Thin Lite Problems

[jollyjim]

I have a number of Thin Lite fluorescent lights in our motorhome and am have had problems with them ever since we bought the coach several years ago. New bulbs seem to help for a short while and then they start refusing to come on fully or will come on fully sometimes and not other times. Will a bad ballast do this or does a bad ballast just refuse to light the bulbs at all? Any other ideas as to what I can do to fix these perplexing lights?

I know that low voltage to the lights could be causing this problem, but I don't have a way to trace the wires. We have wiring diagrams for the coach, but they don't show the DC lighting.

[nightriderrv]

There should be a reading of 12v or 13.6 when plugged in on the feed wires going to the lights and yes a ballest will cause that issue.

[Wizard]

Go Here for A lot of information on thin lights

solarseller.com alternative energy by John Drake Services, Inc.

[jmdermo]

A company named "Northern Arizona Wind & Sun", sells the replacement ballast for "Thin-Lite". You can go to the website (Thin-Lite Replacement Ballast IB-716) and find the one that fits your units. They are easy to replace.

[RVhauler]

Fixtures can be returned to Thinlite corp in CA for repair for a fixed fee. Turn around time is very quick. No RA # is needed. Have had two repaired over past five years and with full satisfaction

[docj]

We had a ballast fail in one of our Thinlite fixtures and I decided to use LEDs rather than get a replacement. The ballasts are ~$25-30 with shipping and the cost of the LEDs wasn't all that much more. Here's what I installed: Ming Natural White 12" 300L RV LED Tube for Fluorescent Lights By using an LED that looks like a fluorescent tube the overall look of the fixture doesn't change.

Two of these bulbs produce slightly more light than the fluorescent tubes did. I could have gotten higher output LEDs but they would have been too bright for the bathroom they were being used in.