Seneca Storage Bay lighting

[SloPoke]

I've been wanting to have better lighting in our exterior Storage Bays for some time now. Jayco installs a basic light on the side wall of the compartment with a switch on the front of it. I replaced the bulb a few times and now have LED bulbs in these lights - but they just don't help much when you are hunting for something in there at night.

I picked up some white LED 12v lights and an automotive door switch and built my first bay light system that comes on when the door opens and shuts it off when I close the bay door.

The lights are attached to the ceiling of the bay, just inches from the door. I pulled the power from behind the existing bay light and tapped into the Jayco wiring for power - and the pin door switch completes the circuit to the baggage compartment frame which is already grounded.

[Rustynuts]

Looks good, that was one of the first mods I did and love it. Being ours was a 2018.5 with the new pass-thru storage area I wired mine to the jam switches so all the lights come on no matter which door of the common storage area you open.

[jeffro01]

That's awesome... I am thinking of doing something similar as I don't like where Jayco put the lights and turning them on/off individually is a real PITA...

Jeff

[Rustynuts]

Originally Posted by jeffro01

That's awesome... I am thinking of doing something similar as I don't like where Jayco put the lights and turning them on/off individually is a real PITA...

Jeff

What I did with newer Seneca with the pass-thru common area storage is I ran LED strip lighting and wired them to jam switches on all those doors that ground the lights on opening. This way no matter which door you open in the common area the whole section lights up....works great.

[jeffro01]

Did you happen to do a detailed mod post I can look at? Totally understand the basics of electricity and the light strips and all of that. My only real question is in the install of the 6 switches and how all of that was setup so you could open any one of the 6 and light the entire thing. Or did you do 3 on each side?

Thanks,
Jeff

[Bruceter]

Originally Posted by SloPoke

I've been wanting to have better lighting in our exterior Storage Bays for some time now. Jayco installs a basic light on the side wall of the compartment with a switch on the front of it. I replaced the bulb a few times and now have LED bulbs in these lights - but they just don't help much when you are hunting for something in there at night.

I picked up some white LED 12v lights and an automotive door switch and built my first bay light system that comes on when the door opens and shuts it off when I close the bay door.

The lights are attached to the ceiling of the bay, just inches from the door. I pulled the power from behind the existing bay light and tapped into the Jayco wiring for power - and the pin door switch completes the circuit to the baggage compartment frame which is already grounded.

This is a good modification to do! I could never figure out why the lights were mounted on the side wall rather than the ceiling in the first place. I was looking at relocating the existing lights but may as well replace with LED
Thanks for posting
Bruce

[Rustynuts]

Originally Posted by jeffro01

Did you happen to do a detailed mod post I can look at? Totally understand the basics of electricity and the light strips and all of that. My only real question is in the install of the 6 switches and how all of that was setup so you could open any one of the 6 and light the entire thing. Or did you do 3 on each side?

Thanks,
Jeff

You just wire the jam switches in series from switch to switch and then to the ground of the LED lights. Then you tap into the positive of the existing compartment lights to the positive of the LED lights. Then when you open one or all doors, the jam switch grounds and turns on the lights. It’s real nice having the whole area lit up even if just one door is open.

[jeffro01]

Gotcha, you add any basement 120v outlasts yet?

Thanks,
Jeff

[Rustynuts]

Originally Posted by jeffro01

Gotcha, you add any basement 120v outlasts yet?

Thanks,
Jeff

Yep, just about every owner source you could want in one place, 120v outlets, USB, 12 volt accessory fuse panel and 12 volt power point.

[jeffro01]

Nice... I want to add a couple of 120v, just a pair on each side would be perfect.

Jeff

[EA37TS]

Originally Posted by jeffro01

Nice... I want to add a couple of 120v, just a pair on each side would be perfect.

Jeff

You may already have one 120V on the driver's side ceiling in one of the compartments. My Accolade has one there.

[SloPoke]

Quick update on this project:

Rustynuts sent me a "heads up" about his experience with these LED's. He found that they got very hot and were a safety concern. Last night, I recreated what he described with the remaining lights I purchased - then did some more research.

I found that these light assemblies are really just a component of another product and these light assemblies are designed to be attached to a heat-sink to manage the heat they generate from the High-Intensity LED's. The retailer selling these components chose to put a two-sided tape on them instead and now has a high failure rate when they are left on for longer durations of time where the heat builds up and they begin to fail.

Needless to say - I'm fabricating some heat sink's for these today... will update this thread as it goes...

