Video Transcript for Combination LED Trailer Tail Light: The Breakdown

Randy: Hey guys, Randy here at etrailer.com. Today we're going to be taking a look at the Optronics led trailer light. Now these are available in driver and passenger. The driver's side has our license plate light here on the bottom to illuminate that. The passenger side is not going to have that clear panel on the bottom. We use 14 LEDs over here on the driver, and you're going to have 11 on the passenger.

Now I really like these lights. They have a very durable housing, not a whole lot of give to it. The acrylic lens both here and on the side, really quite durable. Other than like backing into something, I really don't think you'll have to worry about these too much. Something I do also like about these, they serve more than just the lighting functions.

These are going to have built in reflectors here that go around.Of course, we're going to have our tail lights, going to have our turn signals. We're going to have our brakes, but also when our trailer's not in use or when it's parked, those reflectors are going to stand out. Same here on our light on the side, got the reflectorized lens there. So not going to need any additional reflectors on our trailer. Now this is a two wire design light.

So we just need to connect it to a good ground through our mounting studs, then our running light signal, and our turn and brake signal. It's going to give us all of those as we head down the road. I think it's going to be a really good addition to just about any type trailer under 80 inches. It is a submersible light. So even in marine applications and things like that, I think it's going to work out really well.You do want to unplug your lights.

I always recommend unplugging your lights. Some people do, some people don't, but I just don't like water getting in there when we're making electrical connections. The LEDs though, they are going to burn a lot brighter. They burn a lot cooler. They don't use near as much energy as what an incandescent bulb does, and they tend to last a lot longer. So more and more when working with customers, I typically see them going with LED lights when they're replacing lights on their trailer. If you had some incandescent lights up front, you don't really want to mix and match, that's up to you, but I would certainly recommend upgrading. You're going to do a lot less of chasing those bulbs or chasing the wiring to figure out what's gone wrong. Generally, it's going to be in that bulb socket.You got some kind of corrosion there. I think they're going to be a really good addition. Our customers, when working with them, they seem to be really pleased with them. They like the way they work. They like the way they look. I do too. I think by adding these to your trailer, you can solve a lot of the issues that we used to have with those incandescent bulbs and still keep it looking pretty traditional.To begin our installation of course, you'll need your old light removed from the trailer. The first thing we like to do, this light grounds through your mounting bracket. So it's a good idea to take a wire brush and really clean both surfaces of this off to make sure you don't have any scaly rust or anything like that. That can cause you issues down the road. You'll notice there's this little gap here, right where the wiring comes out. You want your wiring to be stored down and in there as we slide it into our bracket here. We're just going to take the provided hardware. Got a flat washer and flange nut there. We'll use our seven sixteenths. It's going to get that snugged down. No need to over-tighten these, but you do want them to be good and snug.We are looking at a two wire design that comes off of our light. This is my preferred style. Some of them will have three wires, which is a ground wire that comes off. I like grounding them right through the attachment points. We'll strip those back where we want them and I like to twist it up really well. You notice we're using heat shrink butt connectors here. I definitely think this is the way to go. This is going to ensure that you're going to have a good corrosion resistant connection here because moisture can't get in. Then we just need to connect it to the running light signal for our brown wire coming back from our trailer connector upfront. Generally, that's going to be the brown or darker wire, place that in and get it crimped down.Then for our yellow wire, which is going to be our turn and brake signal, it'll just need to go to the other. We'll use a heat source to get that shrink down. Here of course we're using a heat gun. Now with those connections made, I just like to tidy it up here. I like leaving excess, especially when we have something like this where we can get it tucked up and zip tie it off. In some cases you might want to trim it a little bit shorter, but remember if you ever have a problem with your wiring, you'll need to get it from somewhere. So if you didn't store any extra upfront, make sure you have some back here.Now that takes care of the driver's side here. That's the one that has that clear lens we talked about. Now you'll just head over to the passenger side and just repeat that same process. Only you're going to do green to green rather than yellow to yellow. All right, now we'll just test them out and make sure everything's working properly. We're going to use our trailer tester here, but you could just as easily plug it into your towing vehicle. You would start by turning on the running lights, make sure they both come on. Then we can check our left turn signal, check our right turn signal, and also our brakes. It looks like everything's working properly. All in all guys, I really like this light. I think it's going to be very durable and very sturdy. I think it's going to last for an extremely long time, especially if you're used to incandescent lights. These LEDs are really the way to go. All in all, this is definitely what I would put on my trailer and definitely one I would own.