To chicken light, or not

I love sitting and watching people work while I am in the lawn chair with an adult beverage. And I do like the entertainment of you passing me on the highway if they are well designed and working properly.
Thank you for the effort.

 

I like my chicken lights and have a distinctive layout. Not over the top fancy, just different. The local DOT recognizes me immediately, and because I have good reputation with them always just get the " thumbs up" when rolling through a local coop. Barely slow down. Of course, being recognizable could work against you too if you've been known to be lax on your maintenance!!

I am absolutely anal about my wiring, you have to be here in N.E. with the excessive amount of salt and calcium they use here.

I use dialectic grease when making the connection to good quality LED lights, with water proof connectors , followed by liquid black tape, followed by friction tape, followed by that crinkley wire loom. Anything under the truck that can't fit in the wire loom gets a couple of shots from the grease gun. This includes all connections at the tail lights, headlights, directionals, markets and of course all ground posts, including the batteries.

 

I have enough trouble with the factory installed ones and keeping them working. I worked for a small company for a few months with 2 trucks, and he had them decked out with chicken lights, I mean like 100 on the trailer alone. They were always messing up and burning out. A scale house almost pulled me OOS one night because a few weren't working. Told my boss to get them fixed or he'll be paying a for it dearly.

 

I hope you politely explained to that officer that auxiliary lights are not required to work. Chicken lights not working is not even a ticket, let alone an OOS violation.

 

I say keep them. Little extra work at times. Have to use more for wire repair than a unsealed butt connector. Dielectric grease silicone, . Keep the wires from rubbing through. Have noticed some real hack jobs on wiring. Not just chicken lights either. Remember a trucked parked b-tail. His tractor taillights had a bundle of wire and connectors that reminded me of a big bowl of spaghetti. What could go wrong?

 

All of those lights on a trailer have some value. I've pulled trailers with a lot of nice bright chicken lights, and I've pulled trailers with the minimum number of lights. To me, it is a lot easier to see when backing into a dark parking spot with a well lit up trailer. They cast a lot of light into that hole and into the truck and trailer on each side you are trying not to hit. If I owned my own truck and trailer, I'd have the lights. Wire it up right and the maintenance isn't any worse than with factory minimum number of lights. I don't remember having more trouble with more lights. A short in a light is still a short in a light, no matter how many unshorted lights you have.

 

Not in my neck of the woods. In Wis. and Ill. I was told, if you have a light on the truck, it must work.

 

Do you even have fuses on those chicken lights? There's no way a short should affect the alternator. The moment a power wire touches ground it should pop the fuse almost immediately.

 

Didn't guys with all those lights need "big rig alternators" too?