Change Bargman tail lights to LED

TRIVIA

Bargman #84 series LED taillight conversion:
Basically Plug & Play.
• Unscrew old lens & remove, save screws. Remove the 1157 bulb from socket.
• Plug in new LED lens into bulb socket. Attache new LED lens to frame with old screws.

Done...
I'm changing the single red tail/stop & turn side of a double lens fixture. The other side which has reflector and incandescent back up light I'm not changing, either to LED or the 'enhanced' incandescent lens. The new LED light & lens are thicker, the enhanced backup lens offers matching thickness of existing backup to new light without price of LED replacement.

Correct part number for LED conversion:
There are 2 part numbers for the conversion of the #84 series Bargman tail lights.
• #42-84-410 and #47-84-410
• The difference between the 2 lights, NONE. The difference in the part numbers is the packaging. Does cause some confusion, between any given lights, red, amber etc. the option of packaging
• Yes the lights are identical.

OTHER considerations:
• IF replacing primary taillights, possibly might require a dummy load on circuit to make flashers/ turn signal work correctly because the LEDs use so little power. However on truck camper or trailer where the trucks original lights are still functioning its not an issue.
• I've noted considerable water leaking behind the lens so have some corrosion on the bulb socket to address.
• Light not working? Others have had lights just quit. The bulb socket attachment to backing plate is the ground path. The ground wire from camper is riveted to the backing plate. Common cause, at either location, corrosion or looseness will cause light not to work (no ground). To test run a jumper from known good ground and touch the light bulb socket base. If light comes on its one of the attachment points. Easy fix. solder small wire to socket base run thru the backing plate and hardwire to ground wire. Requires removing the fixture from camper wall. Not a bad thing, if older camper the mounting is subject to leaking and likely could use new putty tape and caulking. Alternately if backing plate ground good, just run new socket ground lead to a new (short) screw into backing plate.

As our is 14+ years old and a block from the sea, I will go ahead and remove fixtures. Solder ground wires to bulb sockets, but run a another lead from the backside where fixture is wire nutted to camper wiring. Either wire nut new grounds together in front or make a screwed attachment point so whole fixture wont need removing later. Ill do this for both the tail and back up lens to avoid future ground issues.

Not anything required. Mine could just use a good cleaning & re caulking anyway.

Converting campers taillights to LED

Well I've been wanting to do this every since we got the camper but could never justify the cost. Actually what I've wanted to do is replace them. The Bargman 84 series taillights have to be in my opinion one of the ugliest taillight fixtures you could put on anything-period. However the huge hole cutout to install them pretty much excludes doing anything though. If I were to replace the rear wall siding they definitely would be replaced with something else.
But a close second is simple LED conversion. LEDs put less load on truck, greater visibility, and just cool. LEDs remind me of old glass bubble lights.
At any rate the reason this got revisited is I stumbled on a fella selling a set for half price-literary-so without justifying spending the money I jumped. Well that and I noticed some water leakage and need to remove lights anyway.

Remove & cleanup old fixtures.
led conversion
LED conversion fixtures are on order, new conversion basically is the lens with sealed led board. It plugs into bulb socket in lei u of bulb. They wont arrive for a while but I can go ahead and address what started this. Fixtures need to be removed cleaned and resealed. The housings are warping and corners are pulling away-leaking behind. Here I've started removing. I have some serious corrosion, surprised bulbs were grounding in the sockets. But more is where the socket is attached to the backing plate. Some corrosion and a rust trail. That's how they ground, thru the mechanical attachment to backing plate.

led conversion
The backing plate has ground wire lead riveted on the back side along with a al bar that's riveted to the other light. Any of these connection points are source for bad connection resulting in loss of ground. Often what happens is bulb seizes, trying to twist out the whole socket ends up turning then ground becomes intermittent. Or thru simple corrosion/dirt between socket & plate. Better sockets will have a tab spot welded for direct ground attachment.
Clean old putty & caulk off camper and light fixture. Used some wood glue and wooden matches to refill old screw holes. I'm replacing all the mounting screws with some stainless, also adding 2 in the upper corners that are pulling away. However the amount of corrosion and warping of the housing started thinking maybe I should have just replaced fixture. Got online to see if housings available separately as Conversions kits are on order. There goes my savings. But looking around most folks simply solder ground wire to sockets-bypassing the bad ground path. So figured worth a try.

led conversion
Easy- I wasn't sure about soldering to the metal sockets, but cleaned a spot with a small file and solder stuck like glue. My original intent was to solder socket lead to al plates but the al would not take solder for anything. So added a lead to the socket and passed thru backing plate to rear.

led conversion
The leads will tie along with original ground lead to campers ground wire.

