LED lights

[pdvasquez]

We have 2007 safari ..Thinking of switching out the lightbulbs to led lightbulbs. Has anyone tackled this task? Worth the price and effort. Longer battery life??

[Snedwid]

My 2011 Flying Cloud came with LED's,,, Majorly improvement

[arktos55343]

You will definitely have longer battery life, depending on how many lights you normally use at any given time, because your amp draw will be so much less ....and they put out much less heat. Whether you like the look of LEDs (some complain that they produce an un-natural light spectrum)...is the question. And of course, it will be spendy to replace everything....but well worth the investment, IMHO.

[pdvasquez]

Thank you for your post. We are planning our first boondocking trip and thought it might help us with better battery life.

[ginsun88]

We bought from Dan at LED4RV as he was recommended highly by these forums.

Dan is very knowledgeable and takes the time to explain everything, LEDs 4, Recreational Vehicles.

[robwok]

I've done a lot of work on this. There are lots of people selling LED lights. Vintage Trailer Supply has some good ones. However, I have found really good prices on lights from Deal Extreme.com There's so much there that it's hard to navigate. I found a set of warm white at 4500K that were perfect. The Kelvin scale is weird with LED lights. You have to order samples as some of the lights look a little blue, some pink, and some green. I've only found this one bulb that was as close to perfect as I could get, and it was hard to tell the difference. I ordered a bunch to replace all the bulbs in my 64. 115650-27WN 5W 300lm 4500K 27-5050 SMD LED Warm White Light Car Turn Signals Lamp (2 PCS)

Led lights will heat up though, but not as much as incandescent bulbs. Also, they are very polarity sensitive. If your socket was wired for regular bulbs, they may or may not have been as sensitive to the polarity, but for LED bulbs it's critical. If you find a socket doesn't work, reverse the wires.

You can expect a drop in heat, and a drop in DC usage. You may also have fewer shadows at the LED bulbs have multiple little lights on a single bulb base. There are also some fun dramatic options like multi color, and wired and wireless dimmers. Since the trailer's system is 12V, you have lots of options.

[nairnchyz]

We also replaced original incandescent bulbs with Led's in our '74 International 31'. Dealt with Dan at LED4RV. Highly recommend his products and personal service.
We were able to retain our original fixtures. New Led strips plugged into the original bulb sockets. Cost some $$$ but well worth the expenditure.

[Wazbro]

Don't forget you don't have to change them all at once, if there are only 6 bulbs you use 90% of the time start with them.

[Wayne&Sam]

We put LEDS in all of our fixtures except the 9 recessed ceiling halogens. So when boondocking we have enough LED light but can still go brighter if we want when plugged in. Works well for us.

And they do let your battery last noticeably longer.

[AirsDream]

I replaced all of mine ... the standard 1156 incandescent bulbs that were in the fixtures from the factory drew 2.1 amps each. I put in a wide variety of new LED bulbs, and they drew various amounts, ranging from 36 miilliamps to 190 milliamps. Even the brightest of these are not quite as bright as the originals, but are pretty close, so I have those in all of my ceiling fixtures. Since they draw less than 1/10 of what the originals did, I figure I'm saving quite a bit of battery life this way. And they are WAY cooler, which is nice in summer ... in winter not so much. Got mine from LED Lights, Bulbs & LED Lighting Accessories - SUPER BRIGHT LEDS ... the largest ones I'm using are this model:

1156 LED Bulb - Single Intensity 9 High Power SMD LED Lamp | LED Replacement Bulbs for Cars | 12v | Super Bright LEDs

I can't say whether they would fit your fixtures, though, so don't order a bunch without measuring first! They're not cheap, but after four years, I've yet to have one burn out, and they're plenty of light for me to read by, tie trout flies, etc.

