Thread: Disco 3 and LED trailer lights

Geez didn't know that, i wonder if the DII is the same, i would look at one of the English Land Rover forums they seem to have more info on the D3.

Baz.

Originally posted by Geotrecaz
Have approached LR Aust on this and they view LED's on caravans/trailers as "non compatible" lighting units.

I hate to say it but it looks like the technology has got beyond the local LR people, how could the most technological 4wd not be compatible with the latest designs in automotive lighting, LEDs are the future and aren't the D3 tail/stop lights LEDs ?

Glen.

Quick fix is to fit two relays to your Disco's indicator trailer wires. Have the Disco switch these relays to put 12 volts to your LED indicators. I presume the tail and brake lights are ok?
The 2 volt pulse should not trigger the relays.
I tried some LED lamps in my Defender indicators and got fast flashing lamps. I believe the LR flasher unit is electronic and is looking at the lamp resistance to trigger the on/off mode. LED's have virtually no resistance so do not operate correctly.

Trev.

Thats interesting, as I was going to change my trailer over to LED, sounds like a big pain to do the change 8O

They should be ok with a TDi. You will lose your trailer indication in the instrument panel as it looks for an increased electrical load to trigger the trailer indication lamp.
Trev.

what about running a resistor in line with the led lights to give a bit more load to the circuit?

I had a look at that idea for the Defender. Need a very small resistor like 1.5 ohms or something like that. Then the wattage of the resistor was another issue. You get into putting a bundle in parallel to get it right.
I have given up for the moment as I would like to do it without adding resistors. I am not sure how the buses and trucks work this out.
Any auto leckies out there?
Trev.

Thanks for the ideas.
Have tried resistors at the suggestion of LRA via a Melbourne dealer (they said that because LED’s have no resistance to voltage, installation of a 0.6 ohm resistor in each of the green and yellow trailer wires on the caravan should solve the problem. After returning to the caravan park (where the van was towed to by someone else) and trying a range of resistors (including ceramics), the problem remained. Couldn't totally eliminate the pulsing. I informed the dealer and he later advised me that capacitors should have been used (as well as or in place of resistors – I am not quite sure), but he couldn’t tell me what size capacitor to get. I'm no auto electrician, so after 2 days of trying to get a fix, we opted to have the LED's replaced with festoon globes.
I understand that this is a known problem in the US and Europe and Land Rover’s attitude in those markets is to tell customers not to use LED lights on towed vehicles, but no-one told us! Even a recent enquiry with an Adelaide dealer regarding towing specs, comments were restricted to towing weights only - no mention of LED problems - so it looks like a buyer beware attitude by LRA.