Mel replied:

Hiya,

We went through this same exercise ourselves recently. Our solution...we bought one of the relatively new type of movable 12V lights now seen in pop-top type campers. Basically, the back of the light has a push on clamp that allows you to clamp it to any round tent poles. It has a stretchable telephone type lead with a male socket that you simply plug in to a fixed wired female socket (looks like a plug seen on headphones and the like). This type of light allows you to move it around within your camper (within range of the length of the cord). When we pack up we simply unclamp it from the poles, and leave it on the bed. Really easy.

Anyway, we purchased it from our local caravan dealer (Jayco, I think). The salesman said the standard set-up was to run the power through the trailer to car connection (on most 7 pin plugs there will be a spare pin you can use). However, to have lights, this means your trailer has to be plugged into the car. This doesn't work for us because we go to the fridge in the back of our car all the time and didn't want to have to be parked so close to the trailer. Instead, on the trailer, we wired the fixed female socket of the light through to an external 2 plug socket the same as we have in the car for the fridge (looks like a household plug). Then, we had a the same type of plug mounted externally on the car and made up a long extention lead to run between car and trailer. Works really well for us. Hope this wasn't too convoluted. Melissa

Member - Nigel replied:

The amount of time your battery lasts will depend entirely on the style of light you choose. LEDs use bugger all power and are good for small areas where you don't need a lot of light. Fluoro's are nearly as efficient, but they do use more power because they generate more light. Now the major difference in 12v fluoro's is the efficiency. That is a good quality (eg Bushlight, Col-light or Pirahna) will produce more light for the same amount of current than the cheap and nasty fluoro's. Expect to pay around $80-$100 for a decent fluoro. Incandescent lights are highly inefficient and will flatten your battery pack quickly.

I've seen 17 Ah gel batteries in one of those starter packs for only $59 on special at super cheap auto. Something like that with a good fluoro will make a good light setup. You can also buy fluoro's with internal batteries (rechargable) but the downside is you need a more secure place to hang it and the batteries won't last as long.

As we have a camper trailer with on-board 75 Ah battery and 3 sets of LED lights the only thing we added was a Bushlite fluoro which we only use when using the kitchen area.

Rick replied:

R.O.F. There's a thread in the Yahoo groups camper-trailer site that has a degree of correspondence on this matter, going back a few months(from memory). Cheers. Rick.

royce replied:

Hi. I use a PROJECTA jump start battery for heaps of things. Pumping up inflateables, lights, etc. Bought from Kmart..... very handy. Best when recharged from 240v. It needs a long run to fully recharge from the vehicle. Is that what you wer talking about? We had it running a cheep shower unit in the high country at the start of the year. In the end we had about 20 people using the shower powered by the battery. It got showered each time and lasted a week! Cheers Royce

Grinner replied:

For another alternative to the VersaLites et al, head into your local Bunnings Wharehouse and find the Compact Flurescent Light globes. A company called Nelson make a 12v 11 watt version of the CFL's with a choice of standard baynett or screw fittings and cost less than 30 bucks. I bought one to have a play around with and it gives almost as good a light output as my Versalight.

paul replied:

If you want a totally overkill light (and money is not a big issue) that will turn the inside of a camper into day, check out the Rohrlux Opus 2 at www.portapower.com.au . Run it off a small modified square wave inverter and you can get the equivalent lumens output of a 500 Halogen floodlamp pulling only about .5 of an amp per hour from a 12 volt battery (that is factoring in the current draw of the actual inverter - the small the inverter the smaller the unit's current draw).

I have three now to light up part of a football field. They are amazing.

Bruce replied:

when we had our camper i installed a 100ah deep cycle battery in the camper and got my auto electrician to wire it in to the car battery charging system so that when the car battery was charged it then switched to the trailer battery , a one way diode stops power from flowing from the trailer to car . A portable 12v fluro light is cheap to buy...wrap a piece of yellow cellophane paper around it...it stops the insects from being attracted to it...cheers

Brian replied:

try this site and search for lighting/fluro or product code sl2852

http://www1.jaycar.com.au
Brian

Roll on friday... replied:

Thanks all for all your suggestions...just a little confused now on one aspect... I can't find any information on LED lights. Is there anyone in Adelaide who can direct me where to buy them?

Cheers

Porl replied:

Go to www.rpc.com.au and go to lights and you will find excellent deals on LED lights set up for living from. Don't be put off by the name of hte company, they know what they are doing.

Steve H replied:

I purchased a 12v 150w inverter which plugs in to the cigarete lighter of my subaru which only has the standard battery (verry small) I used 2 x 7watt bc fluro lamps in clip on style bedside lamps for 4 -- 5 hours every night for 4 nights and also charged the camera battery about 4 times and the battery started the car with no problems.
Thecnology has come a long way.