[LFC]

I replaced all mine with LED bulbs even the fridge and vent a hood. One thing to consider is how many lumen they are rated at. Mine were all single pole bulbs with the exception of the fridge http://www.m4products.com/42mm-211-b...-bright-white/ and vent a hood http://www.m4products.com/5050-smd-c...se-10-30-volt/
I used the "cool white" 340 lumens Cool Bright White 1141 1156 Retrofit LED Light and put the Elite series 640 lumens Elite Series Retrofit Bulb where I thought I needed more light. I put one of the Elite series in my porch light and man is it bright. They do sell cheaper bulbs that aren't near as bright.

The other thing I really like is now I've got bright white lighting instead of dim yellow lighting.

This company is based in California and I received both my orders in 3 days.

[Scott J-24]

Like everyone has said above, switching to LEDs will extend your battery life between charges. This makes boondocking much easier. As was also mentioned, the LEDs put out a lot less heat than the stock halogen bulbs, which can be important during the hot summer months. We got ours from Dan at LED4RV.com. Dan was very helpful and we received our orders very quickly and he gave us great customer service. I highly recommend him.

[jpons]

I also replaced all my lights with LED and they draw about 1/10 of what the regular incandescent bulbs did. I priced the conversion using one of the vendors listed here and the price came out to be more than $300, I did a little research and was able to buy quality lights directly from Hong Kong for a little more than $100 thru a seller on eBay. Keep in mind that those bulbs you may be buying from a US retailer are most certainly also made in China.

There has been a few discussions on this in the past few months on the forums here, so you may want to search for that thread.

Having said all that, I would highly recommend making the switch to LEDs.

Good luck,

-J

[Phoenix]

I recently replaced all incandescent bulbs in our 2005 19-foot Bambi for around $100 ($4.99 each). Vendor was in Florida; $5 shipping charge. Received order in Phoenix on third day after placing order. See details, on link below:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f312...ml#post1355364

[TinShack]

Originally Posted by pdvasquez

We have 2007 safari ..Thinking of switching out the lightbulbs to led lightbulbs. Has anyone tackled this task? Worth the price and effort. Longer battery life??

If you dry camp or boondock regularly, it is definitely worth the cost and effort. You will certainly notice your batteries holding their charge longer. If you camp mainly at RV parks with hookups, the necessity diminishes, unless you would like to reduce the interior heat build up that incandescent bulbs contribute to, or are concerned about the environment and want to decrease your carbon footprint.

[A W Warn]

Originally Posted by robwok

115650-27WN 5W 300lm 4500K 27-5050 SMD LED Warm White Light Car Turn Signals Lamp (2 PCS)

Isn't the 5 watt draw pretty high for LED?

[jcanavera]

I remember purchasing a factory tail light conversion kit from Airstream. It was probably the best LED purchase I ever made since it made all the difference in the world for those following me. One of the things I noticed over time is how hard it is to see brake lights on trailers that are back lit by sunshine. I knew that once these became available, I had to make this improvement, primarily for safety reasons.

Jack

[LFC]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

I recently replaced all incandescent bulbs in our 2005 19-foot Bambi for around $100 ($4.99 each). Vendor was in Florida; $5 shipping charge. Received order in Phoenix on third day after placing order. See details, on link below:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f312...ml#post1355364

According to the lumen charts the cheaper bulbs aren't very bright.

[TBRich]

We have replaced all the halogen lights (and incandescent lights in the closest and bathroom) in our Safari SE. What a huge difference in battery life! You'll be so glad you did.

Once you have the LEDs (we also used Dan at LED4RV) it's a snap (literally) to replace those halogen bulbs in your recessed ceiling lights. Its a direct bulb replacement...you don't have to replace the fixture, just the bulbs...carefully pry open the innermost ring of the puck fixtures with a sharp knife being sure not to damage the surrounding aluminum skin in your SE. The glass lens is held in place by that ring so be sure not to let it fall an break. (Let the lens and fixture cool off before you try this....they get very hot from the halogens.) Replace the bulb and re-install the ring by snapping it into place. Voilá. The directional reading lights are easy, too, but take a different bulb — with connection prongs at the back rather than to the side.