Cabin Lighting.. and 240v..

[icebreaker]

Well after the misses took my car camping around Tassie for 10 days with a Girlfriend, something that was on my mind was highlighted.. The back of the car has no lighting..

The stock light is seriously pathetic, and now i've made up new panels there is no stock light...

I'm wanting to know what people have done with there vehicles to get some light in the boot, and what creative stuff have people done with 240v inverters????


My Plans
----------

I was thinking of mounting the inverter in the door with 2 power points..
- Air pump, neon light, stereo for camp site.. stuff like there..

Lighting, I was thinking a couple of 12v Halogens in those ceiling mounts... But I honestly don't know if that's the way to go. I'd also like to tackle some lighting improvements in the front, perhaps a map type light on each rear passenger side as well.


Thanks


Dan

[Croz]

I have a 12v fluro mouinted in the boot, It's pretty lame but gives enough light for rigging up a fishing line or getting a beer out of the esky. The cable reaches to the bonnet and i can work on the motor if need arises.

I have it running through a ciggy lighter plug I mounted on the rear panel above the courtesy light.

I like the idea of the 12 volt halogens, they would give great light in the back and you could moung them to swivel bases, even switch them from the front and rear so yhou can see when you turn around to hunt for something in the back.


Nice idea... next time I'm in jaycar I might have a squizz for them. Might also look for some for map lights in the front.

[icebreaker]

I'm thinking I might mount a Cigaretta lighter plug in the rear also, as my Air Pump runs of one, and we use it when camping to pump up the air matress....

Might mount the mechanics flouro (240V) in the amp rack compartment also.. That'll be idea for lighting up the engine bay, and checking under the car, etc.

I was thinking those map light things mounted into the side panels near the passenger arm rests because if the cars loaded up, and you want access to the forward portion of the rear at night, you can see what you're doing when you bring the front seats forward... People think that could be useful? or over kill?


Dan

[Clint]

I have a 12volt fluro about 18 inches long zip tied to the roll cage. (just on the inside of where the high stop lamp is)
Ran the wires down to the original light so that it and be switched to on/off/door.
Gives a good spread of light through the whole car.

[murcod]

LED lighting or fluorescent is the go if you don't want much current drain from your battery.

I've run a wire from my aux battery to the trailer socket on the rear bumper. I then use a spare trailer plug with about 6m of cable and a cigarette lighter socket on the end to power things. I can run that into the tent and plug in a 12V CFL (equivalent to a 60w globe) for lighting which draws around 0.8 Amp. I've also got a three LED yacht light that's good for providing a low level light (finding your way around in the tent at night etc)- that draws around 0.1Amp.

Jaycar and boating supply places (eg Whitworths) have lots of good lights to choose from.

I'd avoid halogen lights as they will flatten your battery very quickly and generate a lot of heat.

[icebreaker]

Fair point on the Halogens.. Damn I wish i'd never sold my Optima Yellow top, that thing would run all night long.

The stock battery is tiny...

[ShinyDiscoBalls]

Not that this is relevant... but my Disco came stock with a lighter fitting in the boot....

[BundyRumandCoke]

I run everything off 2 pin polarised low voltage plugs, wired with good quality cable to the aux battery. At one stage I had 6 in various parts of the Rocky. I dont trust ciggy plugs, as the wiring to them isnt up to scratch.
I have just killed a 150w inverter which I had mounted onto the cargo barrier for about 4 years. I used it to run laptop, 240w fluros, ect. I am going to be fitting a 300w unit shortly.
As for lights in the rear, I dont think you can go past the twin tube 12v fluros. I also have a 24 inch 240v fluro converted to run off 12v on a 10m lead for camping, as well as a newly aquired 12v low wattage type compact fluro.

[DeVooluff]

Quite some time ago I replaced the dome lighting bulb with 3 10mm High Brightness LEDs glued together and filed to shape. At the same time I ran a wire through the space in the cabin roof (drivers side) to the small access panels in the roof behind the driver and passenger. A LED on each side (mounted in one of those stupid 'windscreen wiper nozzle light' mounts) points backward and illuminates the rear cabin. (that's also where I mount the piezos for my sound system)

Looks a bit ricer, but if you get the colour right (blue-white) it fits in well with the rest of the console lighting. Additional benefit is that all 5 LEDs only use ~100mA of power and are virtually blow proof.

By setting the current limiting resistors downstream of the custom wiring you can ensure that any shorts in your wiring will have virtually no consequence.

If you are happy to calculate the resistance values and do a bit of soldering, it's a piece of piss. Knowing a cheap supplier of decent LEDs wont hurt either ( www.oatleyelectronics.com)