Cool Mods - Thread restored 10/18/2012

[2Rad4U]

My daughter was getting a little warm in her bunk during our last camping trip, so I decided to put her a fan in to keep the air flowing.

I had been wanting to add a 12-volt fan to the main living area anyway, so I decided to tackle both jobs today. A trip to Wal-Mart for two fans($8.48 each) and we're halfway there.

She picked the spot, and I got to work -



I picked up the power from her overhead light. All I have left is to install a short piece of wire cover and I'm done -



I added one in the main area -



I dropped by Lowe's and found this cool soap dispenser. I also just installed these Pop-a-Toothbrush holders -



I added a sopa dispenser to the kitchen area as well. I also installed a Pop-a-Napkin under the radio -



Here's an easy mod. I found this over the door towel rack at Walmart and it works great -

[Mic_bug]

Patrick45 wrote:
could not this black tank sprayer also be made of PVC? I don't have the tools to make it out of copper.

Jeffzee160 wrote:
Okay, here's the cut...



I also soldered up a wand for washing down the walls of the black tank. It just threads onto the end of my hose nozzle and goes down the toilet.

copper looks soooo much better though....





.

[ut_pupcamper]

kincade wrote:


Look at the LEDtrailerlight units. They're quite a bit less expensive than the Command units and very nice. I see you are in UT; if you want to see a rig with them I am in SLC.

Thanks for the offer, I would like to meet up sometime and see the difference in the light output in real life. It's sometimes hard to see it with a camera because most auto camera settings don't have a setting for LED and it is a different warmth than either incandescent or flourescent or most other light sources and it either comes out with some kind of tint to it.

[KraigWhiting]

Hi, aaronttrv. I'm not sure why the small boards needed to be plugged into the socket one particular way. The boards have a polarity correction feature built in. I've also checked current inventory and it all works no matter which way they are plugged in. Possibly the wire leads were not positioned correctly. But it should work either way.



They all worked out great. I did notice a funny thing... I ordered a smaller unit, with just 21 lights, to fit into my outside porch light. None of the other ones seemed to care about polarity and I guess the circuitry will adjust for whichever way you plug in. But the 21 light unit only worked if I plugged it in one way. Not a big deal, although at first I wondered if I got a bum unit, but I tried reversing it and it was fine. I also ordered 2 more of the smaller ones to use over the bed (not as bright, which is perfect for right over the bed) and they were the same, so it must be the way it'S designed.

[kincade]

ut_pupcamper wrote:
I just looked at the Command Electronics website and I guess it is going to be a fairly large investment to replace all the lights in the trailer with LED's. I have really heard lots of good comments and looking at the power savings I guess it is worth it. I guess I will just have to do a few at a time, starting with the lights over the bed for reading, I hate the super bright ones in there!

Look at the LEDtrailerlight units. They're quite a bit less expensive than the Command units and very nice. I see you are in UT; if you want to see a rig with them I am in SLC.

[RedRocket204]

ut_pupcamper wrote:
I just looked at the Command Electronics website and I guess it is going to be a fairly large investment to replace all the lights in the trailer with LED's. I have really heard lots of good comments and looking at the power savings I guess it is worth it. I guess I will just have to do a few at a time, starting with the lights over the bed for reading, I hate the super bright ones in there!

Nothing wrong with doing a few at a time to spread out the cost.

My main reason for having LED lights is the big reduction in heat...as mentioned a few posts earlier.

[ut_pupcamper]

sorry for the double post

[ut_pupcamper]

I just looked at the Command Electronics website and I guess it is going to be a fairly large investment to replace all the lights in the trailer with LED's. I have really heard lots of good comments and looking at the power savings I guess it is worth it. I guess I will just have to do a few at a time, starting with the lights over the bed for reading, I hate the super bright ones in there!

[aaronttrv]

LAdams wrote:

aaronttrv wrote:
upgraded some of the lights to LED (Command Electronics, those things are awesome, I ordered enough to finish off the whole trailer now).

They are awesome aren't they :B I converted my entire trailer to them and we just came off a month long road trip with them... Used them extensively and we just love them... LOTS of light at half the current draw and NO HEAT!!!

Les

So I got the rest of the LEDs to replace everything in the trailer. Besides the ones from Command Electronics, I also had to get a couple from LED Trailer Lights to put into a couple of lights that wouldn't work with the flat panel units (a ceiling light, wall sconce, and the light over the stove).

They all worked out great. I did notice a funny thing... I ordered a smaller unit, with just 21 lights, to fit into my outside porch light. None of the other ones seemed to care about polarity and I guess the circuitry will adjust for whichever way you plug in. But the 21 light unit only worked if I plugged it in one way. Not a big deal, although at first I wondered if I got a bum unit, but I tried reversing it and it was fine. I also ordered 2 more of the smaller ones to use over the bed (not as bright, which is perfect for right over the bed) and they were the same, so it must be the way it'S designed.

All in all, I now have 19 Command Electronics panels throught the trailer, and then a couple bayonet style and couple wedge style lights. I recently ordered a fun LED strip light to mount under the awning (RGB lights with a remote control to change colors, brightness, even fun "effects" (strobe, fade, etc... enough to drive my wife nuts).

Since I plan to be boondocked about half of my time spent on the road, it seems like a good investment to help keep battery runtime higher and less cranks of the generator in between.

[stoney0264]

Patrick45 wrote:
could not this black tank sprayer also be made of PVC? I don't have the tools to make it out of copper.

I have a PVC version that I got at walmart. It was not very expensive.

[LAdams]

aaronttrv wrote:
upgraded some of the lights to LED (Command Electronics, those things are awesome, I ordered enough to finish off the whole trailer now).

They are awesome aren't they :B I converted my entire trailer to them and we just came off a month long road trip with them... Used them extensively and we just love them... LOTS of light at half the current draw and NO HEAT!!!

Les

[Community Alumni]

I suppose PVC would be better. But I like playing with fire.

[Patrick45]

could not this black tank sprayer also be made of PVC? I don't have the tools to make it out of copper.

Jeffzee160 wrote:
Okay, here's the cut...



I also soldered up a wand for washing down the walls of the black tank. It just threads onto the end of my hose nozzle and goes down the toilet.

[Community Alumni]

Okay, here's the cut...



I also soldered up a wand for washing down the walls of the black tank. It just threads onto the end of my hose nozzle and goes down the toilet.

[HEMIDAZE]

Jeffzee160 wrote:
I got a package of Lynx leveler blocks and a Lynx chock. I made the system a bit more versatile by cutting one of the blocks in half. If half-blocks are used then only one side of the ramp pyramid need be built. This frees up a few of the blocks, which can be used elsewhere like under jacks and stabilizers. The half-blocks can still be used as a full block by rotating them 90 degrees such that the seam interlocks with other full blocks.

Great idea. I am going to do that to mine.

[Community Alumni]

dirtengineer wrote:

Jeffzee160 wrote:
I got a package of Lynx leveler blocks and a Lynx chock. I made the system a bit more versatile by cutting one of the blocks in half...

What tool did you use? The cuts look very clean.

I used a hacksaw blade (just the blade) and cleaned up with a box cutter. I didn't just cut straight through the middle of the block. That would have been too tedious and would have ruined the webbing down the middle. Instead I made individual cuts at various web junctions. So the halves are not identical, but each ended up with about 50% of the center webbing. Meh... Guess I should have taken a close-up shot.