Looking for replacement LED tail light

[Geobolduc]

One of my tail lights is half dead and I'm having difficulty ordering a replacement through Airstream.

I found this thread very useful for removing the defective light.

I called my local airstream dealer who spoke to a few people at the factory, and he was told airstream only sells the entire two-taillight assembly, and I cannot order just the single LED tail light.

Clearly someone is confused based on the above thread. Anyone try to order a single tail light recently, and if so, can you provide the dealer you went through?

Thanks,
George

[Al U. Minium]

George,

I just replaced one of mine this week. The individual LED lights are available.

To replace, pop off the chrome oval plastic bezel around the light. This exposes some screws you remove with a Phillip's no.1 head screwdriver. Mine had spots for 4 screws, but only 2 applied.

I was not able to pull the wires out of the body of the coach far enough to get to plugs. The replacement light had plug ends on it. I cut the old light off, cut the plugs off the new light, and crimped together with heat shrink crimps. Back tow vehicle close enough to plug in and test.

Screws back in (a very small detail is to put the SAE standards which are very small letters on the face of the lens down to align with the others. Don't forget to pull protective shipping plastic off the lens).

Pop the bezel on. Have a beer.

One thing....my local dealer wanted something like 64 bucks for the lens. Ouch. I pulled the lens, turned it over, and noted the information stamped on the back. It said "L-15-0024R".

Googling indicated that was a model number and gave me the manufacturer's name as well, plus a pretty limited list of sources for that part.

I ordered from a trailer shop in Oregon for less than 20 dollars, shipping accounted for about half.

Came in the mail in less than a week. Exact replacement.

I don't mind giving local Airstream guys a little extra to support them, but triple the market is too much.

Po

[Geobolduc]

Originally Posted by Al U. Minium

George,

I just replaced one of mine this week. The individual LED lights are available.

To replace, pop off the chrome oval plastic bezel around the light. This exposes some screws you remove with a Phillip's no.1 head screwdriver. Mine had spots for 4 screws, but only 2 applied.

I was not able to pull the wires out of the body of the coach far enough to get to plugs. The replacement light had plug ends on it. I cut the old light off, cut the plugs off the new light, and crimped together with heat shrink crimps. Back tow vehicle close enough to plug in and test.

Screws back in (a very small detail is to put the SAE standards which are very small letters on the face of the lens down to align with the others. Don't forget to pull protective shipping plastic off the lens).

Pop the bezel on. Have a beer.

One thing....my local dealer wanted something like 64 bucks for the lens. Ouch. I pulled the lens, turned it over, and noted the information stamped on the back. It said "L-15-0024R".

Googling indicated that was a model number and gave me the manufacturer's name as well, plus a pretty limited list of sources for that part.

I ordered from a trailer shop in Oregon for less than 20 dollars, shipping accounted for about half.

Came in the mail in less than a week. Exact replacement.

I don't mind giving local Airstream guys a little extra to support them, but triple the market is too much.

Po

Hi thanks for the reply. I found Trailers Unlimited has the part, but the bezel has four screw holes, whereas my bezel just snaps into place. Did you just reuse the original bezel?

[ROBERT CROSS]

They sure appear to be 'standard' replacements.

Have been using Optronics on the boat trailers for years.
The clear lens with red led's are sooper bright.👍
Bob
🇺🇸

[Al U. Minium]

Originally Posted by Geobolduc

Hi thanks for the reply. I found Trailers Unlimited has the part, but the bezel has four screw holes, whereas my bezel just snaps into place. Did you just reuse the original bezel?

Yes, reused original chrome plastic bezel.

What I got from Bend trailers was exact replacement. The bezel popped back on as before.

I wanted the same light from same manufacturer so when illuminated it matched, and was not dimmer or brighter or with a different number of LED elements. This light was the same as the other three.

Al

[NO NOIZE]

Three tail lights had partial failures in the first three years on my 2014 27FB Serenity. I found replacements at Amazon https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The factory lights were made in Taiwan and the Amazon replacements are made in China, one of the Amazon lights had some led's fail in the first trip out, so I just bought a couple spares (only $7.50 each at the time) . It has been over a year and so far so good, the Amazon lights also come with a new chrome plastic bezel, which is a good thing because I found it almost impossible to remove the bezels without damaging them.

While you have the tail lights out, this is a good time to clean out all the aluminum shavings left from the factory installation using self drilling screws.

Also, it looks like the factory is still using the old aluminum casting that was pre-led. So the mounting holes on the factory lights don't quite match up with the castings and the Amazon lights are the same way. It helps to file the lights mounting holes out to a slight oval to keep the plastic from splitting.

The wire coloring is different, the ground is white on the factory lights and the ground is black on the Amazon replacements Black=Ground, Red=Stop Turn, White=Running Lights

You need to use crimp connectors, but there is plenty of wire to work with.

Hopefully the lights are the same as a year ago (July 2017), these days everyone changes everything all the time that is why I got spares so I would have some that would match for sure.

Good luck

[Geobolduc]

Thanks for all the great responses. Hopefully this post will benefit someone else down the road.

Summary:

1. I ended up purchasing the identical replacement tail light for $20 including shipping from Bendtrailers.com https://bendtrailers.com/6-oval-surf...ght-l15-0024r/

2. Since the replacement doesn't include a new chrome bezel, I was very careful not to damage the existing bezel during removal. The suggestion to use a paint can cover removal key on another posting was spot on.

3. I applied masking tape all around the light on the cast aluminum assembly to minimize scratching.

4. Finally, I purchased some female bullet connectors from my local auto parts store, which mated perfectly with the existing male bullet pins on the newly purchased LED light assembly. If the light fails again, I can simpy unplug it.

[NO NOIZE]

Thank you for the detailed follow-up. I am sure it will help someone in the future.
It is great to have a resource like this so every project is not from ground zero and posts like yours give others a starting point [emoji106]
I carry a spare tail light and the paint can opener tool. I also used male and female spade connectors on my spare so it is plug and play like your idea. Great minds think alike I guess.....:-)