LED lights obversations

[Muggnz]

Hi all.

I've just returned from a 3 week holiday. Driving 6,000km over various country & city roads.

During this time I had the opportunity to observe numerous LED installations on the back of truck & boat trailers. During the day & night.

By far the easiest to see & understand were the separate units. IE Those with Indicators, Brake, Tail & Reversing lights in the larger units. They don't drown the others out when used.
I found the combo units with 3 rows of Brake/Tail red & 2 rows of Indicator yellow, separated by a row of Reversing white, the worst to understand. With the red almost obliterating the yellow. I had to concentrate hard to see the yellow.

Interestingly, being close up at night, made some seem to bright. Almost to the point of distraction.

david

[Alphacarina]

I found the combo units with 3 rows of Brake/Tail red & 2 rows of Indicator yellow, separated by a row of Reversing white, the worst to understand. With the red almost obliterating the yellow. I had to concentrate hard to see the yellow.

We don't have such combinations over here - Maybe now we know why?

Don

[brian_bp]

I found the combo units with 3 rows of Brake/Tail red & 2 rows of Indicator yellow, separated by a row of Reversing white, the worst to understand. With the red almost obliterating the yellow. I had to concentrate hard to see the yellow.

We don't have such combinations over here - Maybe now we know why?

Don

BMW put some really idiotic tail lamps in their generation of the Range Rover, with amber indicators buried in the middle of brake lights; it was one of the first details I noticed when they appeared here. While the amber indicators were nice and clear by themselves, the brake lights killed them. Just because you can arrange the LEDs in configurations which would not have been practical with a couple of incandescent bulbs doesn't mean you should... and that should have been obvious to any designer.

Trailer lamps combining brake and separate turn lights in the same housing are not common here (I've never seen one), but I would attribute that to the North American insistence on using red brake lights for turn signals as well as the reason, rather than crediting anyone with any application of intelligence.