I keep looking at the tails on the expys and wondering what they would look like tinted (VHT or like). Has anyone does this? Any pictures? Anyone good at photoshop?

 

 

Any issues with the Police? I haven't seen real "to the point" laws on this thing.

 

Nope not a one.

 

If you are rear ended on a dark night or in a heavy rainstorm, I would guess that the police might find you at fault even though it is almost always the fault of the other driver, and the insurance company may not cover you. Lights are designed to meet DOT and NHTSA laws, and you will be in violation of those laws. Actually, your brake lights may become invisible in bright sunlight as well, so you could get rear ended by someone behind you on the freeway.

Do you ever park on the street? The reflectors that are built into taillights let other drivers see your car at night. Covering the lights will encourage other drivers to ram into the rear of your truck... Ever need your backup lights? I find even the stock backup lights a bit too dim in really dark, rainy situations. Especially with tinted rear windows... Backing into a pole or off a cliff would teach ya a pretty good lesson, I think.

Making your truck less safe in order to "look cool" makes no sense to me...or are you one of these guys who wears sunglasses while driving at night?

 

1) The backup lights are plenty bright, I live where there are no street lights and never had a problem once.
2) I understand the reflector thought, although I am concerned is someone can't see the ginormous vehicle parked somewhere are reflectors really going to help?
3) I am really just trying to get an idea of how they would look. I do not like full tint, but do enjoy designs and other tint work. I had tinted tails on my old car, worked great and didn't have any problems, but I still had visible stock light.. . .
4) You know they actually market sunglasses for night right?

 

The Limited's come with slightly tinted front lights that meet DOT specs. Not sure if there are rear lights that are tinted. I like the look but not worth the risk.

 

1. Good for you, but if you are at a campsite on a dark, foggy/rainy night, etc, you may need all the brightness you can get. I can think of a few situations I've encountered in the last few years when I really wanted headlights on the rear of my van.
2. Dark foggy/rainy night again with you parked on a country road...sometimes the reflectors will give oncoming drivers a heads up when they are a block away. The other driver may have night vision problems, be dialing the cell phone, have a tinted windshield, etc.
3. Just because you did something and didn't have problems does not mean you will not have problems in the future. Even though I have not been in a car accident for 20+ years, I still wear my seatbelt.
4. I don't think they would call them "sunglasses" if they were designed for night time...and I'll bet they are not dark gray--maybe amber?

Good luck, and I'm just trying to help you from having the rear end of your truck smashed....DOT has auto lighting laws for good reason.

George

 

I don't really want to argue about anything. .. to each their own.

I do think the tinted tails, maybe lighter than pictured would look good with the smoked headlights.

 

Eddie... I'll agree with you that smoked tails DO look nice. The ones shown on Welfare's ride *might* be a little too dark, but that's not to say that he has or has not upgraded the lighting INSIDE the tails. High intensity LED lighting inside the tails would make up for *most* of the shortcomings voiced in this post. The only thing they would not make up for is any reflective property inherent in the stock design.

That being said, I myself would like to do a smoked tail idea but not as dark as welfare's. If I could work up a solution that was 50% of what WF has running on his Expy, I would be happy with that along with upgrading my marker/stop/turn/reverse to high-intensity LED. I do approx. 10% of my driving during low-light and my Expy is parked off-street in a 75' off-street driveway so my worries are not so much having someone run into my rear-end or hit my Expy when parked. Not that those points aren't relevent, they just aren't as relevent to my personal usage as they may be to someone else.

Of course, I know ALL the police officers in town and happen to work hand-in-hand with the Chief's son.... I could drive nekkid through downtown and most likely just get a "Are you freekin NUTZ Munroe?!?!" from the locals....

 

I'm not happy the tail lights (tails?) aren't brighter on my vehicles. We ran thru a blinding rainstorm last summer in Tennessee and I couldn't see anyone's in front of me and figure no one could see mine. Maybe this is common practice in Tennessee but everyone switched on their four-way flashers and the much brighter brake lights flashing helped everyone!

European vehicles have rear fog lights mounted low on the bumpers and very bright. I expect they're not on US vehicles as most folks seem to burn their fog lights all the time. Vanity lights we call 'em!

-- Chuck

 

To clarify all the comments about my lights, the tint on them is called medium,light tint, I have not upgraded the bulbs, and when the light is shinning directly on them they look like a dark cherry red, so you can still see some red in the light. At night they still shine very bright, while not as if there was not tint on them but they don't look like the old school taillight covers by GTS that people would Velcro over that you cannot see at all.

I volunteer with the police department and have not had any issues with law enforcement, I also have been on several out of state trips with no issues either. I personally think they complement the dark headlights as does the darkened taillights on the Harley and Limited F-150's that was the look I was going for.

 

They look great and if you lik'em thats what matters. Folks do this all the time with sport compacts and I have yet to see any issue. tails are still visible but no the trend seems to be black housing with LEDs...That might a way to go too. As it was said earlier...to each his/her own.