Projects Is a 3" brake light lense big enough for new traffic?

Hey guys.
Thinking using 3" brake light/turn signals on my truck but afraid of people not seeing them..
Also i refuse to use LEDs in older cars so that option is out,unless they can be made to look old.
Thoughts?
Here's what im working with:

 

I've got LED 39 ford brake lights, they look great and are bright.

play hard, drive fast

 

It is a valid concern, but 100 of those on your rear won't stop that 1 idiot.

 

I would love to get it down to just one idiot. I have been rear ended in every vehicle own, at least once.

 

Should be fine in the high desert. Won't be big enough, even if they were 12" diameter, if you live in San Francisco.

(I've never been rearended, been driving old cars with little tail lights around Arizona for 40 years)

 

People with these Damn Cell Phones would hit you in the Ass if you put a Lighthouse on the Rear Deck...............

 

Same here and my neck still hurts... my Ford has huge tailights, hard to miss. I have a 3rd brake light which I have yet to install. My harness kit was wired for one.

 

I run stock '37 Ford tail lights, and have just installed LED bulbs, just the 1157 replacements behind original lenses. I went to 2357's first, minor improvement. Then up to the LED's. There is no way you can tell they're LED's, except they are much more visible when lit. I feel safer now. Nothing will stop you getting rear ended, but decent lights help.

 

Would a high freq white strobe on the rear bumper be unlawful, or would anyone care? Might be nice to hit that thing now and then, waiting at a stop light.

 

Most likely, yes. Just remember the individual(s) behind you might be your average gangsta mentality, yo!

 

I think you might discover that having any while light showing to the rear of a car is illegal in most states. (aside from reverse lights)

 

Squirrel,I will b driving this truck in las Vegas

 

By your photo it appears these lights are under the tailgate on a rolled pan. You need something up in the back window or some stop lights hidden under the upper bed rails to be safer. I know it's your choice but better safer than the way they were when people who gave a damn drove cars..

 

It's pretty hard to see how the lights will look, from one blurry picture of a part of the car. I don't see any reflector in the lens, which is something you probably want to think about...if the lights go out, or you're stopped on the side of the road with the lights off, or even if the tail lights are kind of dim, having some reflection will help folks see you at night. Also we can't see the inside housing, to see how reflective it is. having a rusty or dirty inner housing gives off less light than a shiny plated or white painted housing.

In other words, it's complicated...and even if you get the lights working well, you still are at the mercy of other drivers. I don't know that they're much worse than they used to be, folks have been getting rear ended in cars for over a hundred years, now.

 

They have a little module used on motorcycles that make the brake light flash 2 or 3 times before staying on, not traditional, but does get your attention.


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Here's how they will mount.


Just like jimmy6 said..
I really dont want to add a 3rd light even if I have an 8" "stop" light.
Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

 

wait till night time, put some power to them, see how they look.

 

ummm??

 

3" laser. The way these NASCAR trained super drivers tailgate these days I wonder about the rear end of my cars.
2 seconds off the bumper yakking on the phone or texting, or not paying attention.
I've been nudged at a stoplight by a bimbonic texting twat who didn't know her car was inching forward. 67 F-250 bumper wasn't kind to her POS.
Damn near made me spill my drink.

 

Are you worried about legal or practical?

From what I understand, as of 1970, The NHTSA dictates these regulations to manufacturers. When you see "DOT" or an "SAE" stamped on a lens, that means they complied with NHTSA standards when they were manufactured.

SAE are standards that go back a lot further, to the early 1900's, so you'll find that stamped on a lot of old lenses before 1970.

A lot of aftermarket stuff is not compliant, and technically they are meant for golf carts and things like that (wink, wink, nudge, nudge), thus no stampings.

When it comes to old cars, generally the state laws will allow anything OEM. In other words, a lot of our cars technically don't even need to have seat belts or turn signals, or mirrors etc. So I think it's a safe bet two 3" lenses would be legal, anyway.

If your generator/alternator is kicking out enough juice to light up standard bulbs, I think it would be fine.

Sounds like you are concerned about distracted drivers. If you are worried consider LED's, at least you'll have piece of mind. (Kind of ugly tho')




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Amen brother!

 

I'm thinking of mounting a snowplow blade on the rear with a couple of claymores attached to it.

 

How about putting lights in the bed roles on each side. That would get them up high enough so that they could be seen from most vehicles. Most bed role lights are led and are quite bright. Then you could use whatever bulbs you wanted in the lights you pictured.

 

LED bulbs at a minimum! A 3rd LED light would be good but you're kinda against that.
I run '39 Ford LEDs with a 17" wide LED 3rd brake light bar attached to my rollbar on the roadster. Got rearend in 2014 and totaled my OT car. 'Course the lights didn't make much difference, the idiot had passed out from his 'prescription drug' intake and smacked me at 40mph!

 

This is something that many builders ignore, but having a red reflector present on the rear of the car for safety has been a SAE or DOT requirement since the '40s. Most OEM lenses have it built-in, but not all; on vehicles that lacked the lens reflector, the manufacturers installed a separate reflector and still do this to this day.

The lights shown look like re-tasked clearance lights and lack the reflectors, so were never DOT approved for stand-alone use.

 

Have you considered a cyclops brake light centered and above the bed, or in the back window?
Not strictly traditional, but neither is a bashed-in rear bumper & tailgate.

I'm thinking of putting one of those "STOP" lights in the back window of my Tudor sedan. It won't be too visible when dark but will get drivers' attention when illuminated.

 

Just to repeat what's been said above... make sure the reflectors are good and maybe consider playing with one of those tail light strobes. You can find them dirt cheap on Amazon or Ebay - search GS-100a <http://a.co/4d5bFSO>. I bought one for my motorcycle which uses essentially a small marker light as the tail light - haven't installed it yet. I know I've seen ambulances, school buses and fire trucks with tail lights that strobe a couple times and then come on solid when the brake is first tapped. The theory is that the strobe triggers a different 'circuit' in your brain and gets peoples attention and they respond in a faster more automatic way instead of the typical 3/4 second reaction time. Beyond that just be aware... whenever I see some space cadet behind me or have someone on my bumper I make sure to come to a nice gradual stop. If they won't leave any stopping distance behind me then I'll have to add it to the space I have in front.

 

My '60 Falcon now has larger '63 tail lights, thanks to the last hit.

 

There's no way to predict fate. But there is a way to better your odds. A decent size rear brake light should be enough. 3" minimum with a reflector. After that, it's in gawds hands. I was cruising one night and had Model A rear lights with blue dots I had just installed. A gal pulls up next to me at a light and says, "Nice car, but I could barely see your brake lights." Changed them out the next day. Yea, there's no predicting fate, but you don't have to help it along.

 

The housing needs painted but it is white,the lense is plastic and its old thats why u cant see the bulb.
But i have the glass ones,i used this as my mock up.
U are right om thinking of adding reclectors in the tailgate as it was when i was given it.

I wouldn't know where to mount it.

Yes these were clearance lights.
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