From Freightliner ambulance to RV - we hope!

patoz

Expedition Leader
Those should work for the bumper. Have you decided on which lights you are going to use for your side work/flood lights yet?
 

rossvtaylor

Adventurer
Those should work for the bumper. Have you decided on which lights you are going to use for your side work/flood lights yet?

We've got 5 sets (ten lights, total) of these arriving today...

Screen Shot 2016-09-22 at 10.46.55 AM.jpg

There are some very cool Rigid Industries ones, but we just couldn't justify the cost.
 

patoz

Expedition Leader
We've got 5 sets (ten lights, total) of these arriving today...

There are some very cool Rigid Industries ones, but we just couldn't justify the cost.


I hope those do the job, because like you I would love to have the Rigid Industries ones too, but when you start multiplying the number of lights you need, that price reaches the unjustifiable range very quickly.
 

rossvtaylor

Adventurer
Pat, I'll certainly let you know. But, the Amazon reviews of these (and the identical ones from other vendors) are all pretty impressive.

Oz, since I had my dash opened, I reconfigured the switches on my speedo. You're right... those things are a pain. They don't move like a typical DIP switch, which slides back and forth. I dicked with it for several minutes, before figuring out that you have to move it in the opposite direction of how you want the position indicator to lie. Weird!

Here was my speedo, pre-change...

Screen Shot 2016-09-22 at 4.56.19 PM.jpg

Not exactly yours, but within a few hundred pulses/minute of yours... yes, I had to go through the list, working backwards looking for the right sequence of 1s and 0s.

We'll check ours this weekend and see where we ended up.

By the way... our tach also has a DIP switch. Does yours, Oz? Why?
 

rossvtaylor

Adventurer
Probably for the same type of reason. Calibrate it to the tone ring pickup combination of the engine.

I thought that as well, for odometer mileage indication. But I thought you mentioned that the ECU did that. So I wasn't sure... Time to do some Google foo
 

Ozrockrat

Expedition Leader
I think you will find that it is the hours reading in the tacho and the odometer sits in the speedo. What I was referencing was the tacho uses an output from tone ring/sensor somewhere on the engine to give a set number of pulses per revolution. Some engines take this directly off the crank shaft and some take it off the cam shaft. Also between different engine manufacturers they could use a different number of teeth on the tone ring. Hence a different number of pulses/rev at the tacko.

An example of this is the Cummins 5.9 engines which went through a change sometime early in the 24 valve development. They initially had a tone ring clamped to the crankshaft and a separate on one the cam shaft. They reduced that down to a single sensor/tone ring.

Remember also that they put gas engines in these same trucks (why!!!!) and they may have a totally different way of getting the the pulses required.

Summary. Don't play with the DIP switches on the tacho. They will not need changing unless you change engine type etc.
 

rossvtaylor

Adventurer
Thanks, Oz. I won't be messing with those!

I tried setting one of those LED lights (photo in prior post) into one of the front bumper recesses... they fit like they were made for each other.

Screen Shot 2016-09-23 at 7.04.43 PM.jpg

The wires exit the rear of the light, in the center, which also aligns perfectly with the pre-drilled hole in the bumper.

Screen Shot 2016-09-23 at 6.59.45 PM.jpg

Looks like a good fit. I'll report how they actually work, once I get the bumper fully mounted and the lights wired up.

Thanks, Amazon!
 

patoz

Expedition Leader
And, you can use the four threaded holes above and below the opening to mount a grill guard to protect the lights from brush and rocks.
 

rossvtaylor

Adventurer
And, you can use the four threaded holes above and below the opening to mount a grill guard to protect the lights from brush and rocks.

Exactly! There are guards made for these, but it'll be cheaper and easier to just make up some...

They still have a few more of these bumpers, Pat. It would look good on your rig!
 

patoz

Expedition Leader
Ha, if I put one on the front of my F250 along with a winch, it would probably make it stand on it's nose!
 

java

Expedition Leader
I have a couple of those lights. They suck IMO. Fine for ambient lighting, setting up camp, or slowly crawling around when you dont want to bother others with headlights. But not much output, and very wide spread.....
 

rossvtaylor

Adventurer
I have a couple of those lights. They suck IMO. Fine for ambient lighting, setting up camp, or slowly crawling around when you dont want to bother others with headlights. But not much output, and very wide spread.....

Ah, thanks Java! Just to clarify, are you referring to the square lights I got for the sides? Or the wider ones we got for the bumper? I haven't tried either one out, yet, but I should soon - before Scooter and Oz go off and order some, too
 
Last edited:

rlrenz

Explorer
Ah, thanks Java! Just to clarify, are you referring to the square lights I got for the sides? Or the wider ones we got for the bumper? I haven't tried either one out, yet, but I should soon - before Scooter and Oz go off and order some, tooy

I have some of those same lights installed on my module where the old 120 volt halogen floodlights used to be. They aren't bad as a general purpose light - not too bright, very wide angle. They are about right to use as general illumination so you can walk outside and not trip over something, but pretty poor if you want bright light (you couldn't read anything much smaller than a billboard). My long term plan is to replace them with some Rigid flood lights.

led side light.jpg
 

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