Date:         Sun, 14 Nov 2010 08:18:25 -0800
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Storage Ideas..Was: Tool roll
Comments: To: Michael Rasmussen <michael@jamhome.us>
In-Reply-To:  <20101114142924.GA8076@jamhome.us>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

On Sun, Nov 14, 2010 at 6:29 AM, Michael Rasmussen <michael@jamhome.us>wrote:

> On Sat, Nov 13, 2010 at 10:09:03PM -0800, Don Hanson wrote:
> >   I found some red 'clearance lights' like on a big rig.  They each have
> two
> > bulbs.  I wired them into my tail lights (one on each side) and my brake
> > lights, ...  I screwed them right on in the slight channel that runs
> > around my whole van and has a couple of accent tape stripes in it.
> > Directly above the regular tail lights, facing aft, of course.  ...
> > They look pretty unobtrusive and are as bright as the stock tail lights,
>
> Could you post photos somewhere please?
>
>
>
  Here's a couple of poor ones, but you'll get the general idea.

  The running lights came from Shuck's/O'Reilys chain auto parts.   The
quality of the item looks pretty good.   They had a single lead with a
common connection supplied by the metal backing that holds the bulbs.  They
also had a secondary terminal (push on male spade) that was likely there if
the lights were to be mounted on fiberglass.  I simply cut the backer plate
to isolate each bulb and used the second spade terminal as a power lead for
that bulb, too.  The mounting screws supply the ground for both bulbs.

  I filled the back of the light base with silicone caulk, as is the common
practice for marine applications and I used Stainless steel sheet metal
screws to mount everything.  I used a 'fish wire'  to get the electrical
wires through the holes and found the rubber grommets at my local True Value
Hardware.

  A bit tedious, this task, but the additional rear end visibility and the
second set of brake lights at following driver's eye level, that seemed to
be worthwhile
  Don Hanson
photos below
http://picasaweb.google.com/dhanson928/ExtraVanTailLights#