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03-01-2021, 05:35 PM
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#1
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 1,257
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Penthouse mounted exterior LED lights
I'm looking for a low profile LED outside light that I can mount to the penthouse top. I found this on superbrightled website. I'm sure someone has done this. I'm hoping for a pic of how it turned out. This is a surface mount light. I was planning on cleaning off a spot of the raptor lining and UHB tape it on and then tie the power wire into my galley overhead light. Anyone done this?
__________________
2001 Ford RB 7.3 Quadvan (sold)
2006 Sportsmobile EB Transformer 6.0
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03-01-2021, 05:40 PM
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#2
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: TN
Posts: 10,251
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I've been eyeing those as well, but for a different application.
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03-01-2021, 07:15 PM
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#3
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Site Team
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Southern New Mexico
Posts: 10,179
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I would be careful to make sure you do not pick too bright of a light (unless dimmable) if you're looking for ambient lite. nd make sure that you aim it downward unless you want to be blinded every time you look back at your camper.
Herb
__________________
SMB-less as of 02/04/2012. Our savings account is richer, but our adventures are poorer.
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03-02-2021, 12:34 AM
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#4
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: Longmont, CO
Posts: 325
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Herb makes a great point. I have a pair of these (one per side) on our pop top. It provides a great deal of light, but we use it only for task lighting (cooking/cleaning after dark). If you're looking for ambient lighting, make sure you don't overspec the light output. This is a horrible photo, but it shows just how much light this small LED pod puts out:
(For what it's worth, I confirmed that the pod is actually 40W using a bench power supply. If you've ever bought Made-In-China LED lights, you know that the ratings are often nonsense.)
__________________
2011 Ford E350 EB Quigley 4x4 'PUPLGUK' | V10 Gas | Opt Overland Pop Top | GBS LiFeMnPO4 100Ah
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03-02-2021, 08:52 AM
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#5
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: North of SanDiego
Posts: 233
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Concerning dimmers for LEDs, I just installed one of these remote control types for the interior lights. Works great!
This one defaults to ON if a wired switch is used as part of the circuit. SBLED has one that defaults to OFF also.
https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...ote/1370/3140/
__________________
2003 E-350, 5.4 V8, 2x4, LSD 4.10, WeldTec 6" lift, SMB, Penthouse
2016 Beta 500 RS
2014 KTM 350 EXC-F
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03-02-2021, 10:46 AM
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#6
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: TN
Posts: 10,251
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That's impressive light. Adding a dimmer like that gives you ultimate versatility. I find that when I set up camp after dark our lights are full on and get dimmed more and more to the lowest setting as we finish setting up, cooking and chilling out.
Best when the night is ended with only the glow of a waining campfire and enough light back at the rig to see to get to it.
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03-02-2021, 11:26 AM
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#7
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: Longmont, CO
Posts: 325
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I feel kind of stupid for not even considering a dimmer on the exterior lights now. My family has a habit of 'adventuring' until the sun goes down, so our original use case was driven by the thought of maneuvering the van into camping spots in the dark. For that the lights work great (3 sets left/rear/right on separate switches), but a dimmer would provide additional flexibility.
The photo doesn't show it, but the light is angled pretty steeply downwards. I forgot to mention that my light is mounted to the rack on the pop top, so the pic shows the wider spill with the top up.
__________________
2011 Ford E350 EB Quigley 4x4 'PUPLGUK' | V10 Gas | Opt Overland Pop Top | GBS LiFeMnPO4 100Ah
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03-02-2021, 11:38 AM
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#8
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 1,257
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When I snow camped last week a guy pulls up in a huge SMB sprinter and had led light bars hanging off all 4 sides and on full blast. It was like an alien ship landing and the biggest "look at me" entrance I've ever seen. A dimmer is now a crucial add. The swivel mounted added lights are what I want to avoid. A low profile light pointing down is what I'm going for. I'll see if I can dim the surface mount.
__________________
2001 Ford RB 7.3 Quadvan (sold)
2006 Sportsmobile EB Transformer 6.0
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03-02-2021, 11:43 AM
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#9
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: North of SanDiego
Posts: 233
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For those SBLED dimmers, you can run up to three controllers with one remote, I think.
__________________
2003 E-350, 5.4 V8, 2x4, LSD 4.10, WeldTec 6" lift, SMB, Penthouse
2016 Beta 500 RS
2014 KTM 350 EXC-F
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03-02-2021, 11:44 AM
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#10
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2015
Location: ree-know, nuh-vah-duh
Posts: 337
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Not the best photo, but we replaced the stock SMB "light" on the passenger side with Tecniq D30's + added two to the rear penthouse + added one to the drivers rear penthouse.
and a nighttime photo showing how the D30's appear thru the backup cam
TecNiq | D30
For ambient lighting, we used 12 Tecniq S17 ambers attached to the body seam:
https://www.sportsmobileforum.com/fo...tml#post282543
All lights are mounted with weld-mount studs and a hole for the wiring.
__________________
Chris
2006 E350 EB 4x4 SMB: 6.0L-5R110-Atlas-D60-D60FF-yada-yada-yada
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