light recommendations?

[nobber]

im after a couple of decent 12 volt lights for beneath my awning.
leds would be good if they are bright enough.
anyone recommend anything?

[mmgemini]

Go LED.
I made some for our last trip. All on the Africa Trip post on www.landroveraddict.com (http://www.landroveraddict.com)

Also have a look at Ardent electrical they sell some super ones, DON'T buy the big one, it's too bright.

http://www.ardentdl.com/light.asp?
And the next page.
HTH

[bvudzichena]

Nobber,

I've seen Mike's LED lead light first hand (and used it - but didn't get a change to nick it, what with him being a Yorkshireman and all :D) and I can vouch that it works very well.

It's about as basic as you can get. There's a ciggie lighter plug on one end, some twin flex electric cable, a pin type light fitting that you can buy in Homebase and this (http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/utri3ww-bay15d-mast-light-warm-white-light-p-1703.html) 12V LED light.

The whole setup works a charm.

[nobber]

oooh , that looks quite good , whats it like on the battery?
is 3 watts much power drain?

[Swingletree]

Considering that your headlights will be either 55 or 75 Watts each, 3W is nowt. ;)

[dreaming]

if you get rid of your awning you wont need a light.
i am fussy over lights. one of my downfalls. got so many stored away i could open a market. so far the best is the solar recharge. not bright and no cables. and you can move it around at will.
happy hunting(not sure if they sell them in the uk.)

[AnalogKid]

What Dreaming says about the solar recharge led lights...

This summer we took a bunch of them camping with us, were great for seeing round the tent at night. The ones I got had lawn spikes but also came apart, so I drilled a block of wood with a few of the right size hole and could stand three together, ideal for leaving the to charge and good enough to read a book by as well.

I know they're not much cop because of the delivery distance, but take a squiz at the solar rechargable garage shed light at Jaycar (http://www.jaycar.co.nz/productView.asp?ID=SL2715&CATID=&keywords=solar+garage+light&SPECIAL=&form=KEYWORD&ProdCodeOnly=&Keyword1=&Keyword2=&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID=), maybe there'll be something similar available in the UK.

[Marc Lurie]

whats it like on the battery?
is 3 watts much power drain?

P=VI (Power = Voltage X Current). Therefore 3 Watts will draw 0,22Amps at 13.8V. If you have a standard 80Ah car-type (not a deep discharge type) battery it will allow you to draw to around 60% capacity before it is functionally flat. That gives you around 220 hours of operation running one 3W light.

LED's are definitely an excellent way to go. They are very rugged, don't have fine filaments that break, they're waterproof, and they draw much lower current.

The new generation of super brights use even less power because they pulse on and of several hundred times a second, so they're actually OFF half the time, but they switch so fast you can't see the flicker.

[mmgemini]

I have more than one LED light.
If I were to put them all on together, five of them, I don't think the drain would be as much as your normal festoon interior light.