RV LED Lighting

[Seniorfirsttime]

I am wanting to exchange the light bulbs in my 2005 class C MH for warm white LED bulbs. Specifically what LED bulb will fit? Anyone have this experience?

[lawrosa]

Per m4


As Avid RV and Off Road enthusiasts, we are extremely familiar with products which make active lifestyles more enjoyable.

Our product line is focused around cutting edge LED technology due to its energy and superior light output benefits.

M4 develops and sources RV Replacement LEDs that have been chosen specific to the application of RV interior lighting. There are other less expensive generic LED bulbs available, as well as replacement products that cost substantially more, but M4 has done the research and testing to provide solutions that not only performs well, but do so at a reasonable price. Whether you have an RV or Trailer, we have a quality LED light to meet your needs.

Quality of Components Besides the LED:

Primarily, when shopping for LED lights for your RV, you really need to consider the quality of the components that hold the LED SMD chip.

All chips are pretty equal in quality and output, but it is the way the cage and plates are designed and made that differentiate the overall quality of the finished product. If you were to
find a competitor's 24 5050 SMD LED bulb and compare the light output to our 24 5050 SMD LED bulb, the light output will be the same.

There are many LED light bulbs that are being sold that were never designed for continual use like in an RV (many even being sold at RV related websites). Those bulbs are designed for car taillights, or are simply thrown together cheaply since they do not undestand the RV market as well as M4 does.

RVs demand more from electronic components. From battery chargers, to shore power, to discharged batteries and battery regulation, RVs demand the most from products like LED lights.

5050 SMD based LED lights still create an amount of heat, especially in an enclosed fixture. This heat output is substantially less than an incandescent light bulb, but it is still a significant amount of heat that will affect the life of the SMD chip.

All of our light bulbs are designed specifically for RV use. Most are rated at 10-30 Volts. 10-30v lights work in a normal 12v environment, but they include circuitry within the bulb to make them handle voltage surges very common in Recreational vehicles.

Next, all of our 10-30 Volt bulbs are non-polarity. Since LED lights are diodes, every SMD chip has a positive and negative, and they will not illuminate and can be damaged if the polarity is reversed. Our circuitry prevents any reverse polarity damage, and makes it so the bulb illuminates regardless of the wiring of the light fixture (many RV light fixtures are wired backwards from the factory which is not an issue with incandescent bulbs as the will light either way).

Finally, all of our 10-30 volt bulbs with 5050 chips have aluminum cages where competitive cages are made solely from fiberboard. This aluminum serves two purposes, 1. to function as a heat sink to extend the life of the LED, and 2. so they don’t break down over time like a fiber board. You can feel the weight difference from our bulbs to competitor’s bulbs and see the difference in the image above.

[Big_Katuna]

I think that's the point. Why pay more to the middle man when the cheapies on EBay are just as good.

My $1.50 flat panels work great and I haven't had one failure in two years.

One of the best upgrades I have done.

[atreis]

tenbear wrote:
Good luck. I'm sure your lights will work well, but since all LEDs are made in China ......

?? So's the computer/phone (or at a minimum, many of the components in it) that you typed that on.

[tenbear]

Good luck. I'm sure your lights will work well, but since all LEDs are made in China ......

[Seniorfirsttime]

Thanks for the repies. I researched Amazon and M4 and since I am not averse to spending the money for quality products I have decided to go with the M4 bulbs. I don't know if they're that much better but I was impressed with the information on the website. I don't always trust the ebay-only products. We will see if I made a wise choice.

[BarneyS]

I replaced all the ceiling lights in our trailer with these.
In addition, I replace the regular bulbs in three fixtures with these cob style lights. I am very pleased with the color and light output. It is almost identical to the regular bulbs in color but a bit more light output.

[lawrosa]

Incandescant bulb runs very hot and pull around 1 AMP for each bulb on

Actually they are about 26 watts each on average for the 1156 bulbs I had.

These used 2.16 amps per bulb.

The LEDs I got from M4 use .7 amps. The one I use as a night light when boondocking I put over the stove vent hood. That uses .1 amp. I leave it on all night. ( So kids can find bathroom lol )

[TucsonJim]

Vulcan Rider wrote:

TucsonJim wrote:
I replaced over 40 bulbs in my FW at a cost of less than $200. I bought them on Amazon, and only one failed to light up.

Yikes. That's about $5 each. I did mine for half that or a bit less. From a US supplier too.

Check all the bulbs to see what type they are.
Go to Amazon and search for "1156 LED" just as an example.
I got mine for about 1.80 apiece and they have been working just fine.

I should have been a little more specific. I had a few specialty bulbs in that purchase that ran $12 each. They were reading spot lights. The regular ceiling lights were about the same price you paid.

Jim

[Big_Katuna]

I got all mine on Ebay like the ones in the post above. Less than $2 each. About two years ago not one failure yet.

[RoyB]

I would just buy a couple of them before going for all of them at once. The ones you get may not be to your liking... You have to learn how the LEDs are rated and get the right amount of LUMENS to duplicate at least a 40WATT incandescent automotive light bulb.

Some of the high end LEDs have built-in chips for a regulator circuit which will allow the LEDs to operate over a wide DC VOLTAGE range. These are know to radiate RFI Signals and may cause the HDTV to go to NO SIGNAL mode. This is especially true when using your OTA Antenna.

It may also interfere with any VHF/UHF radio operations like the WX RADIO, HAM RADIO etc.

I did all of mine in 2009 with a complete one time buy and this happened to me. Finally ended up with the cheap $4.99 LED BOARDS (cheaper in bigger qtys) you find on EBAY CHINA and they worked great here...

GOOGLE IMAGE

If you are camping much off your batteries this will be a hugh reduction in power requirements. Each 12VDC automotive Incandescant bulb runs very hot and pull around 1 AMP for each bulb on. That adds up in big hurry...

Roy Ken

[beemerphile1]

Seniorfirsttimer wrote:
I am wanting to exchange the light bulbs in my 2005 class C MH for warm white LED bulbs. Specifically what LED bulb will fit? Anyone have this experience?

No way to answer without knowing what lamps are in the fixtures now.

[IAMICHABOD]

After trying a few,both expensive and cheap.

I replaced all of mine with THESE,4 years ago and not one problem with them. 10 for about $24 is a good deal.

They are warm white and perfect for all my fixtures. I have used this vendor several times. Fast delivery,last shipment took 7 days.

[lawrosa]

westend wrote:
Mike,
Those M4 offerings are $13/bulb. That is about 8-10X what I paid for my replacements.

Thats the high end units. The ones I bought were 9 bucks. I bought 10. Then got 15% off that.

I bought these because the color is identical to the standard 1156

[westend]

Mike,
Those M4 offerings are $13/bulb. That is about 8-10X what I paid for my replacements.