Custom Third Brake Light/Chase light

[Rabidtastic]

a quick google search didnt yeild anything official, just this blurb seems to provide the intent:

"For those of you unfamiliar with a Chase light, it is typically an amber light facing backwards on the rear of your rig. Preferably placed high enough to be seen from a good distance so following rigs know exactly where you are and not just guessing based off the dust your throwing up."

That's all I found/what I figured but not super familiar with it/tend to go the redneck route so an "official standard" would not have surprised me

Wonder if something could be done with the bubbles on the roof with the SSC1s

 

[TexasTea]

a quick google search didnt yeild anything official, just this blurb seems to provide the intent:

"For those of you unfamiliar with a Chase light, it is typically an amber light facing backwards on the rear of your rig. Preferably placed high enough to be seen from a good distance so following rigs know exactly where you are and not just guessing based off the dust your throwing up."

Might as well make it a bright RED though, then you can use it on road as well for a rear-facing fog lamp so bozos don't rear end you in fog and rain

 

[Cblaxx19]

it was a fairly productive weekend in getting some design time for the third brake light.

Friday night i spent reverse engineering the bezel on the SSC1 pods. it has some specific geometry that engages the gasket around the lens for sealing purposes. I intend to replicate that sealing surface on the inside of the housing to flush mount the pods.

I printed some bezels to test fitment and then actually tested the sealing by spraying a pod with the hose and then opening up the pod to see if any water got in. it was successful.

moving to the ssc1's frees up space and makes the light look cleaner in my opinion, as well as significantly more performance. the C1R pod variant has a red backlight, a high power red brake function, and a high power white reverse function. this takes care of running, brake and reverse/bed lighting.

then 2 yellow pods can act as chase lights.

I also have been working on finalizing the camera mount and making sure that i managed to replicate the mount interface properly. a couple of prototype prints have helped in confirming fitment.

Also started cleaning up my model and simplifying it for manufacturing.

ill probably do a full up print by the end of the week to put up on the truck to see what it looks like.

 

[SpaceWhiteF150]

it was a fairly productive weekend in getting some design time for the third brake light.

Friday night i spent reverse engineering the bezel on the SSC1 pods. it has some specific geometry that engages the gasket around the lens for sealing purposes. I intend to replicate that sealing surface on the inside of the housing to flush mount the pods.
View attachment 26321
I printed some bezels to test fitment and then actually tested the sealing by spraying a pod with the hose and then opening up the pod to see if any water got in. it was successful.

moving to the ssc1's frees up space and makes the light look cleaner in my opinion, as well as significantly more performance. the C1R pod variant has a red backlight, a high power red brake function, and a high power white reverse function. this takes care of running, brake and reverse/bed lighting.

then 2 yellow pods can act as chase lights.
View attachment 26320

I also have been working on finalizing the camera mount and making sure that i managed to replicate the mount interface properly. a couple of prototype prints have helped in confirming fitment.
View attachment 26322
View attachment 26323

Also started cleaning up my model and simplifying it for manufacturing.
View attachment 26329


ill probably do a full up print by the end of the week to put up on the truck to see what it looks like.

Hell yeah, do you have an insta? If you ever need a tester I’d be happy to help.

How do you run power to those pods? Thanks

 

[Cblaxx19]

Hell yeah, do you have an insta? If you ever need a tester I’d be happy to help.

How do you run power to those pods? Thanks

i do, @LDFT_Tremor

I intend to run a harness up to the brake light just tucking it behind the head liner and down the passenger side to the engine bay. but i haven't spent a lot of time thinking that part through yet. gotta get the actual light setup figured out. wiring is pretty easy once that is done.

 

[CrankCase]

That is very cool looking.
acoording to the picture, it will use the same mounting points and have the same footprint as the OEM light correct?
Count me in for the first run of these, you accepting preorder money?

 

[Cblaxx19]

That is very cool looking.
acoording to the picture, it will use the same mounting points and have the same footprint as the OEM light correct?
Count me in for the first run of these, you accepting preorder money?

I am not taking preorders currently. This is primarily a personal project and if it comes to fruition and is desirable, then perhaps I sell some. We will have to see.

