Company I do night trunking for has a fleet of many trucks and trailers - but if a trailer bulb has gone don’t appear to have spares… weird arrangement. It’s not just that they won’t lend the company screwdriver and a bulb to untrustworthy agency drivers as I’ve seen it now several times. Last time I got one from another agency driver.
I want to carry some spares, but being a newbie and technically dense don’t know what to carry - can anyone recommend suitable replacement tail light/brake light and indicator bulbs to carry that would fit most trailers?? It’s the trailer bulbs that seem to go.
If they won’t supply spares do you not have a number for a fitter/roadside emergency service? Seems daft that you hold have to pay for basic maintenance on someone else truck?
Tricky one as things just aren’t particularly standard. What I would do - and have done many times over the years - is borrow either a reverse light bulb or fog light. These often interchange with indicator and brake light. If you’ve got a tail light out, that’s only 5 watt as opposed to 21 watt for the others and generally there’s a couple of tail lights each side so it shouldn’t become desperate.
Many trailers are now fitted with LED’s which is a different ball game altogether.
Much as I’m a helpful guy, I wouldn’t consider it my responsibility to fund spares for my employer. But I would carry a selection of small screwdrivers to get out of trouble.
Be aware, of course, that you technically become illegal once you’ve borrowed the fog light bulb. So the reverse light bulb gets it first!
Easiest thing in the world to do is find a nice P&O , ERC, Estron etc driver and ask him if he a few spare bulbs - grab a 21w single pole and a 21w double pole and the same in 5 w and you have covered all the bases - if u see me out and about i’ll give u a box with a couple of each to be going on with
cheers
Steve
Some company’s won’t let any drivers, agency or full time, touch lights and its damned annoying at times.
However, i’ve lost count of the times i’ve removed single contact bulbs from twin contact holders and vice versa where alleged drivers have put the wrong ones in.
Only last week i went out in someone elses regular lorry, soon as it got dark and i put the headlights on the NS one was up the trees, close inspection showed the bulb to be jammed in ■■■■■■ up.
Seeing as so many seem to have no clue what they’re doing , i can understand why the company prefer defects to be filled in and get a fitter to do the biz.
If you’re on the clock don’t worry about it, just fill a defect in and earn another £20/£30 finding the worlds most elusive and miserable sod to fix them for you.
gm:
Easiest thing in the world to do is find a nice P&O , ERC, Estron etc driver and ask him if he a few spare bulbs - grab a 21w single pole and a 21w double pole and the same in 5 w and you have covered all the bases - if u see me out and about i’ll give u a box with a couple of each to be going on with
cheers
Steve
You’ll need some of the capless wedge type as well pretty common on things like sidelights and trailer marker lights - obviously not as vital as tail/stop etc. but handy to be able to do.
Many thanks for the replies info and offers. Had a “trailer left hand indicator failure” warning last night on a rainy m6, pulled off and stopped on the hard shoulder on a slip road, wiggled the electric suzie and it started working again. Breathed a sigh of relief. Can understand if its company policy not to let numpties like me play with bulbs, but will ask the guy in the office this evening whether I’m allowed to change bulbs and if not what he wants me to do if a bulb goes - then as you say as I’m paid by the hour follow company policy!!!
In the meantime will pick up a couple of spares when I can and keep taking the screwdriver so I can follow the tip and nick the reversing/fog light bulb if desperate.
You can nick any bulbs off the rear clusters of the unit unless you’re planning to bobtail anywhere. Same goes for the registration plate if you need a spare if it falls off the trailer somewhere on your travels.
Also very often a bulb will be either just be loose or making a bad connection rather than actually died completely.
By the way should you have to drive an Iveco, take no notice of the numerous bulb failure warnings that come up on the dash, you’ll spend half your day pulling up getting out to check only to find everything working fine.
gm:
Easiest thing in the world to do is find a nice P&O , ERC, Estron etc driver and ask him if he a few spare bulbs - grab a 21w single pole and a 21w double pole and the same in 5 w and you have covered all the bases - if u see me out and about i’ll give u a box with a couple of each to be going on with
cheers
Steve
Take it you work mainly out of felixstowe on ro ro’s then?
Alot of lense’s actually pull off so you mite not even need a screwdriver but its worth carrying a couple of tools with you, even for things like getting a bent buckle undone or some times the back doors can be a ■■■■■ to get shut again etc. Depending on the company you mite be better off leaving it to the fitters as you could see yourself in trouble.
Juddian:
By the way should you have to drive an Iveco, take no notice of the numerous bulb failure warnings that come up on the dash, you’ll spend half your day pulling up getting out to check only to find everything working fine.
They’re just a bit too clever for their own good really. I guarantee (assuming it’s not hooked up to a trailer with LED lights) there will be a bulb out somewhere but you do have to look very hard. One favourite mystery one is the tail lights on the unit clusters have two bulbs each side so one bulb will be out but it’s imperceptible without a good close-up look. Another is the catwalk lamp (often long ago smashed off) generates a bulb out symbol on the dash display.
Once you get used to it, it does work and you can cross lights off your daily checks.
My old BMW motorbike had a similar warning system for blown bulbs. But it also had a clever feature where if the tail lamp filament failed, it would run the stop light filament (at reduced brightness) as a failsafe. Can cause a lot of head-scratching when it kicks in as there is no indication on the display of what it is doing - just a “lamp” warning on the dash.
We also had a MAN 7.5t on our fleet with a similar system. I swear sometimes it would flash up the bulb warning before it had actually stopped working
i used to use a MAN wagon and drag that would lie to me that the trailer l/h indicator was not working even though i could see it flashing in the mirror at night.
Juddian:
By the way should you have to drive an Iveco, take no notice of the numerous bulb failure warnings that come up on the dash, you’ll spend half your day pulling up getting out to check only to find everything working fine.
Get that every night in mine. Turns out its because of the led side markers that have been fitted, but if you turn the lights on in the box body no warnings appear. At least mine has a full width cab unlike the other Ivecos with a half width, single seat cab where the dash is literally cut in half with a hacksaw.
charliebear:
Get that every night in mine. Turns out its because of the led side markers that have been fitted, but if you turn the lights on in the box body no warnings appear. At least mine has a full width cab unlike the other Ivecos with a half width, single seat cab where the dash is literally cut in half with a hacksaw.
Same problem commonly seen on cars and bikes where the owner has fitted aftermarket LED (or HID) lights. The electronics that detect a failed bulb are looking for the direct path to earth provided by a traditional filament bulb to confirm that the bulb is OK. LEDs and HID headlights don’t show this, which the diagnostic system interprets as a lamp failure. Some systems can be reprogrammed to an “LED” setting, but with others the only fix is to wire a suitable resistor in parallel with the LED or HID unit to “fool” the diagnostics into thinking there’s a conventional bulb there. Some plug-in replacement LED “bulbs” already have such a resistor built-in (they are often sold as “CANbus compatible” or similar).
