Additional lighting on Tow Pac Insta Trike

[dadztoy]

Hey guys,

I am going to add some lighting to my Tow PAc conversion... I'm thinking of adding these Optronics type of LED lights with chrime bezel stacked horizontally3 on a side - 2 red - 1 red for running light, other red for brake light, and a yellow for turn signal...

Optronics, INC.

Anyone else have any other ideas??? I'll set them up wth plugs that tie into the trailer wiring as I also use a trailer isolater harness on the bike...

Les

 

[Woolie]

I would purchase a light with tail and stop in the same light. I have bought several of these on EBay, you can usually get them for about 10 dollars each. I would buy a couple spares in case one quits, you may not be able to find a perfect match when you need another one. I speak from experience. Search for surface mount led stop tail. I used a small converter to combine the turn and stop light, that way I just used one light on each fender. I got the converter at Walmart for about $15.00. I have a friend that used clearance lights and they didn't look near as good as what I used.

 

[cscsonny]

Woolie has a very good idea.
Also wiring lights on the Tow Pac isn't very easy if you are talking about mounting lights out on the fenders.I have done this on a friends Tow Pac and there is nothing under those fenders to secure wires to and keep them from rubbing the tires.I had to drill small holes and use black bolts and nuts to hold plastic clips to run the wires through and they do have to be mounted close to the fiberglass fender under neath.Not much room between fender and tire.Would have been nice if Tow Pac would have glassed in some wiring when unit was made.

 

[dadztoy]

I think I have the lighting scheme worked out... Yeah, I know there isn't much room in there but I think there is enough for the wire I will be using...

I have figured out a way to to use a single LED light for brake and running using an isolation diode and a resistor - probably the same as thing as Woolie was talking about except I built my own of out electronic junque box parts...

I'll post a photo or video when I get a bit more time to fool with it... Still in the process of trying to get the Tow Pac painted - hopefully the middle of the upcoming week now that my painter has returned from Sturgis...

Les

 

[wa8cxi]

I think I have the lighting scheme worked out... Yeah, I know there isn't much room in there but I think there is enough for the wire I will be using...

I have figured out a way to to use a single LED light for brake and running using an isolation diode and a resistor - probably the same as thing as Woolie was talking about except I built my own of out electronic junque box parts...

I'll post a photo or video when I get a bit more time to fool with it... Still in the process of trying to get the Tow Pac painted - hopefully the middle of the upcoming week now that my painter has returned from Sturgis...

Les

I put these on my e-trike kit all led ...very bright....good fit

Superbrightled.com

Compact Turn/Brake Trailer Lights
Part Number: TLS-R14A9 | UPC: 84778101942 | Stock: In Stock
$59.95 / pair

 

[wa8cxi]

Hey guys,

I am going to add some lighting to my Tow PAc conversion... I'm thinking of adding these Optronics type of LED lights with chrime bezel stacked horizontally3 on a side - 2 red - 1 red for running light, other red for brake light, and a yellow for turn signal...

Optronics, INC.

Anyone else have any other ideas??? I'll set them up wth plugs that tie into the trailer wiring as I also use a trailer isolater harness on the bike...

Les

I put these on my e-trike kit all led ...very bright....good fit

Superbrightled.com

Compact Turn/Brake Trailer Lights
Part Number: TLS-R14A9 | UPC: 84778101942 | Stock: In Stock
$59.95 / pair

 

[dadztoy]

Wa8xci

those look good - should do the job... My Tow Pac is out for painting and I should have it back next week... I'll see if I can get it wired up and have some photos before we leave on our16 day Route 66 trip...

 

[wa8cxi]

Wa8xci

those look good - should do the job... My Tow Pac is out for painting and I should have it back next week... I'll see if I can get it wired up and have some photos before we leave on our16 day Route 66 trip...

well regular bulbs wouldn't last long.... go all LEDS on fenders ....too much vibration..on my etrike kit anyway...I am also adding 2 small leds... one on front of fender....one on side for clearance lites...

 

[dadztoy]

Yup, that's what I did - all LED's on the fenders... Hopefully I'll have some photos soon... Still don't have bike back from the painter and spent the last week down at our "new to us" home in Tennessee... Home for a week and then myself and 3 buddies head out for a 16 day Rt 66 trip to the CA coast and back...

Then - maybe - I can get the lights installed and some pics put up - patience guys - I will get to it eventually - just a lot going on here this summer...

Les

 

[wa8cxi]

I didnt want to put any more holes in my fenders so first I used tape
to secure the wires routed to the leds I put on the front of the
e trike fenders then I used a plastic outdoor adhesive ( lock tite stick and seal ) to coat the wires and stick them to the fenders....looks pretty solid
time will tell

 

[dadztoy]

Well, I finally finished putting the trike back together after painting and I installed the LED lights as well... Here are a few photos of the finished produce and some wiring details... I used Panduit cable supports to hold the wiring - they have a very aggressive adhesive on them and should hold without issues...

