Switching to LED lighting
We would like to switch all the lights out on our Raptor and wondering if anyone had any suggestions as which ones to go with and how hard it is to do?
Forum Discussion
trail-explorer wrote:norfla71 wrote:
I checked out my local RV supplier a couple of days ago and HOLY CROW those things are expensive; nearly as much as household bulbs. If I see somthing is USA made I will spend more for it; however, as stated, they all seem to be made in the same place.
Very true, they are all mad in China, but some are better than the others. I buy from US sources since my purchases are helping to support the US economy too.
The problem with RV dealers is that they buy through a distributor, who gets them from the "company that imports them", so there's multiple levels of price markup.
I was appalled when I went to a dealer recently and asked about a weight distribution hitch. He looked it up in the catalog from the distributor and quoted me the "retail (MSRP) price" from the catalog. Having a background in the automotive business, It boggles my mind how the RV parts distribution and selling network for said parts is so screwed (and overpriced) up compared to the automotive parts distribution business.
The dealer tried to charge me freight on it too, even though the warehouse distributor he orders from doesn't charge freight - they use their own trucks to deliver and build the cost of that in to their markup to the dealer, so the dealer was basically double screwing me on the price of the hitch. Needless to say, I didn't buy the hitch from the dealer.
I've been running lights from www.ledtrailerlights.com
They've been around quite a while - since 2002/2003.
Here's the write up I did back in 2009: My EASY LED Upgrade
Since they're not making enough from RV sales, they have to get it from somewhere :R Even on sale, they're still around $10 each; I'll keep checking.
