and one for right, both will illuminate for your brakes.

 

Hey guys thanks for the tips.

[i totally forgot to mention yesterday that the skull had a small cord coming out of it with a "try me" button attached to it Also, it has an on/off switch on the back.]

This cord is just like a switch, you press the button, and it closes the circuit. Making the leds shine. You let go, they turn off.


Today I played around with it a little more and it actually worked!

I cut the button off and stripped the two ends of this cord. When you touch the copper together, the leds shine.

What I did was I took a 4 way flat. Cut the end off, and spliced right and left signals together ( which are also brake lights) with one of the wires from the skull.

Then I took the other wire and spliced it to ground.

I plugged it in and I was extremely surprised to see the leds shining but very dim. So I went and turned on my hazards and there they were flashing with them. Pressed on my brakes and they do the same. I was pretty excited there were no problems.

Until I took the AAA batteries out.... then it wasn't doing anything so I flipped the on/off switch on the back to the on position and it totally fried that resistor.

It now no longer works with my taco, but still works as a prop with the batteries in... I guess I'll have to buy another one and be sure not to take the batteries out. I was concerned because my truck was off and even with no pressure on the brakes or the hazard lights on, it would still shine dim. Would that kill my battery?

Thanks again.

 

You need to run a power line to it. We used to do that with vehicles with lamp out sensors.

 

I'm gonna guess that you were putting 12v to the AAA batteries through the resistor and LEDs. You shouldn't be experimenting by just hooking up wires here and there.

 

Have you looked at these? https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_s...sprefix=skull+hitch,aps,212&crid=IJQB19MQU2K7

 

I was thinking the same thing. Not good for the AAAs and could definitely cause problems. I never ended up buying another one because it's just not worth damaging anything.

 

Yes. I think these are probably my best option haha. Thanks