LED Conversion

[alymorales]

I know that there are a thousand posts on converting original lights to LEDs. I've spent the last hour trying to find the answer to my question, but to my dismay, I'm still searching.

I have a 2005 AS International. I want to convert my lights to LED. Is it as simple as buying new LED bulbs and replacing the exisiting or do I need to buy all new fixtures?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Lisa

[nairnchyz]

Lisa
You could send Dan Brown an email at [Dan@led4rv.com] explaining what you want to do.
Dan could give you some ideas on converting to LED. We converted all our interior and exterior lights to LED last year.
He supplied the LED lighting and we were able to use the original fixtures in our 1974 31' International.
It was a wonderful conversion. Dan is very good at explaining the technical side of things.
Bob

[Thisisliving]

You can do it either way. Change the bulbs and or change the fixtures. If you like your current fixtures then just change the bulbs. The nice part about it is that it should all be 12v.

[andreasduess]

Just replace the bulbs and you're good to go.

[Joe Palmieri]

We changed all our incandescent bulbs over to led's on our previous trailer with no problem. They were made to fit in the same base as the bulbs. According to the chart the twelve led's that we installed only used as much electricity as one of the bulbs.

[SL4BLLT]

We replaced the 1156 standard bulbs with the LED 1156 bulbs. Now on a 1972 International with lots of 1156 bulbs at $12.95 a piece it was quite pricey.

We are now considering taking out the three (3) sets of lights and replacing them with 12-18 individual LED lights with warm lights up in the front and mid-coach and bright LED lights in the galley area. I'm trying to work the lumens to see how many we will need to make this work. If we go this route, which we arew leaning towards as I've ordered 12 lights, we will replace the current 14x14 inch area with fantastic-vents as well. This will really open up the coach and brighten it up.
We've owned it going on 19 years and continue to make the upgrades as the coach is very comfortable and we're living the dream of Airstreaming.

Our thoughts, good luck in your decision and you've got plenty of time to figure it out as technology only gets better with time.

SL4BLLT

[AL’ UM- MONEY]

I recently converted my 1976 to LED's. For the inside due to cost I purchased eight bulbs from camping world and put two in each light. If I'm on battery I run LED and on shore power either/ or incandescent . For rear tails I bought six LED complete lights from tractor supply and with a little cutting and sanding they worked perfect . The hardest part was getting two with clear lens and using the LED that shine on the tag, I got all left hand lights and after some bad words managed to make good back up lights. I had some extra so I converted the tag lights. I have taken some photos but having trouble posting using my I pad I will work thought it.

[n2916s]

I replaced all of my 1156 type incandescent bulbs with these:

10x BA15S 1156 1141 SMD Bulb 13 5050 SMD LED Light Warm White 13ZWW | eBay

No failures yet and you can't beat the price.

Mike

[jcanavera]

I've been selectively changing bulbs. Our first project was to change out the tail lights to Airstream's conversion kit. That was a major improvement and much needed safety improvements to the rear lighting of the trailer.

Last year I replaced the patio light with an LED substitute. I also replaced the lens which was partially melted due to the high heat of the old bulb.

This year was the replacement of the step light with a LED replacement.

All of the replacement LED's other than the tail lights came from https://led4rv.com

As time goes on I'll consider doing other replacements on the interior, although I probably don't want the bright white LED's like I used on the patio and step light. I'd like something less harsh. The other possibility is that I may convert the exterior marker lights to LED as they burn out. The big thing there is to make sure that are not directional so that they truly light up rather than focus a beam. My new step lamp is a bulb base with 18 LED's that circle the base. This reflects onto the reflector that was built into light back.

Jack

[SteveH]

The original poster has a late model trailer, and I believe is equipped with mostly florescent tube light fixtures. First, they do not draw as much power as an incandescent bulb, but more than an LED.

If you want to change to LED's with these fixtures, the most practical way to do it is rewire the fixture removing the oscillator/ballasts from the circuit, and wire in strip LED's. I have done this conversion, and while it is quite a bit more work/trouble than changing a bulb, it's not that big a deal if you can solder and have basic electrical theory understanding.

If you don't want to do the rewiring, you will have to replace the fixtures.

[A W Warn]

I replaced my interior incandescent bulbs a few at a time. Since I had 16 bulbs I did not want to change them all at once because of $200+ initial cost. Over the last few years I have replace all of them except two, where the LED's were to dim for me to read by at night. I will replace these fixtures when I find one I like.

I bought my bulbs from Dan at LED4RV.com and/or ODM.

I see no reason to change my exterior lights over to LED, except the light by the door. Though changing the running lights would make the battery last longer if I need to leave the exterior lights on in an emergency.