Is it possible to use export spec taillights in US TJs without having to run new wires?

Hello Folks,

Just want to confirm if OEM export tail lights (with amber lenses in the middle) were made by “Truck-Lite”? That’ is what I have on my 2004 TJ in New Zealand.
 
AutoCrat said:
Hello Folks,

Just want to confirm if OEM export tail lights (with amber lenses in the middle) were made by “Truck-Lite”? That’ is what I have on my 2004 TJ in New Zealand.
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Not to my knowledge, can you share some photos of those? Never heard of Truck lite selling any. I just know of the OEMs (don't know who makes them for Mopar) and replicas from Crown/Omix.
 
machoheadgames said:
Not to my knowledge, can you share some photos of those? Never heard of Truck lite selling any. I just know of the OEMs (don't know who makes them for Mopar) and replicas from Crown/Omix.
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This is what I have on the top, yet to remove the assemblies to check if there are any part numbers or Mopar logo at the back. At the bottom it seems license light lens is blacked out. We got rear license plate holder on the rear bumper.

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AutoCrat said:
This is what I have on the top, yet to remove the assemblies to check if there are any part numbers or Mopar logo at the back. At the bottom it seems license light lens is blacked out. We got rear license plate holder on the rear bumper.

View attachment 494684

View attachment 494685

View attachment 494686
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Very interesting. It appears those are stock and very well could have been supplied to Mopar by Rigid/Truck-Lite. There are very few export TJ owners floating around on the forum so things like this never come up.

The license light is definitely blacked out because of the plate being on the bumper on exports.

I still really wish someone would make a good quality multicolor LED tail lens that I could use to convert my American jeep to have amber signals but be LED. I wanted to convert to the euro lamps but I didn’t like the brightness of the bulbs so I gave up on it.
 
machoheadgames said:
Very interesting. It appears those are stock and very well could have been supplied to Mopar by Rigid/Truck-Lite. There are very few export TJ owners floating around on the forum so things like this never come up.

The license light is definitely blacked out because of the plate being on the bumper on exports.

I still really wish someone would make a good quality multicolor LED tail lens that I could use to convert my American jeep to have amber signals but be LED. I wanted to convert to the euro lamps but I didn’t like the brightness of the bulbs so I gave up on it.
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Yeah not many folks are here from NZ/OZ on this platform, may be @Kiwi TJ can through some light on export taillight assemblies. On mine they are surely looking stock and doesn‘t look like even bulbs were changed if at all in last 20 years of its life, I had to muscle my way to get lens off of assembly yesterday 😀.

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I have looked into this over here in NZ and 3 different Auto Electricians have all said the same thing...the US ones come with just 2 wires and we need 3. or maybe it was 4...(sorry I have the memory of a goldfish)
I haven't checked in a while but they're maybe something you can get out of the UK as they run the yellow indicator lights too....someone may have adapted the ones from the States maybe.
The ones I have on the back of mine are the original Trucklites (made in the USA) but obviously made for the export market
I did swap out my brake light bulbs and my reverse bulb for LED plug and play ones...night and day difference. (pun intended haha)

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Kiwi TJ said:
I have looked into this over here in NZ and 3 different Auto Electricians have all said the same thing...the US ones come with just 2 wires and we need 3. or maybe it was 4...(sorry I have the memory of a goldfish)
I haven't checked in a while but they're maybe something you can get out of the UK as they run the yellow indicator lights too....someone may have adapted the ones from the States maybe.
The ones I have on the back of mine are the original Trucklites (made in the USA) but obviously made for the export market
I did swap out my brake light bulbs and my reverse bulb for LED plug and play ones...night and day difference. (pun intended haha)

View attachment 494914
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Thanks, this confirms that export taillights are indeed manufactured by Truck-Lite.
 
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AutoCrat said:
Hello Folks,

Just want to confirm if OEM export tail lights (with amber lenses in the middle) were made by “Truck-Lite”? That’ is what I have on my 2004 TJ in New Zealand.
Click to expand...

Would not be surprised if they were the OEM supplier. Very good company.
 
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mofsharick said:
That's a valid point, and I'll keep it in mind if I intend to tow anything. At this point in time, I don't own any trailers and have no intent to tow anything with this vehicle. Thanks.

As far was the 18g wire goes, diagram 8W-51-2, shows 18g wire from the brake switch to the rest of everything. The high filament on an 1157 is ≈24W. Two of those (for each brake light), plus a 921 bulb (≈18W) is 66W. 66W @ 12V = 5.5amps. A wiring chart I have shows 18g wire is good for 7 amps @ 12V up to 20' of length.

Here's what I'm leaning towards more and more. Finer details still to be worked out. I may try to / have to make my own metal grounding/mounting plate inside instead of tearing it out of the export bodies. It might make some of the baffles easier to fit in. I'm fortunate enough to have access to a pretty well equipped fabrication shop at work. I'm not allowed to use that equipment, but I'm friends with those who are.

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How difficult is to remove the guts from the export housing and move over to USA spec housing? I am planning to do the same.
 
I've done this twice - once for my Scrambler and once for my '06 pickup.

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The only difference between the two implementations is that I didn't need a license light on the pickup because the license is in the "factory" step bumper.

I don't have final photos but I did do a couple of in-progress images back when I was doing the conversion. Doing it properly so the side markers and the license plate lights work to US-spec and the turn signals and brake lights are separate isn't a simple job but here's what I did...

