Hi everyone,

I've used LEDs in the past for my break lights on my Ranger and the light it gave off was too narrow. The cluster had about 6 LEDs pointing one direction. I've seen clusters now with a majority of the LEDs pointing in one direction and the remaining LEDs (4) mounted around the case so they'll hit the reflectors inside the tail light housing. Does anyone have any idea how well these work???

Thanks,
Craig

I'm not sure, but i've been tossing the idea around in my head for making my own LED array to stick into my OEM tail lamps. The highly directional beam pattern something i'm still trying to work around.

I have LED bulbs that feature 18 wide-angle main LEDs and 6 radially mounted LEDs that illuminate to the sides which is great for bouncing off your reflectors. They work great. Still not perfectly omnidirectional but drastically better than regular old LED bulbs (especially the narrow angle ones.)

you have to get the multidirectional ones and they're on sale online.

i don't recommend them, but the only site i can remember is http://www.superbrightleds.com/index.htm

in specific, the 24 led bulb.
http://www.superbrightleds.com/specs/1157-x24.htm

disclaimers and cautions:
PLEASE READ BEFORE ORDERING LED BULBS:
For best results the LED color should be the same as the lens color. A red lens will filter out all but the red portion of the light so if the light is all red, none or very little light will be blocked by the lens

LED brake/tail lamps may not work with some thermal flasher units due to their extremely low current draw. These installations will require an electronic flasher unit, available at your auto parts store. Try to find flashers designed to work with LED bulbs, often HEAVY DUTY flashers will

LED bulbs may cause some newer vehicles to indicate a bulb is burnt out (because of their low power consumption). Some cars indicate this by increasing the flash rate of the turn signals, some turn on a bad bulb indicator.This can be remedied with our Load Resistors wired across the turn signal bulbs to simulate a filament bulb load. We have these available by our LED turn signal bulbs in our online shopping cart

LED bulbs are generally not as bright as standard incandescent bulbs, they have many advantages over filament bulbs (longer life, faster on/off times, lower power consumption, more vivid colors) but brightness is not one of them
They are generally not as bright but some of them with large numbers of LEDs, will appear brighter than filament bulbs.
The light is distributed differently so they can appear brighter in some applications.
Most LED bulbs emit light like a flashlight, all out the end. Regular filament bulbs emit light from the end and all sides, so they will be better suited for some lighting applications that LED bulbs.
This is the same reason why we do not rate LED car bulbs in lumens or watts, they would be a deceptively low numbers because the light is measured form all sides and the end on standard filament bulbs but only from the end on LED bulbs

Do not use LED bulbs in the same housing with head lamps, the heat will cause them to fail quickly
Do not use LED bulbs in Day Time Running lights (DTR) in GM vehicles, for some reason all bulbs fail quickly in this application.

Some of our bulbs are available with 12, 19, 24 or 30 LEDS, obviously the more LEDs the brighter
All of our Tail/Brake lights are the standard one inch diameter except for the 30-LED units. They are 1-5/8 inch diameter so please measure to make sure they will fit in your housings

All of our Tail/Brake bulbs achieve dual intensity modes by turn all of the LEDs on dim or all of the LEDs on bright

Some of our bulbs are available with Narrow or Wide viewing angle. The Wide angle (approx. 100 degree beam) will light up more area but dimmer than the Narrow angle. The Narrow angle (approx. 15 degree) will illuminate a smaller area but brighter than the Wide angle

For aftermarket use. May not comply with SAE or U.S. DOT standards
Warranty void if used in applications other than standard automotive replacement bulbs

Ok, cool. Thanks everyone for the info!