12v Lights

LED LIghts ,,are the go

You will find every type you will need off eBay

CHeers
Bucky

I should probably be more clear they are for when we are set up and camping.

we have an evakool 12 volt light, you can get them from most good outdoor type of shops. There not cheap ( approx $80 ) but work very well and draw stuff all. They already have an off/on switch and basically we love it.
Tried heaps of others and like the old saying you get what you pay for.
Crawf

It isn't 12V of course but you may wish to consider the Coleman Dual Fuel lamps - a beautiful mellow light and you don't have to worry about batteries.

Mike Harding

I recently bought two 60 LED lights on 5 metre cables with cigatette lighter plug from Super Cheap (on special). Think I paid $40 each. They seem very good and are rated to draw a fraction of the power 12 V flouros use. I have not used them camping yet, but one night I did a test between the LED and my more common 12V flouro. The LED lit a much bigger area than the fluro and is rated to last longer and use less power (don't know if it will in practice though). I initially bought one, but after my little test, went back the next day and bought another.

Also carry a Coleman Dual Fuel, which is handy when you want 'all round' light or you are not close to a 12 V plug. I normally run it on ULP, but every 6 or 8 fills, use Coleman Fuel as it is suppposed to clean the jets.

Another option I use which is quite cheap is to buy a standard 240 V trouble light from Bunnings. Cut off the 240V plug and put on a 12 V plug. Now just add a 12 V spiral fluro globe (also available from Bunnings) and you have a very good 12 V light at a reasonable price. You can get the globes in a few types from, including soft light and the yellow shade 'anti insect' variety.

A couple of ideas here for you.
Norm C

Don't discount the use of led headlamps - once you get used to relying on them , you can get away with very little lighting in the camp overall. Our camp might look like a glow worm convention at times - the LED on the camper kitchen seems enough for cooking. This strategy reduces insects to an extent too. Sure enough, if kids are in the equation, or other plans require lighting for safety, on goes our fluoro.

Hi All.
We (the wife and I) use both arrid and piranha 12volt fluros and have had excellent service from both, can't fault em. I use a petzl for both camping and hunting and again this has performed with out fail. at the end of the day it's "horses for courses" but as has already been said you pay for what you get.
Cheers 4 now
Ashley

I'm yet to see an LED light that throws out anywhere near as much light as a horizontally mounted 13watt fluoro. I run two of the surface mount Narvas on each wing of my canopy, so they can light up a large area. And they only cost $30.


But I also mount a couple of small LEDs inside the canopy, so I get light in the fridges, and if the insects were bad, we'd just put the LEDs on.

Most of our trips are in desert araes in winter and insects are not a problem anyway.

I did have a rechargable Jaycar LED lamp with about 24leds - the twisty one with a magnet. The SLA battery died after a couple of months and I had trouble finding a replacement battery, so it's gone in the bin.

12 volt lights that don't draw much power.

The most practical light to buy IMHO, is the Versalite or Piranha 12 volt fluro style light. These have an inbuilt inverter that results in a respectable light output rated at 11 watts, (but equivalent to a 75 watt incandescent globe) with a current drain of only one amp.

Both lights are pretty much identical and made in the same Aussie factory. They retail for oh, $90 or so, but well worth your consideration.

The Piranha can be bought through TJM and the Versalite at most reputable camping stores.

Another light worthy of consideration is the EvaKool Torpedo. This light also uses a 12 volt fluro tube, but in a more compact length. Reputed to draw only 1/2 amp and with the equivalent output of a 100 watt globe.

I have both styles and consider the Torpedo slightly less light output than the Piranha I own, but still a good light for camping.

I have previously used Gas Lanterns, but after a series of failed mantles following a couple of off road trips, have discarded it in favour of the 12 volt lights.

When coupled with a portable battery system, you have the flexibility of mobility anywhere around the camp site.

You'll find that the great majority of LED lights draw more current against light output than fluros do, if the LEDs used are the small round (5mm usually) ones then they definately do.

It's not an excact science as it depends upon the type of fluro and LED but genrally fluros will be about twice as efficient as LEDs. (This situation can be reversed with top of the line LEDs and bottom of the line fluros but it's fairly unlikely you'll find those type of LEDs in most camping type products.)

I'd be going with a horizontally mounted fluro (apparently the efficiency reduces when fluro tubes are mounted vertically).

Cheers

Andrew

Cezz,
Have a look at the variety of lights available at this www.ledshoponline.com/
I think you will find something that will do what you want.

I use fairly cheap fluros and sprayed them with yellow paint. works a treat, no insects.

Pooley

It depends how much light you want!
I have 2 home made, MR16 clip on lights as internal lights in my CT. They are made from short lengths of 2inch PVC pipe and 2 caps, a switch and a jaycar MR16 socket
These have 28 LED MR16 LEDS and draw about 0.2 amps, but are great as reading lights and give plenty of light to change by etc.
Outside I have a Supercheap 40 LED 12volt trouble light fitted with magnets on the back which gives great light for cooking yet uses about 0.2 amps.
My trusty old 12Volt fluoro (Pirhana type) gives area floodlighting.
But the LEDs use so little energy , that you can leave them on all night no problems.
Regard sPhilip A

Here is a quote from Site Link

The new 6 watt Cree and 3 watt Nichia LED bulbs are soon to hit the LED Shop shelves

Lightoutput will be close to a 60 watt halogen ( for 6 watt Cree) at the 10th of power consumption !

These are the new generation LED down-spotlights which will eventually replace all that old stuff, that is wasting energy in so many ways...90% power savings with LED bulbs!

We will be able to offer these lights at a fraction of the costs of the "big players" i.e
6 watt Cree will be available for approx AUD$ 95.00

The most bang for your buck is the good old fluro, we use Versalite branded ones that are the same as some of the other 4x4 branded ones.

Our twin fluro draws .87 amps an hour, to get the same light output out off LED's we would draw 1.9 amps.

Alot of people over rate LED's, they are great in some applications but not all.

We have 222 amp hours of batterys, so if we used our fluro light for 5 hrs a night we would have over 40 days of lighting.

Some times new technology is not what it is made upto be and the older stuff better.

Regards Richard

Thanks to all, now iam totally confused but with the kind information supplied from you gentelman i will try and work out the best lights for my needs.

Thanks again.
Chuck