There is also a link for a video I shot last night of the lighting action... Not the greatest video but it will give you an idea of how things are working... I developed a scheme to let me use the running lights as brake lights too using a few isolation diodes and a 470 ohm resistor... If your interested in that, let me know and I can post the schematic for that...

Les

View attachment 9194



View attachment 9197





https://www.youtube.com/watch?edit=vd&v=rb661PJppf4

 

[willem]

dadstoy, are you perhaps available to talk about thst towpac rearlights.

 

[dadztoy]

sure thing Willem - I check in here usually every day...

Les

 

[willem]

Ok. A little bit of myself. I bought a 95 Aspc in 2012 in Loxley AL. Done a 5000 mile tour which took us as far as rhe Rocky Mountains and ended up where we started. Afterwards I imported the bike to Namibia and did some extendd tours also through South Africa. Myself is 61 and me wife 64. Imported a Insta Trike kit from TowPac and are doing the last work on the installation. Problem is the tail lights on the kit. To find an integrated LED set seems to be impossible in my country. I am planning to use two marker truck lights one in amber and one in red. I saw your post about your setup and would like to have the drawing or scetch how you did the wiring on the tail brake light. Our time is seven hours ahead of yours.
Tx again

Have a nice day. We ride with CMA

Willem

 

[alwims]

Mine is not a TowPac, but here is what I installed on mine. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M250FNI/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

View attachment 25171

 

[dadztoy]

Ok. A little bit of myself. I bought a 95 Aspc in 2012 in Loxley AL. Done a 5000 mile tour which took us as far as rhe Rocky Mountains and ended up where we started. Afterwards I imported the bike to Namibia and did some extendd tours also through South Africa. Myself is 61 and me wife 64. Imported a Insta Trike kit from TowPac and are doing the last work on the installation. Problem is the tail lights on the kit. To find an integrated LED set seems to be impossible in my country. I am planning to use two marker truck lights one in amber and one in red. I saw your post about your setup and would like to have the drawing or scetch how you did the wiring on the tail brake light. Our time is seven hours ahead of yours.
Tx again

Have a nice day. We ride with CMA

Willem

Thanks for the info Willem... I had a 1993 Aspy before I traded up for my current ride - a 2009 GL1800... Loved my old 93 Aspy though - wish I could have kept it...

For myself, I am 69 (just had 69th B Day on Feb 4th) and have been riding for the last 45 years or so, with an absence from riding while raising the kids and taking care of the family... Retired in 2008 and have been enjoying life ever since... Spent all my life in electronics and the last 25 years in IT and computers at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange as Manager of Trading Floor Development... Moved to our retirement home in Eastern Tennessee last January and have been enjoying the weather and roads here ever since...

Below is the drawing for the brake light wiring... Note that the resistor value was for my particular light which used a total of 3 LED's in each lamp assembly... Should be close for yours since LED's are current activated devices... I used a 1/2 watt resistor, larger would be fine, don't think I would go any smaller than 1/2 watt though, more for physical soundness rather than electrical considerations...

In actual usage, voltage for the running light is supplied thru the 470 ohm resistor/1N4007 diode and the LED lamp is a bit dimmer due to decreased voltage/current thru the 470 ohm resistor and it's 1N4007 diode... When brake is applied, that slightly higher voltage from the brake light circuit is applied to the LED light thru the 1N4007 diode with NO resistor and that slightly higher voltage makes the LED lamp brighter... The 1N4007 diode in the brake light circuit serves to isolate the running light voltage from back feeding up into the brake light circuit as diodes will pass voltage in one direction only... This setup has been on my Tow Pac for nearly 2 years now and is functioning flawlessly...

I soldered up the components and put heat shrink tubing over them and tucked them into the Tow Pac wiring harness on the bike, but you could put them on the Tow Pac too - just depends on how convenient it is for you...

Let me know if you have any further questions...

Les



PS - click on my user name (dadztoy) in the upper left hand corner of this post and then click on "view profile" to see what this old duffer looks like!! :AGGHH:

 

[willem]

Tx for the info.
Rita, my wife. Turned 64 on the 8 th. Happy bday to you. All I have to do now is to find a electronic shop to buy the goodies. The Gw has this fancy breaklight unit that flashes the stoplights before it stay on. Hope you understand as my homelanguage is Afrikaans. It sound and is very similar to Dutch.
Also the truck marker lights, though 12 V LED has very heavy gauge wires. Will that influence the resistor in any way
Do I have to be very concerned about wheels going out of alignment while on the road resulting in exessive tire wear. What method do you use to align the outrigger wheels to the bike rear wheel.
Will take her out this week for a test ride. Just something else. The downforce on the outrigger wheels. Must I be able to lift the wheel of the floor and be able to turn it by hand. This is what I understand from other posts.

