RV Forum Discount on LED lighting until end of 2012

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Gary RV_Wizard

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I'm on friendly terms with the owner of an auto and RV hitch shop in Ocala, Fl, The Hitching Post of Ocala. They have recently branched out into some RV services, including Aqua Hot repairs, Blue Ox tow bar repairs, and now they are offering LED lighting conversions for RVs.  They carry a brand called Revolution Leds from Starlights. I put several of their fluorescent conversion LEDs in my coach after owner Brian Skone showed me the ones in his Newmar Essex.  I have both F15T8 (18" standard size) and F8T5 (12" thin) and replaced them all. The F15 size only needs one Led strip to replace two bulbs and still get good light output, but the 12" size I replaced one for one.

They also carry Led replacements for standard automatice incandescent bulbs (e.g.1141, 1176), wedge bulbs like the 921, G4 base halogen bulbs, and others.

Anyway, Brian offered to give a 15% 10% discount on LED purchases to RVForum members until 12/31/2012 12/31/2014. Just enter the coupon code "AC15" "FORUM" at checkout on their new LED bulb web site, www.RVLedBulbs.com.

Orders over $100 also get free shipping.


Edit: End date updated to 12/31/2014 per Brian Skone, owner of RVledbulbs.com
Edit: Changed discount code to "Forum"
Discount is 10% for 2013 and 2014
 
Gary,
Good on ya...thanks for the effort...good site and good data/info with comparisons of incandescent bulbs...

I'm thinking of trying one of those outside motion detector type fixtures...
 
It's a new web site and there could be glitches. Let me know if you run into any difficulties - I can get to the owner and get it straightened out quickly.

If the AC15 discount code shows up as "American Coach Owner Discount", don't worry. I have permission to give the discount out to all members of this group too, regardless of RV brand.
 
Gary,

Great job! I may have to look into those halogen replacements. The halogen really get hot and fail too often. I'm anxious to see those 12" fluorescents.
 
Jim,
Take a ride up to our place and you can see them. I've done both the 12" and 18" in our coach. Did the G4 halogens too, but that was a over a year ago.
 
Are you asking me to post a picture of my Led installation? I can do that, but there isn't much to see.  You can see the "bulb" itself pretty clearly on the rvledbulbs.com site - see the fluorescent replacement page. The only thing not visible on that page is the two small wires that come out near one end and get connected to the 12v source.

I'll try to remember to take a couple photos tomorrow.
 
Gary,
Is the replacement a direct replacement (snapping in place of the fluorescent) or does it require some minor modification (wiring)? Also does it give off a blueish light and how does it (the light output) compare with the fluorescent?
 
I see by you post that there are 2 wires that need connecting. DO I presume correctly that it is a very simple and easy thing to connect the wires?
 
Since I can't see your light fixture, I can only guess.
You have to connect the hot (+) and ground (-) wires and the bulbs come ready to do that on most common 12v fluorescent fixtures. Most of them have an On/Off switch on the hot wire and connect with slip on (spade) terminals. One wire on the Led bulb has a spade female, so it can slip right onto the switch terminal.  If yours doesn't have a switch or the switch doesn't have a spade terminal, you have to cut the wire and use a wire nut to connect it (wire nut included).  The fixture's ground wire typically goes straight to the ballast, so that has to be cut and connected to the bulb's other wire with a wire nut, also included.  It comes with detailed and illustrated instructions, so its pretty simple.

There is no wiring for the incandescent LED replacements - they just push or twist into the socket like the bulb they are replacing.
 
Here are some photos of my LED fluorescent replacements. I have two types of Thinlight 12v fluorescents, the little 12" twin light that uses atwo F8T5 bulbs, and the larger 18" that uses two F15T8 bulbs.  I replaced both bulbs in the 12" with Startlights Revolution LED strip "bulbs", but used only one Startlight Revolution 18"  Led strip bulb in the 18" fixture. One Led gives plenty of light, easily equivalent to the two fluorescents, in my opinion.

The Led "bulb" is shaped just like the original fluorescent and fits into the pins in the fixture. That holds it mechanically in place but does nothing electrically. Each bulb has a black sheathed wiring harness, about the size of flat telephone wire, and this is connected to the 12v hot and ground wires of the fixture. The harness splits into two red wires and one goes to the positive (usually the light switch on the fixture) and the other to the 12v ground (negative). The harness has a plug in case you ever want to remove the led bulb, and the polarity doesn't matter, so you can't hook them up wrong.  The harness comes with a female spade connector on one wire, ready to slip onto the switch terminal after you unplug the ballast hot wire.  The other wire is bare and is spliced to the ground with a wire nut (provided in the bulb kit). In the photos below you can see one red wire going to the switch and the other spliced to the white 12v ground. I had to cut the ground wire where it went to the original 12v ballast  The ballast is for fluorescent only and not used with the Led replacement.

In the 12" fixture with two bulbs, I spliced the hot wires for the two Leds together with a new female spade connector before slipping it onto the switch. Both bulbs ground wires were spliced to the fixture ground using a single wire nut.

See Photos.
 

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Daisy and I have used LED's in our Dutch Star for about 3 years now.  Good for camping with no electricity as they uses one tenth of the current as other bulbs.  We replaced the halogens first as those we used the most.  Then replaced the fluorescence's in two short fixtures.  At the time the strips did not have fixture parts to lock them in place - like Garys does.  There is no heat so the strips just lay on the plastic lamp covers.  I paralled strips until I got the right amount of light for the area and what they are used for.  We also changed out the bayonet type on the four lamps using that style.

They are very expensive so we did not go for changing the lamps that get only momentary usage.  The primary purpose is for dry camping.  I found the installation to be very easy - halogens very easy.
 
So far I have changed 34 halogens to LEDs. All are "buck" driven variable voltage. Some "straight" 12 volt LEDs don't last long under the variable voltage of motorhomes, they are designed from residential use - to be transformer powered (constant voltage).
Any automotive LED should be fine. The ones on the site where Gary has arranged the discount are variable voltage and look to be high quality.

ken
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
Jim,
Take a ride up to our place and you can see them. I've done both the 12" and 18" in our coach. Did the G4 halogens too, but that was a over a year ago.

Gary,

That's what I had in mind. :)Maybe in a week or so.
 
I inquired about shipping to Canada. It turns out the website did not handle Canadian zip codes properly, but it is fixed now, so Canadians can order online rather than call.

Site owner J. Brain Skone also promised me he would honor the "free shipping" discount on large orders to Canada, though he didn't say how large the order had to be.  But you don't have to order many Leds to exceed $100 or so.

I'm picking up a couple of the high output (205 lumens) G4 Leds today to try them out. A standard 10w G4 Halogen is about 160 lumens, so the these ought to be brighter. I've got a couple halogen reading lamps mounted in the ceiling of a slideout and they really aren't quite bright enough at that distance. I'm hoping the 205's will be more usable for reading as well as more energy efficient.
 
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