Some updates:

I went ahead and printed the full up housing yesterday. 8 hours of printing later and I’ve got a full size mock up!

After cleaning a bunch of support structure off the print, I snapped the 2 halves together and added the bed camera and a couple of pods for a mock up.

Then I was obviously anxious to try it on the truck.

The good: the mount holes that I built in surprisingly lined up pretty well.

The not perfect: the depth of the pods is driving some standoff from the cab. So I need to add a little depth to the housing so that it mates up to the cab cleaner. I had thought that the cutouts in the cab were a little bigger and that the pods could actually recess into them a little but that is not the case.

Other than that though, it seems to be fairly close to fitting nicely.

The biggest thing I have left to work out is sealing around the housing which I don’t think will be too hard, I just have to source the same kind of gasket that OEM uses or the morimoto lights.

 

[CrankCase]

That really looks nice. I like the 4 smaller lights in there. I wouldn’t worry too much about the depth, others on the market are deep as well, an advantage is there is typically now surface area on the top to add an NMO antenna to the top……as Long as the lights are not too tall.
Really nice work.

 

[Cblaxx19]

That really looks nice. I like the 4 smaller lights in there. I wouldn’t worry too much about the depth, others on the market are deep as well, an advantage is there is typically now surface area on the top to add an NMO antenna to the top……as Long as the lights are not too tall.
Really nice work.

I appreciate the kind words.

It’s a chunky beast though. I reprinted after increasing the housing depth a little. Here’s a comparison….

Left is the latest version.

I want to try and slim it down a bit. I’m thinking I’ll have the main body slimmer and the lights can protrude from the back face somewhat. This way the main body won’t be a thick. It’ll be a balance though. I don’t want it to look super funky with pods sticking out a ton from the housing. I’m thinking maybe 1/2” max. That should allow me to reduce the housing thickness by .7” ish.

 

[Cblaxx19]

quick modeling of what i'm thinking. i actually like this as i think it gives it some character rather than a flat face.

 

[ghostbit]

quick modeling of what i'm thinking. i actually like this as i think it gives it some character rather than a flat face.

I like this one too! Does it also allow you to have a more aggressive bottom taper so it looks slimmer?

 

[Cblaxx19]

I like this one too! Does it also allow you to have a more aggressive bottom taper so it looks slimmer?

do you mean the taper on the bottom of the pod jut outs?

 

[CrankCase]

I do like the pods sticking out a bit, definitely gives it character and sets it apart from others.
this is the one I had on my 2018 F150 from Evil Manufacturing

The lights mount from the face and there is room for an antenna mount on top. You can see how far this one sticks past the body, and there are 4 mounting holes you have to drill into the cab. Makes it hard to remove it if/when the truck gets sold LOL.

I like your idea of the 4 small lights, having red back lighting for running lights and full red for brake, plus options for white, amber, or whatever color.

You have a nice design going on here, I hope you can make a handful of them at some point. I’d buy one for sure. I would even chip in money for prototype and R&D if necessary.

 

[Cblaxx19]

I do like the pods sticking out a bit, definitely gives it character and sets it apart from others.
this is the one I had on my 2018 F150 from Evil Manufacturing
View attachment 26388
The lights mount from the face and there is room for an antenna mount on top. You can see how far this one sticks past the body, and there are 4 mounting holes you have to drill into the cab. Makes it hard to remove it if/when the truck gets sold LOL.

I like your idea of the 4 small lights, having red back lighting for running lights and full red for brake, plus options for white, amber, or whatever color.

You have a nice design going on here, I hope you can make a handful of them at some point. I’d buy one for sure. I would even chip in money for prototype and R&D if necessary.

the drilling is a no no for me. I either use the OEM mount holes or i don't mess with it.

there's also a lot of screws on the face of that light. I like how mine is clean with no mount screws other than those that mount the whole housing onto the truck.

I currently am only using 2 of the 4 holes. id like to get the lights moved around to use all 4 for additional hold strength as this will be a good bit more weight as well as more even clamping of the gasket around the edge to seal the whole housing off.

I appreciate the kudos. i too am really hoping to make this come to fruition. it's been fun so far.