 

[willem]

Alwims. Tx for your post and interest in my problem. I would prefer the three way lights you used. The towpac kit cannot take a light of say more than 80mm. There is not enough space on the fender. Over here you do not get anything miniture to fit the space. To order from over the pond as I have to do with all my parts will just be to expensive because of the shipping costs.
We have an unusal hot summer and riding is just not possible. As we do not have your fierce winters we do a lot of riding in the fall and winter. May till Sept you will find the touring guys on the roads.
Have a nice week.

Willem

 

[dadztoy]

Tx for the info.
Rita, my wife. Turned 64 on the 8 th. Happy bday to you. All I have to do now is to find a electronic shop to buy the goodies. The Gw has this fancy breaklight unit that flashes the stoplights before it stay on. Hope you understand as my homelanguage is Afrikaans. It sound and is very similar to Dutch.

Well, happy birthday to your wife too Willem, and I understand you just fine - no problems here with that...

Also the truck marker lights, though 12 V LED has very heavy gauge wires. Will that influence the resistor in any way

The heavy wire going to the taillight might indicate that the LED's draw heavier current... Do you have a meter to measure??? If not, just hook up the light with the resistor and diode in circuit and see if either gets hot to the touch... If they do, you might have to use a larger wattage resistor, like 1 or 2 watt rating... The extra current , if any, should not bother the diode assuming it is below the diode rating of 1 amp...

Do I have to be very concerned about wheels going out of alignment while on the road resulting in exessive tire wear. What method do you use to align the outrigger wheels to the bike rear wheel.

Once the wheels are aligned to the bike wheel, they should stay in alignment assuming you don't hit very large pot holes, obstacles, or travel on otherwise very rough roads that might break the adjustment bolts loose from heavy jarring... I don't have any knowledge of your road conditions there so you will have to tell me about them... Look at the link below - that is the basic method I use for aligning the wheels... I use 2 pieces of u-shaped aluminum channel, but any flat straight object(s) can be used for this task... http://www.triketalk.com/forum/threads/21724-Tow-Pac-Alignment-amp-Darkside-Tires

Will take her out this week for a test ride. Just something else. The downforce on the outrigger wheels. Must I be able to lift the wheel of the floor and be able to turn it by hand. This is what I understand from other posts.

Enjoy your ride - going to be too cool here this weekend to ride but we'll be warming up soon, another few weeks... No, you don't want to be able to actually LIFT the wheel off the floor, but rather, if you grab the Tow Pac tire with both hands and give a good healthy tug in an upward direction, you should be able to break it loose and JUST scuff it along the floor... I hope I explained that properly so you understand it...

Please let me know if you understood all my answers and if I can help further with anything else...

Les

 

[willem]

Yipeeeee. I found the diodes and resistors in my country and are going to do the setup.
Concerning the explanations. Thanks. I understand what you mean. I got the hang of it.
I tried to upload a picture(s) but to no avail.
Tx again for all the trouble. As soon as the wiring is done I will let you know.
Did you attached any form of lightning on the front of the fenders. as to be able to see the outrigger wheels at night. I intend to place a strong blue fisheye LED between the fender just before the (mud guard), pointing upwards.
I do have blue ones (strips) on my handlebars and it will matches perfectly.

Have a nice day when you wake up as I am in my day already.

Willem

 

[dadztoy]

Great news WIllem - glad to hear you found the parts... You can post photos two different ways on this site... You can use a photo hosting site like Photo Bucket or similar, or you can attach directly from your computer... For attaching, click on the little paper clip symbol and follow those directions...

If your using PhotoBucket, just copy and paste the .img link from PhotoBucket for your picture...

I didn't use any other lighting on the Tow Pac as my bike is pretty well lit up in the front to start with... I have ring of fire rotor covers and the reflector on both sides of the front fender has been converted to LED lighting and I also have strip LED lights just above my cylinder heads... I also have saddle bag and trunk LED's as well as the rear fender reflector also being converted to LED lighting...

Hope you can post photos when your done - looking forward to seeing your results...

Les

 

[willem]

The tail lights are working perfectly. one thing though that bothers me. the ride is very harsh. it seems that I feel every stone on the road. I do have a CT on the rear but the tyre airpresure is not up to 40 yet.
Dadstoy and all who can. I notice that the kit has lots of places that can be adjusted. the manual and the instructions does not help in any way. The left outrigger wheel leaned in and was out by about 1 and a half inch. I emailed a q to towpac but have not recieved any responce. the troubleshooting guide just mention a shim.So I put a shim at the outside bolt where you adjust the tow-in which rectified the lean in.I am not sure if I shimmed at the right bolts.
Any help please..

