Guiding light

With a quarter of a century of experience in the local market, Lucidity Australia knows the ins and outs of supplying the OEM trailer industry with reliable lighting and wiring.

Throughout its venture, Lucidity, on many occasions, has brought completely new solutions to the local transport industry while also improving on the options already available within its product line-up in a bid to serve the best interests of OEMs as well as truck drivers, fleet owners and individuals.

The Lucidity Link series of marker lamps and tail lamps acts as a clear example of this objective. Through continuous innovation, the Lucidity Link series has become the perfect solution for lighting and wiring in the trailer industry.

This series of lamps, coupled with the wiring technologies from Lucidity, eliminates the need to solder, splice or join any cable within a trailer build, anywhere.

The lights are linked together in a string using industry standard DT connectors which substantially improves assembly time as no labour is required to solder, leading to production efficiency improvements for the OEM.

With high labour demand and skills shortages, Lucidity Link lighting has been a real game changer as it really simplifies installation, add-ons and replacement.

“The main goal of this product series is to maintain a longer lifetime out of all our products by creating a repeatable installation process without compromising on reliability or the quality of the installation,” says Lucidity Australia President, Mathew Jenkins.

Lucidity Link can also be installed as part of a refurbish kit. Other benefits include safety improvements that can ease the minds of those concerned about auto-electrical mishaps during installation or replacement procedures, as the lack of complex wire harness assembling has made it nearly impossible to ‘get it wrong’ when first setting it up, according to Mathew.

“From an auto-electrical perspective, the product is easier to fix or replace as there is no mechanical electrical connection to make during the process,” he says. “It really is as simple as unplugging the lamp and plugging in a new one – as if using a regular wall socket at home.”

Meanwhile, the fairly new Lucidity EBS Status Lamp Kit is a safe and economical investment which is capable of pinpointing Electronic Braking System (EBS) faults individually in a simple and fast process, giving drivers extra validation of safety.

With more road trains and large heavy vehicle combinations operating on Australian roads every day, Lucidity developed this kit with every aspect of productivity and safety in mind.

The system makes identifying EBS status easy and saves time on fault diagnosis, while assuring operators that their EBS systems are working correctly.

After switching on the ignition, the lamp immediately displays the Trailer Electronic Braking System (TEBS) status for all trailers individually. This provides a full understanding of EBS functionality after a quick walk-around as part of a pre-tip inspection.

“The lamp provides three distinctions which explains the problem in simple terms to operators,” Mathew says. “If the lamp is not lit at all, it means there is no power to the TEBS. A reason for this could be as simple as a power lead not being connected, or another power supply issue altogether. A red lamp states that there is an EBS fault on the individual trailer connected, and a green lamp indicates the EBS it is operational and ready to go.

“This makes the visual assessment of the trailer, including Chain of Responsibility obligations, simple by ensuring EBS is operating correctly on all trailers.”

Given the overwhelming success of the EBS Status Lamp System, Lucidity followed up with the launch of its EBS Socket Duplicator and the EBS Junction box for lead trailers and dollies.

The external EBS Junction Box features small-footprint mounting feet supplied with fasteners for easy fitting and two 4mm-squared and four 1.5mm-squared cables for road train applications. According to Mathew, they were developed to be ‘industry standard’ EBS cable connectors.

Lucidity also offers a range of high-quality modular sockets for trucks and trailers through its OMP series. As opposed to most standard sockets which are wired in using screws, these products plug into harnesses like a connector.

By using Lucidity OMP systems as part of trailer service intervals, Mathew says operators can complete socket replacements themselves in a timely matter.

“Not only is the socket easy to replace, but the design of the socket lends itself to being one of the longer lasting products on the market,” he says. “The terminals are actually moulded into the housing, so they will not fall back into the socket as they wear because the terminal’s undercut prevents it from ever happening.”

The refrigerated transport sector is one which Lucidity has also paid close attention to. With trailers in this field heavily relying on battery power, Mathew explains it is often found that batteries are being flattened completely and thus experiencing irreversible shortened product lifespans.

To mitigate this issue, Lucidity supplies the Charge Plus range of timer switches which prevents interior lamps from flattening fridge plant batteries.

When operating, the switch will see a low voltage condition and switch off the interior lamps protecting the power source. And, once the fridge plant is started, it will begin recharging the battery and the interior lamps will be turned back on.

“The truck input has a Voltage Sensing Relay (VSR) that only turns on if the engine is running,” Mathew says. “When a trailer is not in use, the charger draws no energy which ensures the truck doesn’t suffer a flat battery. So, if you intend to buy new or used equipment, it is important to understand that your vehicle combination is suitable for the task.”

The Link series, EBS Status Lamp Kit, EBS Socket Duplicator, EBS Junction box, OMP series and Charge Plus range are just a few instalments of the complete Lucidity product range catered to Australian transport.