Instrument Panel

[whmprt]

The panel is hard to see even in the daylight. What have you done to see the panel better. I have been using a flashlight to see it.

[WBandJ]

Here's a thread about this problem. I have added the led strip and blackened the bezel around the gauges. http://www.irv2.com/forums/f59/viewi...el-152791.html

[TeJay]

This is what I did to fix the lighting issue. It's about a $30 MOD when you figure the lights, variable resistor or potentionmeter & toggle switch.

Notice on the first pic there's a black knob with a silver center and a toggle switch with a white plastic cover in the upper left hand corner.

The knob is the dimmer or lighting control and the switch turns it on.

I used switched (ignition is turned on) 12 volts from behind the dash. I really don't vary the brightness much at all. If you drive at night you might need it but we seldom do now that we are retired.

The lights work well enough even on cloudy days it needs more light to see all the darkened corners so I almost never turn it off.

The LED lights are white and are available at any car/truck parts house for under $20.

The lights do come with sticky attaching tape which should work. I added some silicone just to make sure they stay stuck.

To install I drilled 1/16" holes in the dash where the LED wires ended and ran the wires to the back so I could pick up the 12-volts and wire in the switch and POT. The thin wooden cover is silicon-ed to the top area of the dash.

The actual lights, wiring and holes are behind the wooden strip which deflects the bright LED lights.

[bandit2026]

Hey Tejay, how hard was it to access the back of the dash? Would you use the dimmer again?

[TeJay]

Here's two pics showing the dash. The first pic shows the bottom of the dash cover that I covered with fiberglass making it a stiffer. You can see 6 of the 8 screw that hold the top piece to the dash area.

The next pic shows the ARC of the dash. That entire top arched panel comes off providing very easy access to the back of the dash gauges and a lot of wires. So yes it is easily accessible.

With our 1999 Dutch Star I could remove all the dash screws and remove the entire electrical dash panel so that one was also easy to access any needed wires. Not every RV has easy access to dash wires.

I should take a pic of the top from the top so one can see how easy it is to get to the dash.

We rarely travel at night but when we did I used the dimmer to soften the dash lighting. It's not an expensive item so I would add it again.

I'm 74 and the DW is 70 and we are not planning on selling this RV. It's taken us 4 years to do all the MODS. If we make it to 84 and still doing OK we'll continue. Do we really know what's around the next bend? No! If we had to sell the dimmer is there for the next owners.