 

[dadztoy]

Hi Willem, hey, the bike looks great with the Tow Pac - love the color!!! Wasn't that called Pearl Royal Magenta or is that a custom color???

OK - lets start with adjustments...



1 1/2" out sounds a little extreme to me - might want to check the sub-frame alignment to make sure everything is seated properly...

If the 1500 Tow Pac is like the 1800, the wheel alignment is handled by a rectangular plate on the independent suspension arm that looks like this...



Slightly loosening the 1/2" bolts should enable you to then use the set screws (2 long bolts with jam nuts) to move the trike wheels into a parallel position with the bike rear wheel...

Use the adjustment jig from a previous post to do that...

Camber, or the Tow Pac trike kits vertical wheel position, is pretty much fixed and as far as I know, there is no adjustment for that to my knowledge...

My trike wheels are just a bit tilted in at the top, but the tires are wearing pretty evenly at this point in time with about 5K miles or so currently on the Tow Pac kit...

As to the bike riding harshly, two questions come to mind... What tire pressure are you using in the Tow Pac tires, and what is your rear air suspension set to on the bike??? I run 40 PSI in my Tow Pac tires and could probably go down to 35 PSI although I have not tried that yet... 50 PSI as recommended by Tow Pac seems high to most of us and I think most Tow Pac owners are running 40PSI or lower...

Reducing air pressure on the bike's suspension, will preload the Tow Pac a bit more and put more weight on it's tires... Have you tried the "tugging on the trike tire" yet as I suggested previously??? If you can't move the trike tire, you have it preloaded too heavily...

Try increasing the air pressure in the bike's rear suspension... On my 1800, I run with the suspension at 5, although the 1800 suspension is a bit different than the 1500 as it employs no air bladder as the 1500 does, but rather varies tension on the rear suspension spring via a hydraulic actuator...

Additionally, what car tire are you using, and is it a run flat, or non-run flat??? I have a Yokohama Avid Envigor ZPS on mine and it is a run flat, and I run 32 PSI in it currently... If your using a run flat at 40 PSI, that is probably way too much pressure and will harshen the ride...

Let me know what your answers and we will go from there...

You will feel bumps and road irregularities a bit more with the trike as you have an asymmetrical setup now as opposed to only 2 wheels, so take that into consideration as well...

Les

 

[willem]

Tx my friend
You have the colour right and it is still original.It has custom handpainted dreamcatchers and buffalo heads with Indian beads on, which has turned a couple of heads also in the US on our tour over there. I tried to contact one of the PO's. I think because we are in Africa it scares them off and got no response on a fb request.
I will love to make contact with the PO.
The kits differs a lot. One of my problems is definitly preload, which I wil adjust during the week.
The sidewheels mounts with only 2 bolts to the frame. this is also the bolts you have to loosen to adjust the toe in, which I did and the wheels are parallel to the bike rear wheel.
In the troubleshooting manual they specify to shim if the wheels lean

 

[willem]

sorry I posted the former post without finishing. Tp sugests you shim the axleplates. now I shimmed only the outside bolt which rectified my problem. I am now worried that both the bolts do not pull absolutely straight which might put unnecessary strain on the bolts and plates as the two plates does not ly flat against each other because of the shims.
My rear tire is a 175x75 - 16 Continental light truck.. it is not a runflat. I also have a Battlax 045 rear tire I will mount in due time
I hope my explaining make sense

 

[dadztoy]

No worries Willem - have read all your posts... One thing I am wondering is why the TP kit is so different from the 1800 to the 1500, especially in the wheel adjusting area...

It almost sounds like you purchased the E-Trike kit rather than the Insta Trike, but the pictures of your bike from the rear really do look like an InstaTrike kit with the wrap around frame... Am I missing something here, or are the two kits that much different??? Wondering if you perhaps got an old version of the TP or maybe the two models are just that different...

My good riding buddy and former Chapter Director had a 95 1500 in the Pearl Magenta Color - it was sharp - always liked that color... I'm going to give you a link to my Photo Bucket page where you can look at my old 1993 Aspy 1500... It was done in an all Native American theme and was a really sharp bike... Guess I should have kept it as my wife and granddaughter keep telling me they really miss the bike...

Anyway here is the link and please let me know if in fact you might have an E-Trike kit as opposed to the InstaTrike kit - I don't think so but now I'm not sure...

http://s19.photobucket.com/user/noma...?sort=3&page=1

Les

ON EDIT - I just checked your photograph again and that sure looks like an InstaTrike kit to me!!! Guess maybe they are just that different...

BTW, those pictures of me in Photobucket were taken quite a few years ago... I'm quite a few pounds heavier than that now, but I still look
just as handsome!!! epper: :laugh: