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Anyone have an upgrade they've done to make their backup lights actually bright enough to be useful?
LED?
Does this require better wiring? Or just better bulbs?
You're going to be limited by what's available to fit the 1156 socket, replacing the bulb with an LED might help a little bit and shouldn't require change to the wiring. The other solution I have seen is adding driving lights like you would mount on the front, could be LED or halogens of some sort, I have seen them mounted to the bottom of the bumper as well as in the bumper itself, by cutting a hole in the bumper to fit the light, if you're going to run a different set of lights, I would use a relay triggered by the backup light switch and run some heavy gauge wire to the rear, due to the distance from battery to the rear of the truck I would say at least 12 gauge wire but how many amps the lights are rated to draw would ultimately determine what gauge wire you should use.
Instead of using the b/u switch to trigger as you may not always want the brighter lights to kick on in reverse you can run a separate switch on the dash that triggers the relay instead.
Putting them on the side of the receiver hitch and giving them a separate power source (truck not running), then you can use them when ever, like if you have a trailer/car hauler and need to secure stuff in the dark.
I haven't done it, but I always wanted to put a headache rack in with floodlights pointed backwards on a switch.
Then you don't blind people backing up in a parking lot at night but you can also turn them on when in the woods backing up (plus would be nice for hooking stuff up).
Anything is better then what they came with, pretty much....
I purchased these from Amazon about a year ago. Two for about $20.00. I put these on a separate switch for when I'm hitching a trailer in the dark. Also handy for when I need to "remind" someone behind me where their dimmer switch is located. They are LED and probably don't pull much power. You could more than likely wire them into the factory reverse light wire. I also put one in the middle of the front bed wall just below the slider and another under the hood that is switched to the hot wire for the factory hood light.
Long ago, working midnight shift, almost no traffic on the Interstate, noticed a set of tail lights maybe 1/4 mile ahead were red, but often I'd get a long focused flash of white light from between too. Looked like headlights coming. Got closer, light still flashed some, so I sped up got closer still, then saw was two 6" or so sealed beams mounted on the rear step bumper of this pickup truck. I figured he was flipping them on and off, messing with other drivers. I stopped him. I asked him, he laughed and offered to show me. The lights had wires coming out of them, but they weren't hooked to the female ends of the wires near by. He flipped a switch and I touched the wires to the wires, he was right. I explained how bright they were when I was behind catching up, He said that he once had them hooked up but not using them when another officer stopped him, that officer too thought was him flipping them on and off, so he added the disconnects so that no way would they work. He got in my car, we backed up a short ways, they lit up from reflecting my head lights. Get close the angles changed and they stopped. In Va. with wires disconnected they were "ornaments". He had a hitch, but said the lights were something he used more camping when he had his camper in place.
Long ago, working midnight shift, almost no traffic on the Interstate, noticed a set of tail lights maybe 1/4 mile ahead were red, but often I'd get a long focused flash of white light from between too. Looked like headlights coming. Got closer, light still flashed some, so I sped up got closer still, then saw was two 6" or so sealed beams mounted on the rear step bumper of this pickup truck. I figured he was flipping them on and off, messing with other drivers. I stopped him. I asked him, he laughed and offered to show me. The lights had wires coming out of them, but they weren't hooked to the female ends of the wires near by. He flipped a switch and I touched the wires to the wires, he was right. I explained how bright they were when I was behind catching up, He said that he once had them hooked up but not using them when another officer stopped him, that officer too thought was him flipping them on and off, so he added the disconnects so that no way would they work. He got in my car, we backed up a short ways, they lit up from reflecting my head lights. Get close the angles changed and they stopped. In Va. with wires disconnected they were "ornaments". He had a hitch, but said the lights were something he used more camping when he had his camper in place.
