Monday afternoon my wife and I went for a ride with a friend through the mountains. We had a lot of fun, but at one point he told me that it was sometimes hard to tell when I was hitting the brakes. Ruby only has the one stock brake/tail light, all the other lights are just marker/running lights.

I thought about this for a couple days, then decided to tinker in the garage and came up with a free brake light upgrade that definitely increases my braking visibility.

Here's some pics...

Everything out/dark:


All the marker/running lights lit:


Brake lights on:


Underneath to show how it's mounted:


The donor light is a double row of LED lights in a sealed housing from the rear spoiler/wing of a Suzuki X-90 coupe. I happen to have it laying around in the garage, having saved it for some future project. I drilled two holes properly spaced at the rear of the tour pack, found a couple rubber bushings to act as spacers and a couple matching bolts/nuts and a couple washers. I grounded the light to the tour pack's base plate and connected the hot lead to the red brake light wire under the left side cover. Simple.

Since it doesn't have a marker/running light mode, it is totally dark until I hit the brakes. I think this adds to it's attention-grabbing properties and makes it stand out even more. It looks like it might block the top of the license plate slightly, but not from a viewing angle consistent with someone sitting in a car behind me. I had my neighbor look at it before I wired it in by telling him I just added a brake light, could he find it and he couldn't see it until I pointed it out to him, so I guess it's mounted in a good spot.

What do you guys think?

 

Cool cuz u gotta be safe out there

 

Good job D1gger, that will certainly get their attention!

 

You'd have to be blind (or texting) to miss THAT brake light. Nice install.

 

Nice job. Your safety is paramount!

 

Nice mod. Looks great.

 

Thanks. I got to test it out today in a small group ride with some friends. Since I knew the route, I was the leader. Everyone behind me remarked about how much better they could see my brake lights now. Definitely a win!

 

How wide is it?

 

Cool project. I just love to see "repurposed" stuff like that.

 

it's about 18" wide.