 

[CrankCase]

I completely agree with you on all of that. I like the OEM holes much better than drilling, and I like how clean yours is without the lights being mounted from the front.
I put One from GJ Motorsports on my brothers super duty a while back, it used the 2 OEM screw holes and has been stable and still sealed over 4 years later. So just using 2 screws should be fine, what about maybe making the screws go through some “sleeves” to help support the added weight and leverage?
Or adding some feet that rest inside the OEM holes in the cab? Top and bottom to maybe spread the load out? Or a combination, have the screws attach to a plate that will sandwich the OEM cab flange? Does that make sense?

trust me, I’d buy your design 10 times over before the others out there. I would love to see this one come to life.
Between all of the Tremors, Raptors, and Super Duty’s out there, it should be a good seller.

 

[Cblaxx19]

I completely agree with you on all of that. I like the OEM holes much better than drilling, and I like how clean yours is without the lights being mounted from the front.
I put One from GJ Motorsports on my brothers super duty a while back, it used the 2 OEM screw holes and has been stable and still sealed over 4 years later. So just using 2 screws should be fine, what about maybe making the screws go through some “sleeves” to help support the added weight and leverage?
Or adding some feet that rest inside the OEM holes in the cab? Top and bottom to maybe spread the load out? Or a combination, have the screws attach to a plate that will sandwich the OEM cab flange? Does that make sense?

trust me, I’d buy your design 10 times over before the others out there. I would love to see this one come to life.
Between all of the Tremors, Raptors, and Super Duty’s out there, it should be a good seller.

now you have me thinking about maybe some hooks that could grab the top of the cavities to take most of the prying load off the bolts since they will get longer for this install(unless i recess them considerably, which is an option).

thanks for the idea session. feel free to share any others you come up with.

 

[CrankCase]

Check out 4:50 of this video for an idea

ive installed plenty of these in my upfitting career and they hold VERY tight. So maybe something along these lines.
Happy to help with ideas.
the other option is something like this.:

SoundOff Signal

myportal.soundoffsignal.com

make the chase lights mount outside of the OEM third brake light. Some 3m VHB tape would help secure it to the cab on the ends without the need for extra holes.

 

[Cblaxx19]

Check out 4:50 of this video for an idea

ive installed plenty of these in my upfitting career and they hold VERY tight. So maybe something along these lines.
Happy to help with ideas.
the other option is something like this.:

SoundOff Signal

myportal.soundoffsignal.com

make the chase lights mount outside of the OEM third brake light. Some 3m VHB tape would help secure it to the cab on the ends without the need for extra holes.

i completely missed this comment earlier this week.

this is a really interesting concept! ill have to think about this some more and whether i want to go this route or not. i found some material to try for a gasket so i think ill see how it works with the 2 oem screw locations, and it i need something else, this would be a possible avenue.

Thanks for this!

 

[Cblaxx19]

a smaller update:

i printed the center section of the newer design since the main thing ive been working out is fitting the pods so that the housing mates to the cab nicely and the connectors for the pods fit inside the cab cutout(which was challenging, the window isnt that wide and the plugs take up a lot of space)

But i finally got it figured out and squeezed together.

You can see that the pods have some clearance to the cab and the housing is mating to the cab nicely.

the new concern is that although i can 3d print this design fine, the top 2 mount holes for the pods are not actually machinable cause the top of the housing overlaps access to them. i currently have a slight angle downward of the pods. if i reduce that angle slightly it will give more clearance for the holes as well as more clareance of the pod to the housing walls. BUT, my current model is such a cluster as it has evolved so much and ive just built off of previous design features, when i change that face angle by just a degree, the model blows up....

so i think at this point, i need to start the model from scratch and build it cleanly in order to make the necessary model refinements to make it machining friendly. this will take me some time most likely. so i probably wont have any real updates for a little while. But the big take away here is that i think this is positive proof of concept that this is doable. so that's exciting!

 

[CrankCase]

Very cool looking!
What are you thinking as far as final build material? Metal/aluminum? I have a few metal manufacturers I know down in Florida I can put you in touch with if you don’t have anyone yet.