brighter reverse lights?

evf4720

evf4720

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i plan on upgrading to hids soon and was thinking about putting my spare 9005's in as reverse lights. has anyone tried this? i read somewhere that someone put hids back there but they dont need as much power right? i wouldnt want to fry the wiring.

another issue could be melting the fixture. but i dont spend enough time in reverse to worry about it.

any opinions?
 
but leds could be a possibilities. they probable make 3157 leds too. that would be convenient.
 
You can always run heavier gauge wiring to a relay. If your only concerned about backing out of a short driveway I don't think heat will be an issue.
 
i dont have any reverse lights at all. why do you need such bright back up lights, all my driving is in forward!
 
i found a post a about a colorado guy doing exactly what i want to do 3157 to 9005 conversion. seemed to work out alright for him. i wish he had pics of how he mounted the bulbs.

a relay would do the trick but ive never messed with them. they dont sound to hard to wire up though. ground 1 terminal. run power to another. hook the original to another. then there is a output terminal. correct?
 
jamie97lsc said:
i dont have any reverse lights at all. why do you need such bright back up lights, all my driving is in forward!
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i dont NEED brighter lights.......but damn would they be sweet lol

this way i can blind people at work when im backing into a spot beside them :cool:

plus i have the bulbs just laying around unused. and with blacked out tail lights i have a hard time seeing behind me at night. i havent even tinted my windows yet. it will be almost like i dont have any reverse lights at all.

thats why ;)
 
if i need to see where i am backing up i put my 90 watt strobes on, those are in my reverse buckets!
 
hah you could really mess with someone if you left them on goin down the highway with those on. might get ya pulled over pretty fast though.
 
I'd give it 20 seconds of being on before a 9005 starts to melt the housing... Just find the brightest 3157 LED bulb you can and stick it in there.
 
it would only take 20 seconds? i figured it would take at least a few minutes at the minimum.
 
if i left my strobes on i would get stopped in a heart beat!! i have them in my reverse lights and my headlights, these arent cheap pep boys things, they are the same ones in response vehicle's, cop cars, my high beams also wig wag back and forths like a cop too!
 
NoLimit95 said:
I'm with this comment also. Add some reflective chrome inside there too. Might help but 9005 HID's is going a bit too far.
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i was just thinking halogens. but i think they may still be too hot. how long do they take to heat up?



- and those strobes sound awesome. how much does a setup like that cost if you dont mind me asking.
 
HID's operate much much cooler than halogens. This is why a lot of us convert over to HID's for our headlight housings. Brighter light without burning up the reflective material.
 
huh i always just assumed that hids got hotter.

ok i'm going with leds. headlight bulbs woulda been awesome but not worth the trouble imo. so do i need 3156 or 3517?

"7443=3157 (dual) = Light is on and blinks when signal is used
7440=3156 (single) = Light is off until signal is used" quoted from some honda driver. the whole blinking part is irrelevant but i believe he is saying that the 3157 has a dual filament. i would only need the 3156 then right?
 
i'm still leaning towards the 3156's but what about these?9005 18 leds

9005 high power led

they would both run cooler than the stock bulbs and give out equal or more light than these or these

not sure the 9005's would be worth going through the trouble of mounting them if the gains would only be minimum. would any one of those lights be much brighter than the other three?
 
pretty sure leds don't give off any heat right? just so i am aware, not trying to compose on anybodys post, more for personal intellegence issues
 
little to none.... i think

"but i dont think they put out more light. LEDs focus the beam of light so when you look right at them they look bright as crap, BUT they put out a small fraction of the lumen of halogen bulbs" nicely put by the guy from the chevy forum linked in post #7
 
evf4720 said:
little to none.... i think

"but i dont think they put out more light. LEDs focus the beam of light so when you look right at them they look bright as crap, BUT they put out a small fraction of the lumen of halogen bulbs" nicely put by the guy from the chevy forum linked in post #7
Click to expand...

LED's do focus on beam and do not get hot. There are real LED makers in the US that have some extremely bright LED's but if you plan on buying off ebay, most likely it's going to be a mass produced Japan knockoff. They are good for some things and last a long time but not meant for what you are wanting.

HID's do burn warm to hot but the heat is nothing like what comes from the halogen bulb. If you used an HID bulb, you'll need the ballasts also and when you put it in reverse, you'll have a slight wait time before the full light is emitted.

Using a halogen just wouldn't make sense.

Finding a true real LED bulb would be the way to go unless you want to be different, then wire up two ballasts and figure out a way to install the 9005 HID bulbs. Unless you're in reverse for over 10 to 20 min, I highly doubt that the bulb would melt anything. A halogen bulb would melt that plastic with a minute or so. The plastic back there isn't meant for that type of bulb to be burned behind it.
 
I have strobes in my reverse lights too. They both light up and strobe. Have had that for years. Pretty neat at night.
 
the problem is where can i find "real" led bulbs? everybody says theirs is the best. i dont just want to go out and buy the most expensive bulbs i can find.
 
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