Buying an LED Billboard Truck: A Buyer’s Guide

Start with the screen, not the truck

Almost every buyer looks at the truck first. That is backwards. Chassis are a known quantity and any decent shop can service one. The screen is the part that either holds up or does not.

Brightness

Ask for the nit rating in writing. Outdoors in strong sun you want 8,000 nits. A screen rated for 2,500 will look fine in a showroom and grey at noon in July, and there is no fixing that later.

Pixel pitch

Pixel pitch is the distance between the lights, in millimetres. A smaller number is sharper. At 3mm the picture holds up close, so you can park near a crowd. At 8 or 10mm you have to keep people back for it to look right.

Weatherproofing

The screen lives outside. Ask what protects the panels from sun and rain. Ours use a patented UV coating, which is what lets a fine 3mm pitch survive outdoor use at all.

Rated life

LED panels are rated in hours. Ours are rated past 100,000. At twelve hours a day that is more than twenty years of running. A low rated life is a replacement bill you have not been shown yet.

Then look at power

A screen needs a generator sized to it. Undersized power is the most common fault in cheap builds, and it shows up as a screen that dims or cuts out on a hot day.

A rough rule: about 350 watts for every ten panels. A small trailer might need 7kW. A billboard-class truck needs about 21kW. Ask what generator is fitted and what the screen actually draws. If the seller cannot answer, walk.

Fold-out, fixed or three-sided

This is the choice that decides what the unit is good for.

Fold-out

Panels open outward and lift, so a truck-width screen becomes up to thirty feet wide. Best for events where you park and want maximum size. Costs a few minutes of setup and adds moving parts.

Fixed

What you see is what you get. Less width, but it is live the second you park and there is no deployment mechanism to maintain. Best for driving routes.

Three-sided

One rear screen and two side screens, always open. You are visible from three angles with nothing to deploy. Good for parking in a crowd where people approach from all directions.

Truck or trailer

A truck is one asset you drive. Simpler to operate, no tow vehicle, no trailer permits. Costs more.

A trailer costs less and can be dropped and left while your tow vehicle does something else. But you need a vehicle rated to tow it, and somewhere to keep both.

If the unit moves several times a day, buy the truck. If it parks for long stretches, the trailer usually wins on cost.

Questions to ask the seller

• Do you build these or resell them? Builders can fix and modify. Resellers forward your email.
• What is the warranty, and on what? Ask if it covers the panels specifically. Ours is five years.
• What is the build time? Ours is three to six weeks. Much longer usually means it is being imported.
• Who services it? Find out before you need to know.
• Can I see one running in daylight? The single most useful thing you can do. Brightness claims are easy to make and easy to check.

What it costs to run

The purchase price is not the whole number. Budget for fuel and generator hours, routine service on the chassis and the lift, insurance for a commercial vehicle with a screen on it, storage, and a driver if you are not driving it.

None of that is unusual. It is just worth writing down before you buy, not after.

Buying from a manufacturer

We build every unit in Las Vegas. That means the person who answers the phone can tell you the actual spec, change the build if you need something different, and fix it later.

Thirteen models across four families, from a compact trailer that fits through a standard doorway to a billboard-class truck. Call 1-888-LED-5010 or see the full product line.