Heavy duty lamp flasher for trucks, trailers and the like

A heavy duty lamp flasher for turn and emergency signals for lamps of trucks, trailers and the like, comprising a turn signal switch, a pair of turn signal lamps each having a lamp filament, a switching relay having a relay coil and a contact arm controlled thereby for movement between a normally closed contact and an normally open contact, and an arc suppression circuit comprising a transistor in parallel with the switching relay to minimize contact arching and load carrying limitations, the transistor having a gate and source and drain terminals, diode means connected to and forming a charging cirucit with associated capacitor means between a voltage supply and electrical ground and connected to the gate of said transistor and to said relay coi., oscillator circuit means connected to the relay coil to switch the condition of the normally open and closed contacts back and forth, the transistor having its source connected to the relay contact arm and to the signal lamp filaments and having its drain connected to said normally open contacts, and the transistor gate being connected to the normally closed relay contact to control the transistor whereby the transistor provides the primary current path for the signal lamp filaments as the relay contact arm undergoes forward movement from the normally closed contact toward the normally open contact and return movement toward the normally closed contact, the normally open contact providing the lamp primary current path when closed and the transistor being turned off upon reclosing of the normally closed contact until the oscillator circuit means initiates another cycle, the load thus being shared by the transistor as well as the switching relay.