LED change over in camper.

Your Hot Dog Guy!

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2008
Location
winston-salem,nc
If anybody is interested in changing out their interior lights to LED cheaply, I have converted about 90% of mine myself. I'm buying 12v LED strip lights on a reel with 16ft 4in for $12 - $20 a roll. These have a LED every 1/2 of a inch. These are the EXACT strips that sell in Advance Auto, Auto Zone for a dollar a inch! I can buy the exact same lights for less than a dollar a foot. I'm using these to replace the fluroesent lights. The Halogen G4 replacements are $2.08 each delivered from Ebay. I know what you are thinking........buy American! These LED's from China for $2.08 each are repackaged here and sell for $22.00 each! It is amazing what a baggie and two staples with a biz card drives up the price! I replaced mine last year with no problems and the battery's in my camper last forever!
 
I replaced all the ceiling lights (6) in our pop-up last Christmas with LEDs, not quite as bright as it was with the regular 921 bulbs, but I always though they were to bright anyway. yes, battery consumption is WAY down, using these lights. a weeks work of nightly use ( including using the fantastic fan ) and battery power was down too 12.3vdc. not bad, considering it was that low the second night with the old bulbs.
got links to these light strips?
 
Just pull up 12v LED 5M striplights in the color you want. Price varies a little by color. I added the white strips to the 12v fluroesents with a switch on the light. This way I have a choice of original lights or LED. Cost per light is about $6 plus switch. This way we have the choice when dry camping and "glamping" with 50amp.
 
Very interesting Terry!
So how about some pics of what you have done. I was thinking about replacing mine too, but had not thought about the
alternative lights. I was just planning on replacing the bulbs, and at the truck stop it was going to be $20 a light. It would cost a small fortune to do it that way. so, as said, let's see what you are talking about.
 
Sorry, but I never took the pics as I was converting them. Drop the light and stick the LED strips in the light and make sure it does not touch the original bulb(hot). I used a $3.00 switch from Radio Shack to control the LED's separate from the originals, This way you have a choice of what you want. Check Ebay for the same bulbs you have already. You might find that is all you need. Type in the bulb number that you have and put "LED" on the end, you might be surprised how cheap they are. Try to get 5,000 kelvin range and you will be happy with them. They also sell a LEDpanel with all kind of adapters for almost all socket possibilities. All of mine were fluorescent and I didn't have a that choice. I also have started converting my outside marker lights with the strips. I have eight side lights that came factory on mine from a Jeep Wrangler! Replacing the 194 bulbs with the strips and getting 7 LED's per light at a cost of less than 50 cents per light. Call me Chip if you have questions, I'll bring a piece of the strip with me tomorrow at the Jamboree so you can see it.
 
Our trailer has about a half dozen incandescents overhead in the back of the trailer. 1157 type bulbs. Been looking tonight for LED replacements, but not really impressed with what I'm finding. Looks like the bulbs either cost $25/ea, or they don't match the light output of the regular bulbs. I was really hoping for something brighter and no more than $10/ea.

Thinking now that I'll just steal some of the 12v fluorescents from the camper. I've got too many of them anyway.
 
12v fluorescent SUCK when it's cold out, worse than 120v versions.

I agree, the LEDs that I put in our camper aren't as bright as the 921 bulbs they replaced, but it's still bright enough to read by, and not uncomfortable when coming in from the dark.
 
These seem to work just fine. Probably better than the 120v T12s that are in the back already. Those warm up eventually, but it takes 15 minutes.

I need it to be fawk-all bright back there. Thought that would be easy to do with the LEDs.
 
maybe is was the 12v fluorescents I had in my old work van, if the temp as below 35°, they just barely lit up, sucks when you're trying to work inside a cold ass warehouse and the lights in the building as useless too
 
Blkvoodoo said:
maybe is was the 12v fluorescents I had in my old work van, if the temp as below 35°, they just barely lit up, sucks when you're trying to work inside a cold ass warehouse and the lights in the building as useless too
Click to expand...
My fluorescents in my barn are like that when it's cold.
 
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