Thread: Discovery 3 LED trailer lights

I connected a trailer with LED lights a few days ago, the only issue was the left indicator on the trailer wouldn't work, turned the lights on the car on and bingo, all good, all lights and indicators working.

BUT, the trailer symbol was not flashing when using the indicators that I can remember, would that mean the car was not recognizing the trailer??

Seemed to tow fine

Baz.

I still haven't installed my resistors so cant comment on them yet but I did notice the other night when I openned my door, the brake (or was it the rear lights) on the trailer came on. Has anyone had this happen? I know someone mentioned that you have to have your door closed earlier but I found it rather bizzare.

Gosh, what a fuss a "feature" that's meant to help make our trucks smarter has caused for so many people. An excellent example of the law of unintended consequences.

I've just changed the lights on my trailer to LEDs and now have this "flicker" issue with my 2005 Range Rover (L322) TD6.

I've noticed on mine that both turning indicators and the tail lights are "flickering" so I assume that means I need to put shunt resistors and relays on both the indicator and the tail light circuits (3 circuits in total)?

I see most of the dialogue on this thread refers to the D3/D4/RRS platform so I'm guessing the fact that the tail lights are also flickering on the L322 might be an additional "feature" of the L322.

Cheers & thanks to all those who have posted info on this thread. It's all very helpful.

LandieMan.

Originally Posted by flotty1974

After following this thread, I rang a local caravan place who told me about this resistor that was already made up. They put me onto Repco. After my RAA membership discount, it came out to about $14.50. I bought 2, one for each side. I know some people want to attach something to their car but if you are only going to tow the one trailer, this is a cheap option. The wiring diagram is simple. You join it on either side of the light.

This looks like an excellent cheap and easy solution

Unfortunately the easiest and cheapest solution is to change indicators to globes. I did this with mine but would rather have LED compatibility as I've hired trailers a couple of times with LED's.
Can anyone else confirm Redback's observation that having the headlights on changes the behaviour of the LED's on the trailer? I would be happy to use this as a workaround if it as reliable.

I finally got around to putting the resistors on the trailer which was easy as. Obviously it wasn't as cheap as Epic's sollution but less of a brain strain for me with all of the different talk on this forum about ohms and watts . Anyway, it works great.

For those who think the flickering is only a LR issue, my friend who has an F truck just changed his rear lights to LED and had the same issue. The only issue for him was each time he changed the lights to LED (including the front and clearance lights) he put in an extra resistor , anyway another friend with a VW is also have a similar issue.

Does anyone know if the eletrical companies are selling LED lights with resistors already in them? This would generally solve every bodies issue (if the car companies caught up would also fix it but not as cheap).

Originally Posted by flotty1974

Snippy

For those who think the flickering is only a LR issue, my friend who has an F truck just changed his rear lights to LED and had the same issue. The only issue for him was each time he changed the lights to LED (including the front and clearance lights) he put in an extra resistor , anyway another friend with a VW is also have a similar issue.

Why the rolling smiley?

People who fit LEDs to save power are the ...

LEDs are for reliability and intensity.. Nothing more

Trying to 'save power' on a vehicle really is a total waste with a modern vehicle...

Originally Posted by flotty1974

After following this thread, I rang a local caravan place who told me about this resistor that was already made up. They put me onto Repco. After my RAA membership discount, it came out to about $14.50.

$14.50 would be nice... I saw one one of these on the shelf at Repco in Christchurch today for $38.40. Funnily enough it stayed on the shelf. I need 3 of them, plus relays so it starting to get expensive. The search continues.

LandieMan