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[SarahW]

Originally Posted by spritz

SarahW,
Check out M4Products.com
Scroll down page till you see Exterior Lights
Scroll down till you see the 4x1
I am going to purchase the 2x4 ones Each unit has 10 Led's
Check out the pictures and if you move one way or the other they show what the Briteness looks like comparison between the 2 lenses. Mine are 32 years old and some are Cracked on the edges.
Looks like $100.00 to change all 14.
It should turn out brite and look nice, Good luck,
Tim

Thanks, Tim. I spent a bit of time on that website last night. Our current bulbs are the standard 1141's, so I found the LEDs that fit the base. Now I'm trying to get the brightest LEDs that will fit in the fixtures. These from Amazon look promising, but I need to see if they are too long... http://www.amazon.com/Brightest-Ba15...7AVK4GDPDJYY45

[donandmax]

As far as brightness is concerned its hard to beat the lights already installed in your unit. I switched to led's and now am sorry because of the brightness issue..

[SarahW]

Originally Posted by donandmax

As far as brightness is concerned its hard to beat the lights already installed in your unit. I switched to led's and now am sorry because of the brightness issue..

Don--are your LEDs too bright or not bright enough? I want to find LEDs that produce at least 300 lumens and have the "natural light" glow. I don't want those bright white ones, except maybe under the cabinets and in the bath area. I'd like to find the LEDs somewhere locally so I could "try on" a couple before I invest in the whole coach replacement.

[JFXG]

Originally Posted by SarahW

Don--are your LEDs too bright or not bright enough? I want to find LEDs that produce at least 300 lumens and have the "natural light" glow. I don't want those bright white ones, except maybe under the cabinets and in the bath area. I'd like to find the LEDs somewhere locally so I could "try on" a couple before I invest in the whole coach replacement.

When you get into the "warm white" or "bright white" conversations with LEDs, its not just about the lumens. LED lamps are usually also rated by color temperature-- the higher the color temp, the brighter and harsher the nature of the light, varying from the warm orangish glow of household incandescent to the harsh white-almost-blue of halogen and bright fluorescent. IIRC, the warm white you want to replace household lighting runs in a color temp range of about 2800K - 3500K. So, you need the right amount of lumens, but also the right type of lumens. It always gets easier, doesn't it?

[SarahW]

Originally Posted by JFXG

When you get into the "warm white" or "bright white" conversations with LEDs, its not just about the lumens. LED lamps are usually also rated by color temperature-- the higher the color temp, the brighter and harsher the nature of the light, varying from the warm orangish glow of household incandescent to the harsh white-almost-blue of halogen and bright fluorescent. IIRC, the warm white you want to replace household lighting runs in a color temp range of about 2800K - 3500K. So, you need the right amount of lumens, but also the right type of lumens. It always gets easier, doesn't it?

I'm thinking I'll just buy some from Amazon that have good ratings and hope for the best. And I found that our coach has three different types of bulbs...dah. The ceiling and under-counter lights are the G-4 halogens (NOT the 1141s I thought), and I want something a bit brighter since we have a dark interior in our Bounder.

[gruelens]

Originally Posted by donandmax

As far as brightness is concerned its hard to beat the lights already installed in your unit. I switched to led's and now am sorry because of the brightness issue..

Unfortunately there are far too many sub-standard LED bulbs being sold. The only way to compare is use the lumen rating for the original and compare it to the replacement.

[SarahW]

Originally Posted by gruelens

Unfortunately there are far too many sub-standard LED bulbs being sold. The only way to compare is use the lumen rating for the original and compare it to the replacement.

George--is there an easy way to determine lumen rating of the originals? We have 10W G4 LEDs currently but I don't know what brand they are. I'm "assuming" they are ~130 lumens from a few internet searches.

[Pepper2]

I'm new to this topic, so I'll be starting with a novices question. What are the advantages of replacing with led's? Lower draw on batteries for boondocking? Someone mentioned their safer? Where is the return on your investment coming from?
I'm mostly asking about the interior lights.

[SarahW]

Originally Posted by Pepper2

I'm new to this topic, so I'll be starting with a novices question. What are the advantages of replacing with led's? Lower draw on batteries for boondocking? Someone mentioned their safer? Where is the return on your investment coming from?
I'm mostly asking about the interior lights.

They don't put out much heat at all, compared to the VERY hot halogen bulbs. Also, they last pretty much forever and use a lot less energy to operate.

[Dunner]

Here's a picture of my Ebay $2.35 LED Dimer. Made in China and took about 2 weeks to get here

I also put a 1141 round style LED in my porch light.

[Dutch Star Don]

SarahW......Buy one or two lights at first and see if you like them. We replaced all our bayonet style (flat end) bulbs under our cabinets with warm white colored lights. They most closely matched the color of the halogen, which we like. Anything I buy in LED, I buy in "warm white" (temperature).

Some LED's will say right in their description that they're dimmable. They often will dim, just not as low as the halogens.

Something else to remember when buying LED's. Often, the light fixture has a chrome reflector and the round OEM bulb reflects off of the reflector for added light. Some of the LED's are flat and face outward, which does not bounce light off of the reflector and you lose some brightness.

Since they can be expensive, order one or two style/brightness, try them and then buy more if you like them.

[DavisK]

Originally Posted by SarahW

George--is there an easy way to determine lumen rating of the originals? We have 10W G4 LEDs currently but I don't know what brand they are. I'm "assuming" they are ~130 lumens from a few internet searches.

Here are a couple of sites that may help
Bulbs Specs - J.W. Speaker Corporation
Miniature / Automotive Light Bulb Search at eLightBulbs.com

[PDR John]

Originally Posted by SarahW

George--is there an easy way to determine lumen rating of the originals? We have 10W G4 LEDs currently but I don't know what brand they are. I'm "assuming" they are ~130 lumens from a few internet searches.

SarahW, I used this chart for comparing.

http://www.rvledbulbs.com/v/vspfiles...scentbulbs.pdf


The other thing I did, was make a map of all the lights on the coach.

That way if 1 burned out I didn't have to guess what type is was. Along with the head light and tail light housing manufacture.

[Smitty77]

I'm in the camp that 'seeing is knowing' and 'quality of components = quality of lighting'.

I recommend making contact with a single vendor and buy one or two of each bulb you think will work. CW, WW, NW all may look very different between different suppliers. And I also feel some of the lower quality component bulbs have rather 'generous' ratings as far as lumens and kelvin.

I sampled bulbs from M4 and GreenLongLife, this allowed me to pick the bulbs that I felt worked best for us. We had 15 puck lights, that have an inside adjustable cone and up/back pin (vs side pin of many pucks) G4 bulbs. The reflector cone was very small diameter towards the top, so finding bulbs that would fit and put out enough lighting was difficult.

The majority of our lights are M4, if your bulbs are available in the Elite series, that is the way to go. (And yes, they are not inexpensive. But they have superior build and component quality.). We ended up with a mix of CW and WW in these pucks, based upon the lighting need. We also used M4's in our bathroom mirror lighting and, our sconces. We used the GreenLongLife bulbs in two lighting fixtures that M4 did not have a product for, and for pucks where task lighting was not the objective.

Once you sample the, at least with M4, you can send back the bulbs that are not right for you. 30 day period to do this.

Boondocking reduced power consumption, and heat gain, were our two primary reasons for changing over to LED's.

One last comment. If you are keeping the rig for several years, don't go cheap on the LED's. As mentioned by other posters, most LED's should never need replacement. So for us, with a 10+ years of usage ahead of us, we figure we spread that cost out over years of usage.

Best to all,
Smitty