2014/15+ HD PowerFold OEM Tow Mirrors (The Ones We've Been Waiting

MThompsonjr115 · December 12, 2014

Okay so I tried doing something similar to this on my old car. I had 2 amber 4" LED strips that wired as turn signals since the vehicle had no real turn signals on the side for someone next to you to see. I wanted them to be both a running light and a turn signal but it was a no go. The front turn signals were a dual filament bulb so one filament would be lit as a running/parking light and the other would only light when the turn signal would be activated. There were 3 wires (2 of course would activate the 2 filaments and the 3rd is the ground wire) that went to this bulb. This is the same way that the brake/running lights are set up.

The dual filament is what allows the lights to flash high/low instead of just on/off when the running lights are on

Why do I mention this?

Because this past weekend when I took off the headlights so I could change out my turn signals on my Sierra with some VLEDs Trition bulbs, I found the exact same set up. Dual filament bulb with 3 wires. Any (single color) LED will only have 2 wires going to and from it. No way to really make the single power wire of the amber LEDs on the mirrors connect to both the live wires (the running and turn signal) of the turn signal.

A relay of some kind would be necessary to make the amber lights on the mirrors to stay constant on when they should to act as a parking/running light and blink when acting as a turn signal.

Here's one thing that only really applies if you have VLEDs like I do or another bulb that is similar. The VLED runs at full intensity all the time and blinks on/off, not high/low when the blinker is on. Even if the running lights are on. The VLEDs do this by only having 2 wires that reach the actual bulbs, so I wonder if one could get power from that single life wire of the VLEDs. Then the amber lights on the mirrors would work in the exact same way as the front turn signals!

These are my thoughts on this subject! I know I am really hoping that someone can find a definitive answer on how to get the amber lights as both turn signals and running lights.

Mike, do you think something like this would work? I'm an idiot when it comes to electric circuits...

http://www.tobefast.com/Custom-LED-Magic-Blinker-Motorcycle-Running-Light-Relay-Module.html

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Brianstemm · December 12, 2014

^^^^^^^^^^ Ok, now I'm listening ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Mike1220 · December 13, 2014

Mike, do you think something like this would work? I'm an idiot when it comes to electric circuits...

http://www.tobefast.com/Custom-LED-Magic-Blinker-Motorcycle-Running-Light-Relay-Module.html

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Honestly, not 110% sure, but after reading the product description I don't see why it wouldn't work! It looks just like what you would need. Something to connect to the parking and turn signal wires and bring them down to one. It makes me want to put my lift and tires on hold till early summer and put in an order for a set of these. Well, that and I have some damage from some Jacka$$ in the parking lot at school now. Gotta get that fixed. No note, no claims to do did it. Just me pissed off because some Mofo done ruined my day

I was able to remove most the paint by buffing and polishing the area for around 30 minutes. Looks like there's no real damage to the paint. I swear I got one strong paint job on this truck. I have a scratch on the door. Going to try to get the dent removed tomorrow so it will look back to normal and then I will look into getting the paint all fixed.

Since this will definitely Keep me from having enough for lift and tires I may get the mirrors instead. At least that way I can sell my current mirrors for around $300 to keep from losing as much from the tows. If I get these this Christmas I will also order what you linked above and I will report back if no one else does it first!

fuzzy image · December 13, 2014

^^^^^^^^^^ Ok, now I'm listening ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Hey man. Just PM'd you. sounds like you have the same setup as I do. any progress?

badchevy · December 16, 2014

Honestly, not 110% sure, but after reading the product description I don't see why it wouldn't work! It looks just like what you would need. Something to connect to the parking and turn signal wires and bring them down to one. It makes me want to put my lift and tires on hold till early summer and put in an order for a set of these. Well, that and I have some damage from some Jacka$$ in the parking lot at school now. Gotta get that fixed. No note, no claims to do did it. Just me pissed off because some Mofo done ruined my day

I was able to remove most the paint by buffing and polishing the area for around 30 minutes. Looks like there's no real damage to the paint. I swear I got one strong paint job on this truck. I have a scratch on the door. Going to try to get the dent removed tomorrow so it will look back to normal and then I will look into getting the paint all fixed.

Since this will definitely Keep me from having enough for lift and tires I may get the mirrors instead. At least that way I can sell my current mirrors for around $300 to keep from losing as much from the tows. If I get these this Christmas I will also order what you linked above and I will report back if no one else does it first!

Damn! I am sorry to hear and see that! I am not sure it will help, but does the school have any cameras mounted anywhere around that may have captured this happening? I would also keep an eye out for anything with damage on it around the height of your damage on your truck. I am sure they wouldn't park in the same lot again, but at school you never know.

Mike1220 · December 17, 2014

Damn! I am sorry to hear and see that! I am not sure it will help, but does the school have any cameras mounted anywhere around that may have captured this happening? I would also keep an eye out for anything with damage on it around the height of your damage on your truck. I am sure they wouldn't park in the same lot again, but at school you never know.

There's 2 parking garages for us to park in (us meaning the people in my dorm and 3 other dorms that use Zone 22R to park in) and one has 5 floors and the other 6. Both nearly fill when everyone is there. So finding the person will be a pain. Each floor holds around 60-75 vehicles. These are some big garages

Also no cameras in the garages. Only on the first 2 floors of one of the garages since that's where the faculty parks

Crf450r420 · December 17, 2014

On motorcycles the factory front turn signals are also running lights, with dual filament bulbs, so when you go to a single light you can put a diode in line to stop the back feed of the parking signal to the turn circuit. The the bikes already shut down the parking light signal to allow the blinker to do it's thing so it's simple. If you have constant parking signal your going to need 3 relays.

All three relays will have the control ground always grounded. Then the first ones control power will be the parking light wire. Then the next two control power wires will go to the turn signal wire. Feed always hot or ignition switched power into the first one and as it gets switched it will control if relay 2 or relay 3 has power. Then wire the light to the normal off of the one power when relay 1 is off and normal on of relay that is powered when relay 1 is on. When your parking lights are off the one relay will be powered and give the light power when turn signal powers the 2 and 3 relay. When the lights are on relay 1 will send power to the other relay and when the turn signal activates the 2 and 3 relay it will interrupt the parking light signal causing it to blink off instead off on, but most won't notice a difference. I can draw a diagram if it helps.

Mike, that sucks about the truck. I'd be yelling to myself for days.

phydiux · December 17, 2014

Mike, do you think something like this would work? I'm an idiot when it comes to electric circuits...

http://www.tobefast.com/Custom-LED-Magic-Blinker-Motorcycle-Running-Light-Relay-Module.html

I know I'm not Mike, but here's some feedback on that unit:

This may or may not work out for you. It requires that you always power the running lights. Normal operation of this thing is that it's always powering the LEDs that are connected to it, unless it sees a voltages on the turn signal input. When it sees that, it cuts power to the running light, allowing you to maintain your running lights normally, and blink them inversely to the signal it sees on the turn signal input line, when there is a signal on that line.

However, the instructions show that if you were to run power to the turn signal input without having +12V on the +12V input of the unit, that you may damage it. So, as long as you only use your blinkers at night, you would be fine! ;-)

Seriously though, If you ran a diode between the +12V and the turn signal input of the blinker genie (with the anode on the turn signal input and the cathode on the +12V input,) then at the very least, you probably wouldn't destroy it. The running lights on the mirrors would then act as running lights, and would also flash, but only when power was being applied to the +12V input on the blinker genie.

Mike1220 · December 17, 2014

I know I'm not Mike, but here's some feedback on that unit:

This may or may not work out for you. It requires that you always power the running lights. Normal operation of this thing is that it's always powering the LEDs that are connected to it, unless it sees a voltages on the turn signal input. When it sees that, it cuts power to the running light, allowing you to maintain your running lights normally, and blink them inversely to the signal it sees on the turn signal input line, when there is a signal on that line.

However, the instructions show that if you were to run power to the turn signal input without having +12V on the +12V input of the unit, that you may damage it. So, as long as you only use your blinkers at night, you would be fine! ;-)

Seriously though, If you ran a diode between the +12V and the turn signal input of the blinker genie (with the anode on the turn signal input and the cathode on the +12V input,) then at the very least, you probably wouldn't destroy it. The running lights on the mirrors would then act as running lights, and would also flash, but only when power was being applied to the +12V input on the blinker genie.

So do you think the motorcycle thing would be a bad idea? I am looking to get these mirrors right after Christmas and I was gonna try the motorcycle thing. Hoping it would work. Or would I be better off pulling power from the live wire of my VLEDs since it only has 2 wires and it works as a running light and it blinks on/off even if the running lights are on.

phydiux · December 17, 2014

So do you think the motorcycle thing would be a bad idea?

Well, It depends on whether you want your running lights on all the time or not.

If you don't care or do want them on all the time, wire the blinker genie up to +12V switched and wire the turn signal input up and connect it to the running LEDs on the tow mirrors. If you do that, they should operate totally fine all the time, just as described.

If you don't want your running lights on all the time, then the blinker genie won't do anything when your running lights are powered off and any power applied to the turn signal input will probably damage it. (unless you did the diode thing I described; that wouldn't allow it to operate, but it shouldn't damage it either.)

Mike1220 · December 18, 2014

Well, It depends on whether you want your running lights on all the time or not.

If you don't care or do want them on all the time, wire the blinker genie up to +12V switched and wire the turn signal input up and connect it to the running LEDs on the tow mirrors. If you do that, they should operate totally fine all the time, just as described.

If you don't want your running lights on all the time, then the blinker genie won't do anything when your running lights are powered off and any power applied to the turn signal input will probably damage it. (unless you did the diode thing I described; that wouldn't allow it to operate, but it shouldn't damage it either.)

I want the amber lights on the mirror to act just like the Amber lights in the headlights so I was thinking the motorcycle thing would work if I wired it to the ambers in the headlights.

superchargedss · December 18, 2014

does anyone have an image uploaded that shows what each pin in the powerfold mirror wiring harness is for? I could have sworn i saw it in here and now I cannot find it..