DIY LED Awning Light Strip?

[Hawkeye Ed]

Has anyone recently added their own LED awning light strip?

I'd like to add a dimmable soft-white light strip under the awning of our 5.0. I'd appreciate any suggestion about which one to buy, how to attach it, where to connect to power and how to dim (inside switch and dimmer OK).

We didn't order the light strip from the factory. There are loose wire ends in the upper cabinet forward of the entry door that are probably used by the factory to power light strips but there's no power to them and I can't figure out where the other end is. Extra credit for anyone with more information about these.

Thanks for all suggestions.

Ed - getting ready for a new camping season at the Ft. Casey Rally!!!

[Hawkeye Ed]

I went ahead and figured out how to install a dimmable LED light strip along the side of our Escape just under the awning.







I spent some extra money on the light strip to make sure it's IP67 waterproof, very warm white 2700K, 60 LEDs per meter, 5m (16') long, 10mm width, 12 volts, 12 watts/m, and good 3M adhesive tape along the back. I trimmed the light strip to about 10' so still have 6' left to use inside the camper.
https://www.superbrightleds.com/led-...sity-18~LEDsft

I bought a couple different dimmers to try and decided to use this small pushbutton dimmer that allows a wide variation in brightness from fully bright (50 watts) to very dim (3 watts).
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BFQXD24V

[Hawkeye Ed]

The trickiest part was figuring out how to get power to the light strip. I noticed that inside the high cabinet to the right as you enter our 5.0 that there are red and black wires to power the under-cabinet light so decided to use those wires to power the LED light strip. I figured where I had to drill a 3/16 hole from the outside of the camper so it would come into the cabinet and fed the wires attached to the light strip through that hole.

I ran wires from the power across the cabinet to the dimmer and back to the lights.

Left side

Right side



Works great so far. Hope this is helpful to someone else.

Ed

[TTMartin]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye Ed

I went ahead and figured out how to install a dimmable LED light strip along the side of our Escape just under the awning.

I spent some extra money on the light strip to make sure it's IP67 waterproof, very warm white 2700K, 60 LEDs per meter, 5m (16') long, 10mm width, 12 volts, 12 watts/m, and good 3M adhesive tape along the back.
https://www.superbrightleds.com/led-...sity-18~LEDsft

I bought a couple different dimmers to try and decided to use this small pushbutton dimmer that allows a wide variation in brightness from fully bright (50 watts) to very dim (3 watts).
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BFQXD24V

Originally Posted by Hawkeye Ed

Works great so far. Hope this is helpful to someone else.

Ed

Nice! Very helpful, Thank You!

The extra money an a quality light strip is definitely worth it.

As for the dimmer switch, I have the funky sounding Acegoo lights in my Sprinter and replaced the lights under the bed and dinette cabinets with Acegoo captain's lights (acegoo 12 Volt LED Reading Light, Dimmable RV Boat Bedside Seat Swivel Spotlight with White/Red Dual Lighting Mode, Press Dimmer Switch & USB Charger) They have been holding up well. The ones in my Sprinter are about 5 years old now.

For the Escape, I did purchase the acegoo Stainless Lamp Mount Plate to help spread the stress out on the cabinet bottom and cover the hole from the original light.

[cpaharley2008]

Nice touch......