Campsight lighting

[tech_dog]

I've got a goal of being able to flip open my rear door, hit a switch, and provide comfortable area lighting for a 20 x 20 area behind the truck. Optimally, it would be dimable and would go from dim and relaxed all the way up to blinding. It should also be as non-intrusive as possible.

Has anyone been successful in doing something like this? I'm still at a loss as to what, where, and how I can do this.

T.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

How about running flood lights mounted to the top mounting point of the third row seatbelt. You could have the beam patern cross (like this: X) to light your area up and just mount a dimmer switch in the rear cargo area... Might work.

 

[C6H12O6]

A lot of the halogen flood lights a-la Sears/Home Depot have a tripod mount to hold them to the stand. You could rig something like that up to the top hatch so it would be removeable. You would have to rig up some sort of 120V plug for it, but that wouldn't be too hard, just spendy.

I'm sure you could do something similar with 12V lights on a second battery. I've thought about the same thing. It would be nice when setting camp up in the dark, or when putting on fishing gear in the wee hours.

 

[John E Davies]

I've got a goal of being able to flip open my rear door, hit a switch, and provide comfortable area lighting for a 20 x 20 area behind the truck. Optimally, it would be dimable and would go from dim and relaxed all the way up to blinding. It should also be as non-intrusive as possible.

Whoa, that is alot of contradictory goals. I think the roughest one would be the dimming - that takes sophisticted circuitry to do it without creating a lot of heat and wasted electricity. Most dimmers are simple resistors.

I think it makes more sense to plan for two lights - a wide area dim light for general trailside illumination, and an adjustable bright spot for doing difficult tasks or doing a repair. And since a repair will probably, more often than not, involve the front of the truck, the bright light should be to be portable.

If I were going to do this project, I would:

Buy a compact rechargeable spotlight - they start at $20 at Home Depot and WalMart. Install a 12 volt power receptacle in the cargo compartment. Plug in my 140 watt inverter to recharge the spotlight when needed.

For general camp illumination, install a compact flat-housing utilty/ flood light on the (steel) rear bumper or rear window spoiler with a direct circuit to the battery and a switch on the dash. If you plan on leaving the light on for long periods of time you must install a much smaller bulb to reduce the amp load. Here's one source - I use a Hella 35 Watt rectangular back-up light. It's plenty bright for a general duty light.

http://www.hella.com/produktion/Hel...sa/ProductsServices/Heavy_Duty/Heavy_Duty.jsp

You can see the light on the right side of my bumper in this pic - it fits on the "factory" Slee lighting tab.

Problem solved.

Actually, I already have all this stuff except for the rear power outlet.....

John Davies
Spokane WA

 

[cruiser88]

i took some aftermarket rear backup lights once and did that do my 40 all you have to do for a dimmer is rig it up to a dashbord dimmer .the knob that adjust your dashboard lights.worked fine for me its just a matter were you prefer to put it then

 

[davegonz]

How about a 12V LED shop light from HF?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93944

You will need to run a 12V receptacle in the cargo area. Low powered solution with probably enough light.

 

[tech_dog]

How about a 12V LED shop light from HF?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93944

You will need to run a 12V receptacle in the cargo area. Low powered solution with probably enough light.

Dave,

Good find on this! I think I'll order some of these and see if I can break the housing and put them into something a bit less intrusive.

Does anyone know how LED's behave on a dimmer? I'm guessing these things have active circuitry that will try to hold a specified voltage, so dimmin won't be possible. I guess I could get around this by switching individual LED's on and off separately.

Worth a try...

Thanks.

 

[tech_dog]

Whoa, that is alot of contradictory goals. I think the roughest one would be the dimming - that takes sophisticted circuitry to do it without creating a lot of heat and wasted electricity. Most dimmers are simple resistors.

I think it makes more sense to plan for two lights - a wide area dim light for general trailside illumination, and an adjustable bright spot for doing difficult tasks or doing a repair. And since a repair will probably, more often than not, involve the front of the truck, the bright light should be to be portable.

If I were going to do this project, I would:

Buy a compact rechargeable spotlight - they start at $20 at Home Depot and WalMart. Install a 12 volt power receptacle in the cargo compartment. Plug in my 140 watt inverter to recharge the spotlight when needed.

For general camp illumination, install a compact flat-housing utilty/ flood light on the (steel) rear bumper or rear window spoiler with a direct circuit to the battery and a switch on the dash. If you plan on leaving the light on for long periods of time you must install a much smaller bulb to reduce the amp load. Here's one source - I use a Hella 35 Watt rectangular back-up light. It's plenty bright for a general duty light.

http://www.hella.com/produktion/HellaPortal/WebSite/Internet_usa/ProductsServices/Heavy_Duty/Heavy_Duty.jsp

You can see the light on the right side of my bumper in this pic - it fits on the "factory" Slee lighting tab.


Problem solved.

Actually, I already have all this stuff except for the rear power outlet.....

John Davies
Spokane WA

Yep... dimming could be tricky. Depending on the technology I end up using, I could go to 120v AC first and then use a household dimmer. I've never cracked one open, but I'm guessing they're either active or inductive, as opposed to resistive.

One option I was considering if I stay 12v DC was to set up switching where I could choose between serial and parallell on the bulbs. This would drop the voltage at each light, and avoid having to put a "toaster" into the circuit.

The suggestions here are already getting some new ideas going. Keep it coming.

Thanks,

Tom

 

[davegonz]

Dave,

Good find on this! I think I'll order some of these and see if I can break the housing and put them into something a bit less intrusive.

