[A/S] LED Taillights and older style marker lights

[Charlie/Betty Burke <cbburke@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

For those of you considering exchanging the Bargman square tail/brake 
light fixtures in your newer Airstream Excella/Classic trailer's I 
thought I would share my experience.
As you may have heard Airstream has made the new LED tail/brake light 
fixture available for retrofit. They may be purchased through any 
Airstream dealer.
The fixture as Airstream buys them is a plug in fixture which attaches 
to their wiring harness. The challenge is that the connector is inside 
the coach through a sealant barrier. In order to access the connector it 
would be necessary to cut out not only the sealant but a larger hole to 
allow the connector plug to fit through.
Another option is to cut the wires coming out of the back of the light 
fixture and butt connect them to the wires from the new fixture. Of 
course the wires are not the same color.
I talked to Airstream Customer Service the other day and they indicated 
that the service department cuts wires and butt connects rather than 
break the sealant barrier. The wiring color code matches are as follows:

       Trailer            to          new fixture
       White                             White
       Green                             Black
       Brown                            Red

Takes about an hour to do. You'll need a #2 Phillips screw driver, wire 
cutter/crimper, and 12 ea. 16-14 gauge butt connectors. Remove the tail 
light lens, remove 4 screws holding the fixture, slowly but firmly pry 
the fixture away from the coach pulling the wires out far enough to 
access 4 to 5". Cut and strip the wires and apply butt connectors. On 
the new fixture cut the connector off the wires leaving over half the 
provided length. Using the chart above strip and complete the butt 
connections. Fold the wires between the new fixture and the coach  
pressing the fixture back into the surround. Reattach using the four 
screws previously removed and reattach the lens to the fixture. Repeat 3 
more times. Plug tow vehicle into coach and test by turning on running 
lights and the four way flashers. Tail/brake lights should have two 
levels of light brightening when they flash.

Charlie

PS The other day at a truck stop I saw the Peterson 2 bulb marker lights 
used on 1970 through 1999 trailers with LED lights. They were $4.49 
each. Around $50 for enough to redo a coach.