Exterior Lighting

bluwtr49 wrote:
Just curious, what happens to the lights when the awning retracts? Especially with a Girard where it all tucks away into the housing.

bluewtr49,
I cannot answer the part about the Girard but, on our coach, we have the top of the line, Carefree, (not sure what model it is, came with the coach) and, I carefully calculated where the light would still do a decent array of light, even with the awning in the fully retracted position. I could have placed it lower but, I didn't want it seen, out in the open, so to speak. But, while it certainly does not broadcast nearly as much light when the awning is in the fully retracted position, it still puts out a serious amount of light, to about 4-5' out from the sides of the coach.

But, If I open that awning, about 1 foot, the light array is broadcast out to about 35-40' from the sides of the coach. It goes even farther than that, just not as bright. I love them.

Posted By: dlos on 06/03/13 09:43am
I installed the Dometic LED strip, twice in fact, and they still don't work, I can not for the life of me figure out what is wrong with them, installed much the same as described here.
Fastened to underside of awning channel, drilled thru RV wall, spliced and soldered back inside to keep drilled hole small, plugged in to outled inside by TV.
They worked for a couple hours, not since. Same thing with both strips???

Very frustrating. Any thoughts?

dlos,
Well Sir, not exactly sure what may have happened. I've had to replace the "Controller/dimmer" on mine. Hopefully it (the new one) will last. The original one, lasted about 6 months. Now, here's a test for you. Remove the 12V controller/dimmer from the system completely. Hook your 12V power, directly to the input wires to the LED strip. You'll have no control over the lights at this point, they're simply on, the minute you hook up the wires. But, this will tell you if you're controller is shot. If you get no lights, you've got some bad LED strips.

When my controller went bad, we were just getting ready to head out for a trip and I really wanted those lights to work. So, knowing my test worked, I bought a cheap, tiny, toggle switch and wired it directly to the 12v POWER and, to the LED strip. So, while on the trip, all I had to do was throw the switch. Worked flawless. But, I've since acquired a new controller/dimmer. See it that works.
Scott

I installed my strip lights with a Girard awning. I stuck the strip up inderneath the housing that is mounted to the coach. I carefully started the strip right at the porch light, so I could run the wiring into the coach through the same hole as the porch light wiring. The I found a hot 12v circuit in the wall and spliced the wire to it. I went with a 16ft strip that has 600 LED's in warm white color and is dimmable. At full brightness is if very well lit and I can dim is down as much as I wish.

The 600 LED strip waterproof in warm white was a bit more expensive than many other I saw out there, but I wanted to make sure I'd have a wide range of brightness options and did not want to have any regrets about doing it right the first time!

bluwtr49 wrote:
Just curious, what happens to the lights when the awning retracts? Especially with a Girard where it all tucks away into the housing.

Just curious, what happens to the lights when the awning retracts? Especially with a Girard where it all tucks away into the housing.

I installed the Dometic LED strip, twice in fact, and they still don't work, I can not for the life of me figure out what is wrong with them, installed much the same as described here.

Fastened to underside of awning channel, drilled thru RV wall, spliced and soldered back inside to keep drilled hole small, plugged in to outled inside by TV.

They worked for a couple hours, not since. Same thing with both strips???

Very frustrating. Any thoughts?

xtampa wrote:
Well I finally had enough time on my hands to run an LED light strip on the gutter below my awning. Snuck the wires in the gutter then under the vinyl edge strip down the front edge then into my storage compartment through a drain hole and plugged it into an outlet. Easy peezy. I even had two feet left to run under my door to light my stairs. Looks great and works like a charm. Provides so much light I don't need to use the porch light and gets lots of comments from other campers. Whoohoo!

That's almost the exact same thing we did. My son got me the "Dometic" system of LEDs (light strip) that was 39" long with a controller and a 110VAC adapter. Well, when it came time to install it, I called him and asked if they had extensions for that LED strip. They did and he brought home (3) more. So, I ended up putting 156" of "seriously bright" LED light strip up there, just a hair below the fully rolled up awning. When the awning is rolled up, the light is broadcast out at about a 25-30 degree angle. But, if I open that awning up about a foot, then that light will light up the entire camp area. Those are some seriously bright LEDs.

As stated, they are marketed by Dometic. They are held on with double face tape. The strip is only about 3/8" wide and, they are water proof. I ran the wires right into the side of the coach, behind a window valance, down a beam that encompasses the shoulder harness attachment and, into the console by the passengers right leg. There I hooked it into 12V power and, it was all done. I can dim those too so, it can become a "mood" light too. They're bright enough to read a book at midnight, 20 feet away from the coach. I don't know how much light you need but, the good part about these is, they draw very little juice due to the fact that they are LEDs.
Scott

Well I finally had enough time on my hands to run an LED light strip on the gutter below my awning. Snuck the wires in the gutter then under the vinyl edge strip down the front edge then into my storage compartment through a drain hole and plugged it into an outlet. Easy peezy. I even had two feet left to run under my door to light my stairs. Looks great and works like a charm. Provides so much light I don't need to use the porch light and gets lots of comments from other campers. Whoohoo!

We have a porch light, and we have added a string of led lights to the awning tube. We do have a slot specifically for lights in the roller tube. We then can use either of both, whichever we prefer.

I added this strip LED to my awning and a 3' strip over the door for extra outside lighting.

I don't know if your engine has a belt driven fan, if it does you may be hearing the fan clutch engaged which causes the fan to be loud. This will happen when starting out in the morning (for a few minutes) and when hot or going up a grade. On my truck it makes a whining sound.

For outdoor lighting I have a yard type light that hangs from my awning. It uses a 15watt CFL type bulb. The light has a dusk to dawn sensor. I use this light when we need bright lighting.

I've also added some of those solar power garden lights. I place a few around the RV in areas where we will be walking.

I have a 20 foot rope light that attaches to the channel on the roller end of the awning, this provides light similar to a full moon. Between this rope light and the solar garden lights there is good lighting for getting around but not bright enough to read or work by.

We also have two battery powered LED Lanterns....these are great, very bright and the batteries last a long time. They came in handy during a recent power outage that lasted for 18 hours. You can pick these up at Walmart, Target or outdoor supply stores.

It could be your water pump. Prior to 2005 Cat had a grease fitting on them that people never greased so there were a few water pumps that went bad. On our 2005 Fleetwood Excursion with a C7, they went with a permanently greased water pump. I keep wondering how long they will last. Ours has about 44,000 miles. Last year I did check and I could still get the parts to change it back so that I could grease it if this one went bad.

My alternator is doing fine, I think...... Sometimes on startup, it will read 16 volts and a warning light will come on for about a minute. I did a bit of reading on these also. While the alternator is available, it's not available everywhere. It's not just a standard 160A altnernator, there's something else in it that's needed to make the MH electical system work correctly. I was thinking of buying a spare, but that's weight and they aren't cheap. The MH has two years left on the service agreement from the previous owner, so I'll let them buy it if it goes bad. If you don't have a service agreement, you might consider buying a spare - but you can only carry so many spares.

Here's the info on the alternator and there were a lot of different prices out there, so shop around. All of the places I looked at were standard Leece Neville distributors.

Leece Neville
Model A0012824LC
Amps 160
Volts 14
Date 200407
Sales No. 2824LC
Manufactured in the USA by Prestolite Electric, Inc.

There is also a heavier duty model make for fire trucks and ambulances, but it was about 30% more.

Bill