2V 40 LEDs Van Interior Light Kits, Ampper LED Ceiling Lights Kit for Van Boats Caravans Trailers Lorries Sprinter Ducato Transit VW LWB (10 Modules, White)

[jeffro01]

Okay so found the 120v outlet in the storage bay, on my Seneca it's up by the ceiling on the drivers side over by where the cord reel is.

RustyNuts, on the jam switches, what did you buy for that? I was hoping you could help me cheat a little there and I'd just get what you got... Still looking at what kind of LED strip lighting I'd want and plan on using the 3M scripts to secure things unless you folks think the heat will cause an issue with that.

Thanks,
Jeff

[Rustynuts]

Originally Posted by jeffro01

Okay so found the 120v outlet in the storage bay, on my Seneca it's up by the ceiling on the drivers side over by where the cord reel is.

RustyNuts, on the jam switches, what did you buy for that? I was hoping you could help me cheat a little there and I'd just get what you got... Still looking at what kind of LED strip lighting I'd want and plan on using the 3M scripts to secure things unless you folks think the heat will cause an issue with that.

Thanks,
Jeff

Most of the parts are listed in my post about adding the lights.

https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f...ade-56519.html

[Jagiven]

Originally Posted by SloPoke

Quick update on this project:

Rustynuts sent me a "heads up" about his experience with these LED's. He found that they got very hot and were a safety concern. Last night, I recreated what he described with the remaining lights I purchased - then did some more research.

I found that these light assemblies are really just a component of another product and these light assemblies are designed to be attached to a heat-sink to manage the heat they generate from the High-Intensity LED's. The retailer selling these components chose to put a two-sided tape on them instead and now has a high failure rate when they are left on for longer durations of time where the heat builds up and they begin to fail.

Needless to say - I'm fabricating some heat sink's for these today... will update this thread as it goes...

2V 40 LEDs Van Interior Light Kits, Ampper LED Ceiling Lights Kit for Van Boats Caravans Trailers Lorries Sprinter Ducato Transit VW LWB (10 Modules, White)

Slowpoke, when I converted my incandescent lights to LEDs in my TT. The LEDs came with some acrylic foam two sided tape. It quickly failed. One of the lab guys at work gave me an end of roll of a thermal heat transfer tape. It has worked great. As I recall he had 3 different thicknesses. He said the thinner the better for heat transfer. I went with the thick stuff, as the backside of the LED boards had pins and stuff sticking through. The LEDs have been up for 7 years now, and no issues at all.

https://www.itapestore.com/3m-8805-t...eat-tape-5-mil

[jeffro01]

Thank you and sorry I missed that...

Thanks,
Jeff

[rgolding]

Very impressive. We have done the simple mod, just turning the provided lights over so the lens are at the top. Added a little Goop to make the lens stay in better.

[auburnu008]

Thanks for the write up!

[Rkoz325]

Maybe a little off topic but along the same vein. When I’m plugged in to power my 2020 Seneca 37L never shut off. Is there a switch or do they stay on at all times?

[SloPoke]

Originally Posted by SloPoke

Quick update on this project:

Rustynuts sent me a "heads up" about his experience with these LED's. He found that they got very hot and were a safety concern. Last night, I recreated what he described with the remaining lights I purchased - then did some more research.

I found that these light assemblies are really just a component of another product and these light assemblies are designed to be attached to a heat-sink to manage the heat they generate from the High-Intensity LED's. The retailer selling these components chose to put a two-sided tape on them instead and now has a high failure rate when they are left on for longer durations of time where the heat builds up and they begin to fail.

Needless to say - I'm fabricating some heat sink's for these today... will update this thread as it goes...

2V 40 LEDs Van Interior Light Kits, Ampper LED Ceiling Lights Kit for Van Boats Caravans Trailers Lorries Sprinter Ducato Transit VW LWB (10 Modules, White)

So we are on day-two with the heat sink's attached to the LED fixtures. I peeled back some of the soft plastic to provide more surface area on the back of the lights and used a single 6/32 machine screw and some washers to physically connect the lights metalic surface to the heat sink. The heat sinks are nothing more than a 4"x4" square of sheet metal behind the light - with a 1/2 inch of air gap between it and the roof of the compartment.

The heat sinks are sucking a lot of heat from the LED fixture as the LED lamps are significantly cooler while the heat sink is warm to the touch. I will post pictures later today... as we are very remote and have no coverage on our phones. (but do on our MT-LHG)