LED trailer lights and Hopkins Control Modules

[BonS]

I thought it was prudent to follow up on previous discussions about LED trailer lights and Hopkins converter modules. After several thousand miles of successfully using the Hopkins 46255 powered trailer light module it failed on me during my last outing. I have LED trailer lights and recently added a few more to increase visibility. There have been several other discussions about the compatibility of the Hopkins 46255 with LED's but mine seemed to be working pretty well so I stayed with it - too long. The left turn signal circuit quit one morning and no problems were found with the wiring. Then the brake lights quit about a day later. I limped home from my trip through the Rockies using hand signals.

After reviewing the threads cited below I purchased the Hopkins 46365 that is supposed to be good with LED's and so-far-so-good. The 46365 is larger than the 46255 and to get it to fit into the nook underneath the seat I had to trim off the (much larger) mounting ears with a Dremel. After trimming the mounting ears the module is still sealed and waterproof.

As a side benefit I can now use my Blinker Buddy again. There had been cross-talk when using the 46255 with the Blinker Buddy. A left blinker made the right blinker partially blink and visa-versa. There isn't any cross-talk with the 46365 at all.

I don't understand the reason that the 46255 doesn't play well with LED's. A friend warned me that LED lights can draw more current than an incandescent bulb. I measured the brake light current draw for my setup and found it to be 0.320 amps. The most common bulb used for taillights is the 1157 and it draws 0.590 amps on low (tail) and 2.1 amps on high (brake). So there's some other reason for the incompatibility.

In any case, I'd recommend staying away from the Hopkins 46255 and purchase the 46365 instead. The extra $10 is well worth the aggravation.


http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,26198.0.html

http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,29524.0.html

http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,62981.0.html

The original 46255:



The replacement 46365 after the mounting ears were removed:

[sandy]

Great post about the problem. I'm one of the 46255 users and won't change to LEDs because of it. A friend had your issue and did your fix as well.

[Troystg]

LEDs draw less current than incandescents..  Because of that they sometimes have to add "load equalizers" which are resistors (6-8 Ohm 20-50 Watt) to pull more current through the flasher than the LED will alone.  The total from the LED and the resistor in parallel "may" exceed the incandescent but usually it doesn't.