Am very happy with the truck Lites I recently installed on my 95 Heritage.

Now I am thinking about brighter turn signals, probably LED's. Of course, led turn signals require adding a resistor or load equalizer due to the low resistance of the led's causing them to flash rapidly.

Now I know it is really no big deal to splice in a resistor but I would rather not for a few reasons. Number one, I hate hacked wiring. Secondly, everything I am reading talks about heat and being sure not use the emergency flasher function, and being careful of where to mount the resistor etc. that sounds very discouraging.

I was wondering if there was a replacement flasher that would not be affected by the low resistance of LED turn signals?

 

Yeah, they're a few bucks at any auto parts store. I bought 2 of them (one for the directions and one for the hazards) at Advance Auto Parts. Just look for a 2 wire flasher that says something about "LED" on it, although most modern ones will work.

 

Oh, and it's not "low resistance" that causes the flasher to not work. It is actually high resistance, low current draw. While the individual LED's themselves are relatively low resistance, the current limiting resistor in series with them (typically) to make them not blow out is not low resistance.

 

I have had a Badlands load equalizer for several years and it works fine (touch wood). Instead of a load equaliser you can replace your flasher unit with an LED friendly one. Badlands make them.

 

 

I should have looked at what bike. For the later style, yeah, go with the badlands kind. You can't just use an inexpensive auto part store one like the older bikes.

 

The Badlands flasher unit has load resistors built in.

 

Thanks guys. Since I am so happy with the results of my recent installation of the truck lites, I figured I might as well upgrade the rest of the lighting.

Today I ordered fender tip lights and tail light board made by Custom Dynamics.

Dennis Kirk had them all in stock.

Quantity Product Unit Price Price
1 Rear Fender Tip Red LED Light - GEN-FT-R
Part #: 22849 $29.95 $29.95
1 Front Fender Tip Amber LED Light - GEN-FT-A
Part #: 22848 $29.95 $29.95
1 LED Board Kit for OEM Squareback Taillight - GEN-136-1157STD
Part #: 22832 $124.95 $124.95

The bright *** tail lights seemed too expensive and I like the idea of retaining the oem look by reusing the stock lens.

I am undecided on what to do for the turn signals. I have seen many that I do not like not only because of appearance, but they have only a few tiny led's and almost look like they put out less than stock.

I kind of like the hexagon looking ones made by Big City Lights but am unsure of their real world performance. They are kind of expensive, but high dollar does not always mean high performance. Anybody have any experience with them or recommendations of something else. I like retaining the old school look but am willing to compromise on that if the trade off in performance is worth it. That's what my rationale was with the truck Lites.

 

They look interesting.
Let me know what the results are.

 

Will do. They are scheduled to be delivered Friday. I am getting dizzy researching turn signal options and am finding it easier to find what I don't like than it is finding what I do like. For example, the Kuryakyn's look good powered off, but when they are on look terrible in my opinion. There also doesn't seem to be a standard for listing specifications on led turn signals and none of them list the lumens and very few list the number of led's in them. Research costs nothing and it's not like I am replacing a broken or failed part.

I finally found a load equalizer that doesn't overheat and can even be used in parades where the four way function is in continuous use. I don't do parades, but it's nice to know that it would not overheat in extended use like that.

http://www.kuryakyn.com/Products/412...Load-Equalizer