Trailer interior lighting.

[Turblue]

What's the best 12vdc light for the enclosed trailers? I was thinking led lights. Suggestions ?

 

[TDR]

LED's and two 6 V batteries. Low power consumption and great power supply.

 

[Turblue]

What type of LEDs are the best way to go. Who sells them? I already have battery system in the trailer.

 

[Grinder]

I bought leds off ebay shipped from hong kong. They are 5m long waterproof 300 bulbs per strip and $5.00 shipped to my door. I bought 10 strips 5 per side the only problem I had was joints in the metal I didnt leave an loose loop for contracting metal in winter. A couple did pull apart but you can solder it back together.

 

[maxwell]

I had those worked awesome for two years then started failing

 

[Summitric]

I used the stock lites and added an extra and just put led lite bulbs in them... Very nice and Bright inside


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[Turblue]

I used the stock lites and added an extra and just put led lite bulbs in them... Very nice and Bright inside


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yeah I was thinking of starting with the led bulbs in the existing lights.

 

[Summitric]

Cheapest and easiest, anyway


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[blubbles]

LED strips are the way to go. As of recent you can get a newer style of strip (search 5630) that puts out WAYY more light then the old style (5050, or 3528). We used 20M for our entire 4 place and its like... almost uncomfortably bright. I will see if i've got a photo of it to post. Just make sure you get the 60LED/M, as opposed to the 30LED/M.

Anytime I hear people say they are not bright enough just didn't do their research. That and 2 6V RV batteries and you are good to go. Oh and we ran a little bead of hot glue in addition to the adhesive backing, never had them come off ever.

Just grabbed a chart to show the difference.

LED	Dimensions	Chip Surface Area	Lumen Flux	Power Draw
3528 LED	3.5 mm x 2.8 mm	9.8 mm²	6-8 lumens	20-30 mA @ 2.8-3.4 Volts
5050 LED	5.0 mm x 5.0 mm	25 mm²	16-22 lumens	60 mA @ 2.8-3.4 Volts
5630 LED	5.6 mm x 3.0 mm	16.8 mm²	45-50 lumens	150 mA @ 2.8-3.4 Volts

 

[SHREK1]

Rigid has a nice option, good display board at custom truck in edmonton, put them in mine and super happy

 

[Cat401]

LED strips are the way to go. As of recent you can get a newer style of strip (search 5630) that puts out WAYY more light then the old style (5050, or 3528). We used 20M for our entire 4 place and its like... almost uncomfortably bright. I will see if i've got a photo of it to post. Just make sure you get the 60LED/M, as opposed to the 30LED/M.

Anytime I hear people say they are not bright enough just didn't do their research. That and 2 6V RV batteries and you are good to go. Oh and we ran a little bead of hot glue in addition to the adhesive backing, never had them come off ever.

Just grabbed a chart to show the difference.

LED	Dimensions	Chip Surface Area	Lumen Flux	Power Draw
3528 LED	3.5 mm x 2.8 mm	9.8 mm²	6-8 lumens	20-30 mA @ 2.8-3.4 Volts
5050 LED	5.0 mm x 5.0 mm	25 mm²	16-22 lumens	60 mA @ 2.8-3.4 Volts
5630 LED	5.6 mm x 3.0 mm	16.8 mm²	45-50 lumens	150 mA @ 2.8-3.4 Volts

Can you show some pics of where / how you mounted them in your trailer?

 

[Rbrduk]

Here's mine. Picked up the lights at PA. A little more than on eBay. Ran 4 three foot strips in the corners and a four footer across the roof in the centre. Wired them all into the tail light wiring.

 

[gibsons]

I bought leds off ebay shipped from hong kong. They are 5m long waterproof 300 bulbs per strip and $5.00 shipped to my door. I bought 10 strips 5 per side the only problem I had was joints in the metal I didnt leave an loose loop for contracting metal in winter. A couple did pull apart but you can solder it back together.

those are the same as I put in my trailer, and like maxwell said, this is our third season and they are starting to fail. Well worth it though for the price. I have photos in the trailer interior section I think.

 

[Summitric]

this is with led bulbs in three factory lite fixtures... nice bright white lite

 

[towerrigger]

Princess Auto 5" round LED lights. Put 4 in the roof. Pretty happy with the results

 

[X-Treme]

Here's mine. Picked up the lights at PA. A little more than on eBay. Ran 4 three foot strips in the corners and a four footer across the roof in the centre. Wired them all into the tail light wiring.

Wired them into the tail light wiring? So when you're driving down the road at night, the inside of the trailer is always lit up? Interesting...

 

[vodoo103]

I have 8 recessed LED puck lights in my trailer - similar to link below. Nice clean finish & lots of light.

If I would have known how good they work, I would have just put in a few more instead of spending the extra $$ to put in the fluorescent fixtures for when I have the trailer plugged in.


https://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/recessed-lighting/filter/Volts_Typical,12,100,3898:

 

[towerrigger]

Wired them into the tail light wiring? So when you're driving down the road at night, the inside of the trailer is always lit up? Interesting...

Same wiring as my trailer, came like that from factory. Although it was only one chitty light by door. Just have all the lights on a switch.

 

[X-Treme]

Same wiring as my trailer, came like that from factory. Although it was only one chitty light by door. Just have all the lights on a switch.

Oh. Right. Duh. A switch in the circuit. Serious brain fart this morning.

 

[blubbles]

Little bit hard to see but you get the idea (if you look theres a centre section after the vent that are not even connected yet.) Don't have any photos after we connected it up. Just ran out of wire and we were leaving the next day haha. Lots of light, we left the incandescents as well, but honestly if you turn them on its like no difference what so ever.


I'll get a picture of the wiring that we did on the front of this, we did a pretty thorough job on it, just what happens when a bunch of instrument/electrical techs get together and do a sled trailer. As for hearing guys run them to the stock lights.... I would be pretty careful.

Really if you can run these off of a separate battery you are in much better shape, just looking at the current, those strips are still 280W total. And at 12V thats puts you at nearly 25 Amps.... And looking at the length of some of these runs you are pretty much in the realm of 8 gauge wiring. Putting that through the small connectors to the truck is just asking for issues. And then if you have a small battery you can now use them even if the truck isn't connected. Just gotta run the AUX wire from your trailer plug to the batteries and you will be charging them every time you drive.

We went a bit above here by putting the stereo in here as well with 8 speakers we put a dedicated speaker amp, and a subwoofer amp. Also tieing a 3000Watt inverter in here so you can use AC power while driving.... Then a battery charger just for good measure since this trailer can be sitting for months without use. Then the red switch is a disconnect, so if we are connected up in the front we don't need to run inverters for the 120V, and we still power everything. Also if we want to just kill everything to make sure we are not draining the batteries.

Hope this helps!