LED Replacement Bulb Issue with F150

[JohnMD]

Hi all,

I would like to share an interesting issue that came up.

As shown in my signature, we have a 2007 3023QB towed with a 2017 F150.

Background -- In the spring, I replaced all of the exterior incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs. Prior to our first trip, our truck was in an accident and we ended up using a Ram 2500 rental to tow throughout the summer. After four months of waiting for a replacement seatbelt for our F150, we finally got it back from the collision center.

Issue -- Last weekend, we took our first trip since getting our F150 back. While driving, I began receiving erroneous error message fromthe truck's display. Through trial and error, I determined the following:

When TM running lights were on, braking caused the "Trailer Disconnected" alert, despite fully functioning lights. Using turn indicators caused the "turn indicator fault: check lamps" alert, despite indicators functioning fine. I had kept all of the incandescent bulbs as backups, so I switched out the brake/turn signal bulbs, but this did not help. I then switched all of the exterior bulbs back to the incandescent bulbs, including the running lights, and the problem went away and everything works fine.

Diagnosis -- due to my actions and some internet searching, I believe the issue is that the LED bulbs don't draw enough power for the truck's computer to recognize them, and I guess the scenario of the running lights being on has an impact on this.

Solutions -- (1) keep the incandescent bulbs in and forget about it. (2) Buy one of these to see if it works: Link to an Curt LED adapter I don't like that this would be hanging down and cannot find an adapter without the extra cord length, though I haven't called an RV place yet. (3) I've read that some people wire in resisters by the light fixtures to remedy this.

Questions -- I am wondering if switching out the actual light fixtures with LED fixtures, rather than the bulbs, would cause the same erroneous alerts. Has anyone else experienced this? Those of you with similar model year F150's, do you have LED exterior lights on your TM?

In the end, I like the look of the LED's better, but am fine with the incandescent bulbs. I am concerned, however, that if in the future we get a new trailer with LED's I'll need to actually address this. But, our plan is to use our current trailer as long as possible.

Just thought I would share this experience and see what insight you have.

Thanks again to all of the regular posters on the forum for giving me a nice diversion from work in the evenings. I truly enjoy this forum!

John