Tail light safety and modern traffic

[700rpm]

I didn't want to hijack Sean's thread about his wreck in Austin, but one of the posts brought to mind an incident I had yesterday coming home from a short outing. A guy pulled up alongside of me to kindly tell me I had no brake lights. My Tudor has only one tail/brake light, per factory standards, and it works fine. But I have two turn signal lights on the back not hooked up to the brake switch. I think the guy was looking at my turn signals, not my tail light, so he didn't notice the brake light when I stopped.

I have been thinking about putting a second, rh light on, and this convinced me. The comment on Sean's thread reinforced the decision. Modern drivers don't know where to look for 80+ year-old automobile lights.

[Step-down]

I'm agree rear tail light, brake light are a must for modern driving. In my 39' the rear tail light are tiny. My wife bought me a wireless turn signial kit last Chirstams. I'm going to hook it up .....

[mshmodela]

Center LED, ~1hr to install

[SDJason]

Just posted this in another thread:
J & L Enterprises makes the 3rd brake light that mshmodela posted a pic of:



J & L Enterprises sells them direct, or you can pick one up from the usual parts vendors. This is one of the first things I added when I got my A - I think today's drivers expect to see a 3rd brakelight, and I don't want to be the one to find out the hard way if I'm wrong about that.

[springerpete]

I put a right hand light on my 29. New bracket as well. Then put on 2 LED tail, stop lights. Very bright. Very easy to see day and night. Bracket from TAM's in MA. Lights from Obsolete & Classic Parts.

[30ccpickup]

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Humble opinion, I find they are looking at the car and never the lights. No matter your setup.

[Allanw]

I think at least if they are aware the lights are there, they have some chance of noticing them come on. Hidden lights can be easily missed too, especially in the daytime.

I don't even like having a turn signal via a flashing brake light (VERY uncommon here in NZ, unlike the US), so I have an extra set of brake lights from a V8 - they don't look "right", but look in fitting with the car style. So there is a pair of separate tails (original position), turn signals (the amber tops) and brake lights (the inner V8 ones).

[gweilbaker]

Apples~ modern light surface light area=pretty much the whole back of the car, it's what modern distracted drivers are use to.
Oranges~Model A Original+added 3rd and led tail lights = very small small surface area that modern distracted driver never see.

It is what it is, I feel that the whole spare tire should blast a stop or turn with searing bright illumination that attracts attention from self indulged bozos.

[Y-Blockhead]

Being new to the "Sport", I too was concerned about my brake lights being seen. This is a picture of one of my first "additions" to my new '30 Town Sedan.

I used an old light I had, filled it with RED LED's and mounted to my spare tire ala side mount spare mirror mounts.
Unplugs easily if I need to use the spare tire. It's up there in their FACE so hopefully it will get their attention away from Texting...

[JohnLaVoy]

Having adequate lighting on the rear is very important. We run the LED tail lights with two tail lights on all the cars. The sedan has the collision avoidance light that J&L make and it is a great addition for safety. I also recommend using all red brake tail light lenses because amber is used as a turn signal indicator not brake light on modern cars. With the LED you can also make the whole light the brake and tail light not having the two pieces work independently so you have more visible surface illuminated when driving at night.

[1930artdeco]

I have a setup similar to Y-Blockhead. I used a repo taillight and strapped it to the top of my spare tire. I have people tell me (and I have seen it at night) that I it is very bright. I did this because people are accustomed to seeing alight there.

Mike

[AL in NY]

Here's a photo of my LED tail lights (LEDs embedded in red lens) and the J&L third brake light. There are extremely bright and can be seen very easily in the bright sunlight.

[Patrick L.]

Mine has twin lights and turn signals [ in the light assemblies]. After being rear ended earlier this year I installed LEDs and even changed the lens to red.
I don't like them, they just don't look right. But, they certainly are brighter and the red lenses make things legal [ which I don't care about].

[sconnors]

Originally Posted by SDJason

Just posted this in another thread:
J & L Enterprises makes the 3rd brake light that mshmodela posted a pic of:



J & L Enterprises sells them direct, or you can pick one up from the usual parts vendors. This is one of the first things I added when I got my A - I think today's drivers expect to see a 3rd brakelight, and I don't want to be the one to find out the hard way if I'm wrong about that.

Put one of those in my pickup! Well worth the money!!

[wildwilly]

I have added that thin LED light strip along the bottom of my rear window for a 3rd brake light. 6V or 12V light strip dont matter, works the same. Bought the 18 inch red light strip for not alot of money from Advance auto parts store, and works great.

[Mike V. Florida]

Originally Posted by 30ccpickup

Humble opinion, I find they are looking at the car and never the lights. No matter your setup.

I agree.

[C26Pinelake]

I added the right light and changed to LED's and it is very bright. If they can't see me now they must not be paying attention !
Wayne

[Patrick L.]

Originally Posted by C26Pinelake

I added the right light and changed to LED's and it is very bright. If they can't see me now they must not be paying attention !
Wayne

There is a lot of that going around and it seems to be contagious.

[John Stone]

IMHO the addition of a flashing yellow light does call attention to the fact that the old car is not going 5 or 10 MPH over the speed limit like most drivers in modern cars are going today. Anything to get their head out of the cell phone.

[CA Victoria]

I installed LED tail lights, they are great day or night!!!! I was rear ended, the result of a distracted driver. Sometimes things just happen, even with the best of equipment.

Not all Model As that I have seen have effective tail lights, mine before changing over to LEDs were hard to see due in part to a poor color repo glass, while I could have made it better I felt the brighter LEDs were best in my situation driving often on busy public roads and streets.

By being a Defensive Driver we can avoid may potential encounters with other cars. One point I would like to bring to light is that our cars in most situations are the problem, as we are the slower moving vehicle. Driving defensively means we are watching out for the other guy and being vigilant to avoid situations and other cars when possible. On busy roadways I will travel with my lights on to make my presence more known.