Does anyone know how LED's behave on a dimmer? I'm guessing these things have active circuitry that will try to hold a specified voltage, so dimmin won't be possible. I guess I could get around this by switching individual LED's on and off separately.

Worth a try...

Thanks.

Glad to help..On the dimming topic, it will depend if the LED's are being regulated or not. Most expensive LED flashlights and LEDs like George's have a nice power regulater that maximizes the output of the light. The HF ones might not be too high tech and they might be just in parallel. Don't know...

 

[Tools R Us]

I use 12v drop lights like that (old school fluorescent) and they work well, you can move them around as needed, hang in trees, etc. Never had a problem dimming, just turn a couple of them off and it's dimmer!

LandCriuserPhil has a low voltage (12v) landscaping flood light that he attached a clamp and long cord to that works very well for lighting large areas. Cheap and effective.

 

[loquito]

Actually, I already have all this stuff except for the rear power outlet.....

John Davies
Spokane WA

John, How about some info on your trailer in the trailer section, it looks real slick.

 

[sonoranfun]

Man, I got ya covered here.. This should be pretty easy.. Go with 1 or 3 watt luxeon leds.. Just the emmiters not the stars.. You can sand a small spot of paint off and epoxy them with a normal 2 part epoxy with a 1:5 ration of thermal paste mixed in.. These emitters are small and give off a lot of light.. Anyway, run two or more along the back hatch bottom, should be small enough to not even effect the back closing.. run them + to - + to - and so on.. Depending on how many you run you'll need a 10-40 ohm 3-5 watt resistor in there..

Now for the dimming, get a 3 or 4 or 5 way switch, not a dimmer switch, dimmer switch may work but I would need to specs on it to know.. Anyway, in the switch you have off, then a 10 ohm resistor on the next, 20 on the next and say a 40 or 50 on the last.. This would give you full power then a med and a low light..

I intend to do just this with 8 of them under my rig for lighting.. PM with any exact questions I missed and good luck!

Oh and the up side is a LONG run time as they are bright but use VERY little power.. You could also get almost any color you wanted if you wanted say a red light when somebody was sleeping..

 

[John E Davies]

John, How about some info on your trailer in the trailer section, it looks real slick.

That's the first I heard of a Trailer Forum, but it looks like a place I will visit often.

I have posted stuff about my trailer many times in the 80 Series Forum - you can search for past posts by user name very easily.

I will post a pic and a link to my trailer web page over in the new forum, ASAP.

John

 

[hoser]

I've been meaning to buy this 12V LED light mentioned in another thread.

"This 60 LED worklight has the same brightness as an 80 watt bulb. Units are shatterproof with a 12 volt transformer and 25' cord."

You can cut off the transformer and put a cig plug on there or make it so you could switch back and forth (120V or 12V). Attach it (maybe two) to your roof rack and you're set.

 

[tech_dog]

Man, I got ya covered here.. This should be pretty easy.. Go with 1 or 3 watt luxeon leds.. Just the emmiters not the stars.. You can sand a small spot of paint off and epoxy them with a normal 2 part epoxy with a 1:5 ration of thermal paste mixed in.. These emitters are small and give off a lot of light.. Anyway, run two or more along the back hatch bottom, should be small enough to not even effect the back closing.. run them + to - + to - and so on.. Depending on how many you run you'll need a 10-40 ohm 3-5 watt resistor in there..

Now for the dimming, get a 3 or 4 or 5 way switch, not a dimmer switch, dimmer switch may work but I would need to specs on it to know.. Anyway, in the switch you have off, then a 10 ohm resistor on the next, 20 on the next and say a 40 or 50 on the last.. This would give you full power then a med and a low light..

I intend to do just this with 8 of them under my rig for lighting.. PM with any exact questions I missed and good luck!

Oh and the up side is a LONG run time as they are bright but use VERY little power.. You could also get almost any color you wanted if you wanted say a red light when somebody was sleeping..

Hmm... this definitely adds a few more tinker toys to the bin. I wish they'd give more info on how to drive these things. The example on thier site seems oversimplified.

Do you have any info on running in series, voltage drops, etc? I'd rather have as small a resistor as possible in order to avoid throwing away power, and thier one LED one resistor example seems too simple. It seems that most applications drive these with a constant current supply, and I think there's probably a reason.

Let me know if you're familliar with using these things. I'm not sure how tolerant they are.

Thanks for the info. I think this may be the new path.

EDIT: Found more info on design requirements: http://www.lumileds.com/pdfs/AB12.PDF

 

[IBCRUSN]

Take a look see at the following site. They have some stuff that might suit your needs.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/led_prods.htm

I used the second units down on this page for my cargo area lighting.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/fit.htm

The pin base units could be fabbed into something that you could mount magnetically on the upper tailgate.

 

[tech_dog]

Here's a website with a lot of good info, including some fairly inexpensive power drivers.

http://www.luxeonstar.com/category.php?id=240&link_str=240

I think I've got a plan, and will post pix if it turns out well.

T.

 

[rgsiii]

I've been meaning to buy this 12V LED light mentioned in another thread.

"This 60 LED worklight has the same brightness as an 80 watt bulb. Units are shatterproof with a 12 volt transformer and 25' cord."

You can cut off the transformer and put a cig plug on there or make it so you could switch back and forth (120V or 12V). Attach it (maybe two) to your roof rack and you're set.

I recently bought this and am pretty impressed. It puts out good light, though not nearly as much as it sounded like he needed in the first post--blinding in a 20x20 area.

 

[Riad]

These seem pretty useful..