I also installed one of these Unity post-mount spotlights. It hit me the other day that this would be perfect for shining down side-roads when looking for a late-night forest road camping spot!
I ordered
this black Unity spotlight from magnalight.com.
The included
instructions contained a useful drill-hole template, but otherwise they were very confusing. The same instructions are used for all Unity's spotlight variants, so they end up being unneededly complicated. I ended up basically winging it -- it wasn't too difficult to figure out how to adjust the spotlight.
Overall, installation wasn't too bad. The worst part was psyching myself up to drill a big hole into my van! Get the longest 1/2" drill bit you can find.
I painted the outside chrome bits flat black. The end result:
The quality of my Unity spotlight wasn't great. The light enclosure is plastic rather than metal -- we'll see over time how this stands up to my abuse. Defects I encountered include:
- The plastic was cracked where a rivet on the bottom of the light enclosure seems to have been installed too tightly.[/*:m:9k7vu00p]
- The chrome was had a half-inch chip missing. This wasn't a big deal to me, since I painted it black anyway.[/*:m:9k7vu00p]
- The on/off switch wouldn't stay switched off until I took it apart and fiddled with the contacts.[/*:m:9k7vu00p]
- [edit: 8/2012] After 4 months of use, the outside gasket looks heavily cracked and weathered.[/*:m:9k7vu00p]
I still haven't figured out yet where to wire this up for 12V power, but I tested it by putting the wire into my cigarette lighter.
Many years ago I had a
1980 Plymouth Gran Fury with this type of spotlight -- fun to have one again!
-- Geoff