Ryoken's 89 Crew Cab Tubebed build... aka Mutt....

[ryoken]

Ha - you posted while I was typing. Also - if you do amber, do you have to do any fancy wiring? Do these trucks have separate wires for brake and turn?

I haven't looked at one for too many years

should be simple.. it's just a park wire, brake, left and right turn... use the park and brake to the red... each turn only to the ambers...

 

[ryoken]

Glenn may have swerved the build there...

or my laziness, I'm not sure...

 

[Fubeca]

I thought there was only one wire for brake and turn on each side. I seem to remember having to put a diode in the brake wire to keep my trailer brake controller from triggering every time the turn signal was on because the turn signal didn't run in a separate wire.

It's been many years though since I looked at a square-body - I may be losing my mind.

 

[ryoken]

actually, you may be right in that now that I think about it... iirc, I only had 2 wires hooked to each light (didn't run the reverse)... left brake/turn and park.. and versa..

which could throw a wrench in that amber turn aspect... i'll have to dig the wiring diagram out and see where I can change that in the system at the cab to work...

 

[dremu]

The stock brake/turns are indeed that, combined, just as you'd find on the yellow and green wires of a four-pin trailer harness.

To get turn only without brake, you'll have either separate them with a magic circuit box (~$25, this one for example) or run wires up front to the column. I chose this latter route when I put a third brake light on mine (got turn-only from the column and then brake from the pedal switch.)

The lightbar on the tire carrier has two orange for turn and hazard, and then the two center ones are red for brake.

-- A

 

[Stomis]

Lol thats funny you want to do exactly the opposite of what jeep cherokee and toyota guys bitch they have to fix with a box for the trailer lol.

 

[ryoken]

The stock brake/turns are indeed that, combined, just as you'd find on the yellow and green wires of a four-pin trailer harness.

To get turn only without brake, you'll have either separate them with a magic circuit box (~$25, this one for example) or run wires up front to the column. I chose this latter route when I put a third brake light on mine (got turn-only from the column and then brake from the pedal switch.)

The lightbar on the tire carrier has two orange for turn and hazard, and then the two center ones are red for brake.

-- A

cool, thanks.... yeah, I'll run my own too.... I just think the space is more well suited to have the 3 colors... plus it'll be a bit different having the amber..

 

[Fubeca]

If you're going to run your own wires, think about running completely new wires for stop, turn, and park - and keeping your originals. Otherwise you'll have to use a converter to make your trailer wiring work as trailers don't use a separate signal for turn/brake.

 

[ryoken]

If you're going to run your own wires, think about running completely new wires for stop, turn, and park - and keeping your originals. Otherwise you'll have to use a converter to make your trailer wiring work as trailers don't use a separate signal for turn/brake.

good point, hadn't thought about that..... I can't remember the last time I ran into this stuff, probably the cement mixer days decades ago...

yeah, the easiest would be to run a box out back, and pigail in prior to that for a aux trailer setup.. but I'd rather just run another set of new wires back...

the other thing is, that isn't even something I have to do immediately.. I could just run on the original wiring initially, just using the red lights and no amber...

also need to figure out my plate mounting and a light for it...



thanks for the input guys... getting ahead of myself here a bit, but it'll come up before I know it, and it's good to have a clue what your gonna do...

 

[ryoken]

hmmmmm... been down playing around with paper cutouts of the different sizes.. the square 6.5"s, those grommeted 5 x 3"s...

and now I'm not sure if rectangle or square is the way to go.. round may be a better look... gonna try them next...

it's just such an odd view from directly behind with that panel having 2 different angles going on... maybe I'll take some pics of paper mockup's for ya...



see the kinda stooopid sh*t ya get out of me when I don't have materials/parts to fab with!

 

[ryoken]

this is lense only sizing.. and spacing could obviously be changed a bit...

rectangle grommet style..

these would prolly be shifted to the right a tad...

the only size I found for round was 4"... well, they have 7"s for bus's, but that's too big...

they would be inset an inch or so from that.. just easy to tape it there....



opinions?

 

[Fubeca]

Hmm - of the three, I think I like the square ones best - so hard to visualize!

Maybe try mocking up the 6" oval grommet mount style, you could do a combination - maybe 4 or five across instead of just three to fill the space?

Also - I assume you'll need the three lights in the middle due to your width - where are you going to put them

 

[ryoken]

hmmm, that's an idea.. vertically right? I could do like 1 white to the right, 3 red brake/park and 2 amber to the left or something...


i'll see what's out there and how that mocks up... pics later...


thanks...

 

[Fubeca]

Vertical or angled - whichever looks the best.

You may end up having to french them - LEDs are very directional, they are very bright directly in line with the light, but depending on the design, they may not have much spread. I'll be very curious to see what it looks like from directly behind with the lights on the angle.

Of course, most LED lights are ridiculously over-bright and way too intense. Stock toyota lights are notorious for being too intense. Maybe yours will be fine on the angle.

Here is some that are frenched in to be straight-ish - it also would protect them a bit more.

http://www.rttrailer.com/products/c...l-front-bumper-replacement-and-9k-super-winch

 

[ashman]

I like the big squares the best, but multiple oval ones vertically would look cool too.

And not to add even more work for ya, but how hard would it be to inset the top inside corners of the lights? I think it would look pretty sweet if the lights faced directly rearward even though the panel is angled out and down.

 

[Fubeca]

Looks like great minds think alike - and so do ours

And Ryoken - for the record, I think you know - but I'm just making stream of consciousness suggestions. I know this will turn out awesome whichever way you go!

 

[ashman]

lol, true, true.

Yeah, for what it's worth, I would suggest things for Ryoken to do that I would never dream of doing myself. lol I'd have been happy with the balsabed. :P

 

[Slapperbar]

Whelen 900 Series LED Arrow Turn Signal Lighthead: http://youtu.be/BbQotC7epAw

 

[Fubeca]

I HATE those - I keep seeing them on Ambulances. Seems like a solution looking for a problem.

But to each his own

 

[ryoken]

hehe, go boy's go....



I've seen the arrow ones... I did contemplate it to some extent.. not so much in this whole LED thing, but more in something trick/custom in my edge-lit deal..

I don't think I like em in this type of "bought" app..... it's a bit much... I think the amber, is "different" enough....


and yeah, I'm gonna mock up some ovals, vertical, and maybe some angle stuff too....


expect the next series of mockup photo's to be a little more detailed and helpful.. I must say, I've bought some weird things for mock-up work, poster board, oak tag, pvc pipe, string, etc, etc...

but this is the first time I went out and bought colored construction paper from the kindergarten section at the Rite Aid!

I actually just painted some posterboard in alum.. when it dries I'm gonna cut it to fit 1/2 way in the tube, like the panel will be.. than I'm gonna take all the various shapes in red, orange and white and mock-up the various configs to see what I like...



as to the recess, correct the angle deal for LED's.. it's definitely something to consider... I've done similar in alum before with the K5 skidplate/hawse fairlead.. BUT... that's a BUT, cuz of my lack of alum welding... and my hookup retired... I think that's one of those things I would build the panel flat, and see how that works/looks, and consider it after the fact with modding the existing panel.....