Anyone running the Vled Vtails tail light conversion kit?

Took advantage of the 15% off deal and ordered the basic kit along with the VLED resistors today. $182 all-in. Apparently the red LEDs are out of stock so will delay shipping until the end of the month.

Thanks to all for the great advice!

 

Why would you shift into reverse with turn signal on?

 

Parallel parking.

 

I don't, but I bought the vlr15's anyway.

 

Which kit did you buy stage 1?

 

@T378

Just get the stage 1, it's plenty bright.

 

I agree. The Stage 1 are an excellent upgrade!

 

I was going to buy morimotos Meso tails because I have oem chromes but I’m going with these. Anyone have oem’s with black housing for sale? Thanks fellas

 

That’s what I was thinking. The black housings pop up now and then. Looking forward to getting the kit either way.

 

Just ordered mine! Love the amber turns.

 

Anyone know why some trucks need resistors and some do not?

 

I imagine it depends on what stock lighting the truck has. I ordered and installed them just for the piece of mind. Easy install and mounting so it’s work the extra money if you ever have to parallel park!

 

Differences in load of the signal circuit within factory tolerances or aftermarket modifications to other signal lights in the system changing the total load. So variables ( lower resistance ) in the signal lamp circuit cause the issue.

Generally, cheaper LED bulbs have less resistance than equivalent incandescent bulbs. This load ( lower resistance ) increases current. The higher current then causes the flasher to heat up quicker causing the bimetal relay to cycle faster. The resistors return the current to a normal level making the bimetal relay flash normally. The down side is with the extra resistance and low impedance bulbs, is you may not know you have a bulb out through the hyperflash mode.


Edit: the 3rd gen Tacoma does not appear to use a bimetal relay. The signal is generated in the instrument cluster and is most likely done electronically.

 

Love to see this bi-metal flash relay in the 3rd Gen...

 

Ordered mine Friday, called them with a question and the awesome service I received was the best. The lights are in stock and my order will be here Monday.

 

It’s not that some need them and some don’t. It’s that some people don’t care about the issues that happen when you don’t have them. Any TRD will not hyperflash during normal turning so long as something is plugged in at each location (meaning swapping from incandescent to LED at all locations is no issue). Where resistors are needed on TRD trims is at the new VLEDS/Meso switchback. That is because of how a switchback is designed. They are computer controlled in their circuitry. When in reverse, the bulb id in its “constant” mode. When that is interrupted with a turn signal (parallel parking), the bulb sees that blinking input from the truck, shuts off the white, and blinks the amber until it no longer sees the input from the truck, then it switches back to white. The only logical explanation on a TRD hyperflashing in that situation is that for whatever reason, the switchback chooses to power the turn signal off of the reverse light (constant) power, which causes the truck to see no load on the rear turn signals, causing hyperflash. So, you need resistors unless you don’t care about hyperflashing in a parallel parking situation. They’re so cheap, you really have no reason to throw them in the cart. Get the 15 ohm, they’re plug and play with the kit.

On an SR/SR5 trim, which never came factory with LED headlights, the setup is more traditional. You end up needing typical larger resistors (25W 6 ohm) which are sized to replace an incandescent bulb with an LED. The SR/5 trims are not happy with just seeing come current at each bulb location, so LEDs installed are not happy. So SR/SR5 trucks will need larger resistors pretty much no matter what.

The TRDs all have the option of factory headlights, so Toyota needed a solution on being able to ship some trucks with LEDs and not have issues. That seems to be why the TRD trims are not picky about what type of current draw is at each location. I’m also pretty certain that even though the LEDs started in 2020 models, Toyota probably knew they were going to release those headlights back in 2015 when the 2016 model launched. So they were able to ship all the TRDs back then this way still, preparing for the future option of LED headlights.

 

It would appear that the signal generator is in the instrument cluster. I don't have a schematics for the cluster though... is it done electronically or mechanically in the cluster? Regardless it is still load dependant.

 

Interesting. When I placed an order on the 20th they noted that they were out of stock and it wouldn't ship until the end of the month. Still says that on their website. Hopefully they've been replenished. Let us know how it goes!

 

I was curious about this with the newer TRD trims supporting the OEM LED headlights. I recently did the VLEDS stage 1 tail conversion and love it. Slowly upgrading everything else to LED on my 22 AC TRD OR… I was curious if the front turn signals would require resistors when switching to LED from halogen, since the rears do not (except in reverse with the switchback).

 

We will have stock of the red bulbs near the end of next week