Wet taillight

[Pahaska]

The International has LED taillights that are really bright. One of my tail lights, however, is full of condensation after every rain.

The dealer was under the impression that the bezel could be removed and the offending light taken apart, dried, and sealed with some silicone. WRONG!

The light units are bonded together and can't be opened. This makes good sense ... LEDs don't burn out. What makes it worse is that the connecting wires are so short that the lamp unit can't be pulled out of the casting far enough to do any work on it.

The dealer is currently calling the factory for some advice.

[74Argosy24MH]

Truck-lites LEDs are guaranteed for life. Airstream has a history with Grote, but both supply heavy trucks and it seems that they would match guarantees.

John

[53flyingcloud]

John

The light units are bonded together and can't be opened. This makes good sense ... LEDs don't burn out. What makes it worse is that the connecting wires

(I hate that aspect of wires being too short)

Nothing could be futher from the truth..John, they can and do burn out..It's just LED do have, under normal condition, extraordinary long life cycle~ 200k hours isn't unheard of.

Lets hope that A/S can/will either fix or replace yours...Otherwise, ANDY is gonna have another corner on this part of the market in the future..
ciao

[Pahaska]

The dealer installed a new taillight this afternoon to replace the one that was leaking. Quite a hassle.

The new taillight came with a nice connector attached, but A/S, in their wisdom didn't use the connector. They wired the light through a big wad of "gorilla snot" into the impossible to reach area behind the bathroom. The exposed portion of the wires was so short that light could barely be tilted out far enough to clip the wires and attach the new light with butt connectors.

[rbyrnesanmateo]

Hi John,

This brings to mind the a problem we came across when we took delivery of our International last summer. My husband always likes to check the brake lights prior to leaving, and when he did so, the right one didn't work!

He had the mechanic from the dealer's shop come out and help him, and sure enough, came across the same problem that you stated in your last post. When he opened up the light, there was a ton of "goop" and the wire was very short as well. It's a good thing that my husband is an electrician and had his tools in his truck so that he could help the mechanic grasp the wire and rework the brake light!

-Rebecca Byrne
2002 International

[Pahaska]

I hope Airstream is monitoring this forum. There is plenty of room in the cast light housing to provide enough slack so that the lights can be replaced without grief. There was at least a foot of wire attached to the replacement light unit.

What would have happened in my case if there had been even a half-inch less slack? A simple 10-minute replacement could have taken hours.