First Post - LED Lighting Question

Howdy from Houston, Texas!!!! This is my first post on this forum. I hope to learn alot about Hi-Lo travel trailers and hopefully help others as I learn.

My oldest daughter and son-in-law purchased a 1989 22' Funchaser this weekend. It seems to be in pretty good shape. My SIL and I spent most of the weekend checking the water system (pump, tanks, faucets, shower...). We still have to check the propane system. Getting the tanks filled tomorrow.

I'm sure we will have lots of questions down the road soon.

The trailer has the original lamps with lampshades and under-the-cabinet dome lights. We want to take down the lights with the lampshades and replace them with LED light fixtures. We'd like to keep the under-the-cabinet dome fixtures with screw-in bulbs and replace the bulbs with LEDs.

Before I search for fixtures and LED lights we wanted to see what some of you guys and gals might have already done. We're looking for a brighter light than stock that doesn't shine right in your face as we know LEDs can get pretty bright.

If you have pics, model numbers or websites that you can point us to, we'd be very grateful.

We'll be posting pics soon as well to share with you guys and gals.

Howdy from Iowa and welcome to the forum,

I just replaced my 12v lighting with LEDs. The bulbs in "dome" type fixtures where #1156 automotive bulbs which I replaced with LED from Amazon, Eversale was the vendor. Simply push twist remove old bulb, push twist install new bulb, about $6 each.

I had one 18" fluorescent that I bought a LED strip with adhesive back and will loop it back and forth on the base cutting off the excess and then replace the cover. Also from amazon but I forget the vendor.

Headed for Corpus Christi in feb.

Jim

miniceptor86 said:

Howdy from Iowa and welcome to the forum,

I just replaced my 12v lighting with LEDs. The bulbs in "dome" type fixtures where #1156 automotive bulbs which I replaced with LED from Amazon, Eversale was the vendor. Simply push twist remove old bulb, push twist install new bulb, about $6 each.
Jim

Click to expand...

Yesterday I replaced a few of my trailer's bulbs with the ones from Amazon/Eversdale (Amazon.com: LED 2W 12V White Omni Bulb BA15S 1156 P21W Brake Tail 18 5050 SM: Home Improvement). I did not replace them all because I wanted to see how the LED light compared to the incandescent light.

I used the warm white direct replacement bulbs. All in all, I'm very pleased. I'm going to order a few more to replace the rest.

Raul

Thank you for the info regarding the dome fixture lights and trailer bulbs.

My daughter's and her hubby's 89 Hi-Lo has the candlestick w/shade lights at the cabinet level. We are looking to replace these candlestick fixtures with LED fixtures........for brighter, but indirect lighting as LEDs can blind you.

Any ideas?

I'm not familiar with those fixtures. Could you post a photo?

Jim

Are these 120V household light fixtures or 12V? If 120V you can try Home Depot or similar.

I think those were 12 volt fixtures and they had single filament two contact base bulbs in them. So you can't replace the bulbs with LED bulbs unless they are that type. I can't remember the bulb number.

miniceptor86 said:

I'm not familiar with those fixtures. Could you post a photo?

Jim

Click to expand...

Here's a few pics of the candlestick fixtures that we want to replace with newer LED fixtures. We don't want to look for a LED bulb replacement for them.

We don't want a LED fixture that shines the bright light straight outwards because they can be blinding. I have 6k LEDs in my Tundra truck's interior and I am glad they shine downward and not outward.

We're believing someone has converted their older candlestick lights w/shades to another type fixture. We hope we can use LEDs inside the newer fixture.


pic of 1989 candlestick light fixture w/shade. There are 6-7 lights like this in the unit.


candlestick light fixture w/out the shade. Yep, that's a burned bulb for sure.


close-up pic of candlestick light fixture.


lampshades have been removed. There are 2 lights above the dinette area shown here. There is 1 above the refrigerator area and the other 2 are above the sofa/bed at the front of the trailer.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!!!!! Thanks!!!!!

We want to keep these dome lights. There are 5 throughout the trailer. They use the 1156 bulb. I am looking the the brightest 5k-6k LED light. Right now the screw-in LED replacement suggested here is at the top of our list.

Here's a pic of the dome light.

candle stick lights in HiLo

I have these same candle stick lights in my 1990 HiLo Classic. We have not converted over to LED bulbs. The fixtures can be disasembled down to the wire and the gold metal can be taped off and repaited with rattle can paint. New shades are available at Hobby Lobby. In the store or on line. If need be you can putg some sodder on the bottom of the bulb to make better contact. To make better contace the inside metal strip and be gently lifted up to help with contact. Best of luck with your upgrades.

You can replace the 1076 incandescent bulbs with LEDs and replace the shades. This is the same supplier that I purchased LED bulbs for my Hi-Lo. I am very happy with them:
Amazon.com: LED 2W 12V White Omni Bulb BA15D 1142 1076 Brake Tail 18 5050: Automotive

As an alternative, you can replace your fixtures with more modern LED fixtures. I found that boat supply houses tend to have a better selection than RV suppliers. Check defender.com and westmarine.com.

Raul

Thanks for the replies!!!! We ended up ordering 5 of the 1156 LED replacement bulbs that screw in just like the 1156's they are replacing. We like the under the counter and ceiling bathroom fixtures.

We are replacing the 5 candlestick with lamp shade fixtures with more modern dome fixtures that take a single 921 LED bulb.

Ordered the modern fixtures off ebay and the LEDs from Amazon from Eversale as recommended. Each of the LEDs came out to about $5 apiece which I think is great. I ordered 2 extras as spares.

I will post pics as soon as we install everything. Thanks again.

Norton Rider said:

Yesterday I replaced a few of my trailer's bulbs with the ones from Amazon/Eversdale (Amazon.com: LED 2W 12V White Omni Bulb BA15S 1156 P21W Brake Tail 18 5050 SM: Home Improvement). I did not replace them all because I wanted to see how the LED light compared to the incandescent light.

I used the warm white direct replacement bulbs. All in all, I'm very pleased. I'm going to order a few more to replace the rest.

Raul

Click to expand...

I replaced all of my interior lights with these bulbs. They are brighter than the 1156 bulbs and there is a little more glare. On the lights above the countertops the glare that came through the side of the light lens was annoying. It is about at eye level. I installed two layers of charcoal colored fiberglass window screen on the side of the lens. (on the inside of the lens) This eliminated the glare.

Thankful said:

I replaced all of my interior lights with these bulbs. They are brighter than the 1156 bulbs and there is a little more glare. On the lights above the countertops the glare that came through the side of the light lens was annoying. It is about at eye level. I installed two layers of charcoal colored fiberglass window screen on the side of the lens. (on the inside of the lens) This eliminated the glare.

Click to expand...

The flat panel LEDs don't seem to have the side glare problem. What I noticed more was what degree of white the different types of panels put out. I prefer the warm white over the bright white.

We installed the new lights last night. I'm going to open a new thread with pics......89 Hi-Lo Interior Lighting Update.

Good reading on LED's

Making the LED Swap