IntlConversion1.jpg


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The license plate bulb in the images above isn't the final one I used because it didn't fit with the license plate light baffle - I found a curved LED that fit perfectly:

DSC_9364.JPG


The wiring also needs to be changed - the wire from the brake light switch needs to be disconnected from the multifunction switch and a new wire needs to be run from the brake light switch back to the tail lights to operate the now separate brake light. The turn signal will still operate from the brake light/turn signal wire from the multifunction switch.

I sold the Scrambler a long time ago but the pickup is still a daily driver and the converted tail lights have been working great for 15 years now.

Tailgate2.jpg
 
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jscherb said:
I've done this twice - once for my Scrambler and once for my '06 pickup.

View attachment 495053

<< b

View attachment 495054

The only difference between the two implementations is that I didn't need a license light on the pickup because the license is in the "factory" step bumper.

I don't have final photos but I did do a couple of in-progress images back when I was doing the conversion. Doing it properly so the side markers and the license plate lights work to US-spec and the turn signals and brake lights are separate isn't a simple job but here's what I did...

View attachment 495055

View attachment 495056

The license plate bulb in the images above isn't the final one I used because it didn't fit with the license plate light baffle - I found a curved LED that fit perfectly:

View attachment 495058

The wiring also needs to be changed - the wire from the brake light switch needs to be disconnected from the multifunction switch and a new wire needs to be run from the brake light switch back to the tail lights to operate the now separate brake light. The turn signal will still operate from the brake light/turn signal wire from the multifunction switch.

I sold the Scrambler a long time ago but the pickup is still a daily driver and the converted tail lights have been working great for 15 years now.

View attachment 495061
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Thank you sir, this will help me a ton in my project. I will probably use a USA spec housing without side markers but with license light window. Was it easy to separate metal bracket and baffles from the plastic housing?
 
AutoCrat said:
Thank you sir, this will help me a ton in my project. I will probably use a USA spec housing without side markers but with license light window. Was it easy to separate metal bracket and baffles from the plastic housing?
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The baffles just slide in or at least they do on hte US versions. I've not taken the rest apart.
 
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Without reading this entire thread, I think you’re in violation of newly ratified rule 1724, section 12, brake light replacements. Aren’t you supposed to only run the new BMB tail lights? 😉
 
MutantNinjaTJ said:
Without reading this entire thread, I think you’re in violation of newly ratified rule 1724, section 12, brake light replacements. Aren’t you supposed to only run the new BMB tail lights? 😉
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I appreciate the sentiment but I have nothing in amber and I can't even figure out how to get anything in amber.
 
AutoCrat said:
How difficult is to remove the guts from the export housing and move over to USA spec housing? I am planning to do the same.
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I ended up not using the export guts. I designed and fabricated my own grounding plate and guts. Same general idea as jscherb, but I went the circuit boards/LED route for the side indicator and license plate lighting. I'm hoping to FINALLY get these finished and installed this spring, since I started the project nearly 3 years ago. But children seem to really eat up most of my free time. I've been keeping track of the build and plan to post a write up when I'm done.

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machoheadgames said:
Very interesting. It appears those are stock and very well could have been supplied to Mopar by Rigid/Truck-Lite. There are very few export TJ owners floating around on the forum so things like this never come up.

The license light is definitely blacked out because of the plate being on the bumper on exports.

I still really wish someone would make a good quality multicolor LED tail lens that I could use to convert my American jeep to have amber signals but be LED. I wanted to convert to the euro lamps but I didn’t like the brightness of the bulbs so I gave up on it.
Click to expand...

macho, I just had a thought about an alternative means of having amber turn indicators. It would certainly require removing brake function from the multifunction swtich. But if the turn signal wire was switched over to the reverse bulb socket, an amber bulb or LED could be used giving amber turn indicator function on the existing clear "reverse" lens. The external reverse lights could be mounted/installed, and connected to the reverse wiring from the tailing light harness. Not nearly as tidy of a package as the export lights, but still viable. Not this exactly, but the general idea.

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I guess I was thinking about the Jurassic Park YJs with the auxiliary amber lights above the tail lights. I think they're supposed to be rear fogs, why not have white lights for reverse.
light2s.jpg
 
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mofsharick said:
macho, I just had a thought about an alternative means of having amber turn indicators. It would certainly require removing brake function from the multifunction swtich. But if the turn signal wire was switched over to the reverse bulb socket, an amber bulb or LED could be used giving amber turn indicator function on the existing clear "reverse" lens. The external reverse lights could be mounted/installed, and connected to the reverse wiring from the tailing light harness. Not nearly as tidy of a package as the export lights, but still viable. Not this exactly, but the general idea.

View attachment 495815

I guess I was thinking about the Jurassic Park YJs with the auxiliary amber lights above the tail lights. I think they're supposed to be rear fogs, why not have white lights for reverse.
View attachment 495816
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Yeah, not a bad idea. I don't run the stock tail lights, I have Quadratec LEDs so to make my reverse amber would require overlaying the lens with a colored tint. Or I could go back to stock and use an LED amber bulb. The Quadratec reverse brightness is super dim, so I wouldn't go the amber tint route on those.

I do have backup lights from Baja Designs in my rear bumper, so I could definitely use those as the backup lights. They are already hooked to the backup circuit. So I'd be covered there.

The only downside on amber bulbs with stock lamps might be that the the amber bleeds over into the red some. I think I recall the stock backup light doing that a bit and causing some pink, but I don't really remember....been a long time since I was stock. Overall I'll probably stick to the all-red LEDs for simplicity and eventually get a set of the new lights from Blaine. As much as I'd like to have amber, it's probably not worth the hassle (to me). I like what you've done with yours though and it will be neat to see them all done.
 
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