External lights (LED) for camping etc

[Ryzz Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ryzz]

Cheers guys - some great points!

Its just me and the girlfriend in a swag, so small set up compared to most. We just want light for preparing meals and sitting and chatting after dark.

After reading your posts and some more searching I think either something like these two combined together.
1.http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/FLOOD-BEA...dc555ed&_uhb=1
2.http://korrlighting.com.au/led-pole-clamp.html

or making / buying one of the magnetic ones like craigm / Smithy have rigged up.

I would love to wire it straight to the second battery but I am scared I would mess it all up... not very electrically minded. Is it difficult Ryzz?

Not overly hard, no. As I already had run power from the second battery to the cargo area, it was just a matter of tapping into this power feed. It also involved taking all the trim of the back door to run power cables out
through the grommet for the reversing camera.
If you have a second battery and are comfortable pulling out seats and internal panels, it's relatively straight forward. The actual connecting to the second battery is just a matter of running positive and negative leads from the second battery (you MUST have + & - from second battery) via a switch to the rear door.

[Toby Munro Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Toby Munro]

Ok cool - I think that will be the end game then. Until I get that sorted, what is everyone's opinion on drawing power from the trailer connector / pick up? Is that a safe / ok thing to do?

From my research it seems ok (I found lots of forums for other cars with guides on using it for winches etc). Assuming its safe, the main issue is that it is likely running off the primary battery, not the secondary one. We would only need the lights for a couple hours a night max and have nothing else running off the car so I don't see the draw being a big issue so long as we were to drive everyday for a few ks to bring the battery back up. Could you just buy an LED light / light bar and then replace the cigarette lighter connector with a 7 pin trailer connector and plug it straight in? Otherwise we would need to have something open to run the cable to one of the cigarette lighter points.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, just seems like a logical solutions as its obviously got power, and we don't currently use it (and that isn't changing any time soon).

[Guest Close Guest]

Sounds logical to me.

[Ryzz Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ryzz]

Ok cool - I think that will be the end game then. Until I get that sorted, what is everyone's opinion on drawing power from the trailer connector / pick up? Is that a safe / ok thing to do?

From my research it seems ok (I found lots of forums for other cars with guides on using it for winches etc). Assuming its safe, the main issue is that it is likely running off the primary battery, not the secondary one. We would only need the lights for a couple hours a night max and have nothing else running off the car so I don't see the draw being a big issue so long as we were to drive everyday for a few ks to bring the battery back up. Could you just buy an LED light / light bar and then replace the cigarette lighter connector with a 7 pin trailer connector and plug it straight in? Otherwise we would need to have something open to run the cable to one of the cigarette lighter points.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, just seems like a logical solutions as its obviously got power, and we don't currently use it (and that isn't changing any time soon).

Make it really simple, goto somewhere like JayCar and buy some twin cable, Anderson Plugs & a circuit breaker. Next goto Bunnings and buy a packet of Cable Ties (lets face it, you can NEVER have enough cable ties handy!). Next find a clean path from the battery to the road beneath (follow the cable looms in the engine bay back to the firewall and go down from there), cable tie the twin cable to the chassis rails as high up and out of the way as possible. Make sure the cable run is tight so it cant get snagged by a branch or something underneath (you could go as far as feeding the cable in flexible plastic conduit for extra protection). Run the cable all the way to the tow bar frame. Terminate the cable with the Anderson Plug on the tow bar frame, making it easy to access. Next go and put the Circuit Breaker on the POSITIVE wire approx 0.5-1M from the battery.

Now you have a power run all the way to the back of the can power a light using a standard Anderson Plug.

[mullerwh Member Find all posts View Profile Close mullerwh]

I saw these at the Brisbane show and bought the .5m recently.http://www.camperledaustralia.com.au/ Very happy with these and they run of 12v and 240v.

With regard to you Coleman lamp, I modified mine to run directly from 12v or 240v. The lamp runs of 12v rechargeable battery, if you remove the battery and connect it directly to 12v socket or use the recharge adapter you have a dual 12v/240v lamp. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/5-X-DC-12...-/271229048023. I just drilled a hole on side and left connected this jack directly to the 12v battery connectors.