Wire nutted everything tested for function. Now to mount. One of the issues with these lights is they don't have a flange or face to seal. Its an edge, actually an inner and outer edge with a v shaped void. So I rolled putty filling the void, hopefully giving a uniform 'surface' for ribbon to have a chance to seal.
led conversion
And installed-need to clean up putty. Shown are added corner screws. Once putty has stop oozing Ill add sealant to screws. On to the right taillight

Well I wasn't going to remove the right light but decided to go ahead add the ground leads. No evidence it was leaking. But inside is way worse than the left light. All the ground terminals /bulbs & sockets badly corroded. I also noted light housing is upside down? The bottom of housing is slanted so water that gets behind the unsealed lens will drain out. This one the slant is on top and was filling up with water, due to dirt plugging up bottom of lens. Wow. Plus leaking behind.
Required drilling out all the rivets to swap the tail and backup light sockets & backup plates so i could remount 180°. Minor but only caught accidentally. The backing plate with sockets attached are held in place by two clips on housing. Once cross ground bar removed they will just pop out by releasing the 2 clips, slide plate down out of slot. Cleaned it up, solder on the new ground leads, re riveted original lead and ground bar. I do recall whacking this light recently...

led conversion
NOW were ready for plug & play. All clean & shinney, sealed and new supplemental ground leads. When new LED conversion arrive- simply remove 2 screws & old lenses. remove the 1157 bulb, plug in new LED, mount new lenses with LEDS.

NEW LEDS ARRIVED!

Wow. Lights were not suppose to arrive until mid next week at earliest, unfortunately until after we get back from short outing. Wanted to see the new lights. So went ahead rewired, cleaned up and reinstalled so when we got back I could just plug in new lights. No more than added pics to this page and mailman delivered both lights! Lights came from 2 different sources and arrived in 2 days! Supposed to be standard delivery of ~6/10 days, ordered scheduled for Wed.05/28 to 05/30 but both arrived today Sat 05/24? One was from NC thru Ebay, the other from IN thru Amazon, were in CA. I have no idea how or why they got here so quick. Not complaining, just bizarre.And stoked, guess what I'm doing!

led conversion
First verify both work before installing. Set up, turn on power, wow-put your eyes out. Brake circuit uses 0.1 amps-that's compared to 2.4amps when I tested the old 1157 bulb. Wow.

Simple plug & play. Remove 2 screws holding old lens, remove the incandescent bulb, insert the new taillights bulb base into fixture socket. Attach new lens with the 2 screws removed.

led conversion
Installed new LED on campers right side to see the difference between LED and incandescent on left. With the sun on one side maybe not quite a good comparison, but still to the eye amazing visibility difference. What is cool because the truck was off to side to plug camper into bumper, standing to the side I could see both truck and camper left taillights. Turn on the blinker-at first it looks like there out of sink. Because the LED are instant on/off, makes the otherwise blinking truck lights look like they are glowing/pulsing. Actually seeing the time it takes for the filament to come up to full brightness, and then dim out when power removed.

led conversion
Nice- I like em. I put the old bulbs and lens in camper for back up. Was never a consideration-but now I'm thinking LED backup lights.

Sparkly...Then again I have actual sealed beam lights for backing up-these are only 'indicators', so maybe just LED bulbs for them..hmm.
In use on the road the reaction from other drivers to these new leds is amazing. When I turn on signal folks actually allow me to move, like previous lights were not seen or aknowledged only as a desire not intent.
Update 08/2016: swapped out 1156 back up bulbs with LED panle bulbs
update Backup bulb swap page
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