Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Trailer Mod - LED Awning Lights

A popular mod going around is the installation of LED Light Strip under the awning.  These relatively inexpensive item gives the camper a nice glow to it.

On the forums, pretty much everyone I see installing these had an electric awning.  I have a good old fashion manual awning.  They had a nice hole to run a wire through, I didn't.  I had to make my own hole, and that was the most nerve racking part of this mod.  If you can avoid making holes, that is the best way to go.

The dreaded hole in the camper.  I hope I know what I am doing...

The bushing.  I felt that this was the way to go.

I decided to cut the connectors off, since I was not going to drill a hole big enough for the connectors.  And they wouldn't go through the bushings either.

.Little help from my father, all wires soldered and each individual wire was heat shrinked, then the hole cord was heat shrinked. One nice thing about the Dometic LEDs is that the controller has terminal screws.  I wish this one did.

Don't forget to clean the surface for better sticking.

I was able to use nearly all of the LEDs.

A little test.

One more Test.
 .

A little silicone.  Goes on white, dries clear in 1 to 2 weeks...as what the package says.

 
I still don't have the finger smoothing down yet.  Hope that when it dries clear, it looks a little better.

I also put some silicone on the ends of the strip, as recommended by someone on one of the forums.

5 comments:

  1. I'm going to be very happy that I subscribed to your blog. :)

    What did you use for sticking the lights on? Did yours come with tape stuck to them? I bought 3M Automotive Adhesive and it was almost as expensive as the lights at a dollar a foot!

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  2. Hey @Doug S, I used what came on it, with a little clear silicone on the ends just to prevent lifting.

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  3. Fair enough - no issues with your trip this weekend, I assume? I know I read a message or two on FRF about the standard stuff not holding up. I was going to try with what came on it and then do something different if it didn't work out.

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  4. No issues with the lights. They were a hit. Many comments.

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  5. A popular mod going around is the installation of LED Light Strip under the awning. These relatively inexpensive item gives the camper a nice ... camperawninglights.blogspot.com

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