Date:         Mon, 21 Mar 2011 08:52:39 -0600
Reply-To:     Paul Connelly <vanagonhummingbird@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Paul Connelly <vanagonhummingbird@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Westy Interior Lighting
In-Reply-To:  <AANLkTi=ZW=C2Le58oO7XF+SC8PQRtY09whkupXkR=b3F@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Hi All,

Been away from the list for a couple of years - not enough time to get out
camping! Anyway, digging Hummingbird out of her winter snowbank and looking
forward to some springtime in the Rockies!

I finally "lost" the original light fixture below the rear shelf and I'm
looking for newer solutions. I tried fitting 4 CCFL 12" tubes with two
matching brown/gold rocker switches all neatly set up in and on the bead on
the front face of the rear shelf (perfect size). Seemed to me to be a really
bright and tidy solution with all of the wiring hidden in routed paths in
the shelf itself and the inverters fitting neatly into the cavities on the
frame behind the shelf. Problem is, to run to the inverters you need to cut
and extend the wires between the inverters and the tubes. They seem to be
hyper sensitive to this and I could never get even or consistent lighting
from the CCFL tubes after that. In order to make my "tidy" solution work it
required just drilling a pinhole through the bead on the shelf so that the
wires disappeared as soon as they exited the CCFL tube. So even if I could
find a solution without extending the wires I would still have to cut them
and re-solder them to keep it neat.

So my question is - whats the current thinking on the newest solutions to
this lighting for the cabin. I had a search of the archives and saw the
postings on the dot lights and LED's etc. Has anyone found a nice neat wired
solution that improves the overall lighting in the cabin? Obviously
utilizing some newer technologies with low draws from the house battery.

Cheers,

Paul.

'86 Syncro Westy
Hummingbird

PS If anyone has a brown window crank or two from a Vanagon/Jetta/Rabbit etc
that fit I could use them too. Oh, and.....