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Saturday, April 28, 2012

uplifting delight

It has been a while since my last post. This is what happens when work gets in the way of play.
However busy I may be I can't ignore the fact that camping season is nearly here. I know that some people will say that they camp year-round, but in New England most campgrounds do not open until mid May. So with that in mind there are still a few things I want to do before heading out. Tops on my list is installing the LED dome light over the dinette. NOT easier said than done. My 13ft Scamp with fiberglass shell was never designed to have an overhead dome light. No wiring, and more confounding, no place to mount a fixture. Fishing the wires is not a big deal. A small slit in the rat fur and an electrical tape will pull wires easily enough. But how to mount the light?

1st attempt: gluing the fixture directly to the rat fur.


There are three options: Drill through the roof fiberglass and rivet it, just like everything else is riveted to the shell,  affix it, somehow, most likely with Velcro, to the rat fur, or glue it to the shell.  I chose a mix by gluing it to the rat fur. A dollop of construction adhesive, and a prop to hold it tight to the ceiling while it dries. This still leave me the other options, and a fourth option courtesy of http://www.fiberglassrv.com; Gluing or epoxying a wood mounting block to the fiberglass shell and simply screwing the light to the mounting block. For now we'll see how well the construction adhesive holds up.




UPDATE: For some reason this fixture burned out after only an hour or so of continuous use. Maybe a bad fixture, but some people suggest it may be a case of over-voltage, and that LEDs are more susceptible to over-voltages than other, more traditional bulbs are.

The fixture, glued directly to the rat fur seemed to be the solution, until the weight of the fixture, and road conditions caused the rat fur and insulation to pull away from the ceiling.






2nd install photos. This time cutting a spot on the rat fur and gluing a wood block directly to the FG shell, and attaching the fixture to the wood using the screws included. ( The fixture itself did not have enough area that touches the fiberglass otherwise you could just glue the whole fixture to the fiberglass without the wooden base.


routing the edge so that it overlaps the rat fur



UPDATE: The shaking and  pounding caused one of the LED bulbs to break at the base. Not sure if there's any way to cushion the lamp. Replacement LED lamps are easy at Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0087XOTWW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2IME0Z5O2LH6Y
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2 comments:

  1. gquintonMay 23, 2012 at 1:51 PM

    Update: the glued on light held up ( held up, get it?) during my weekend trip. This is actually surprising since the cutting board I built up to double as a cook top cover, and a picture frame did not survive intact.

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  2. gquintonAugust 20, 2012 at 11:55 AM

    Another update or two:
    1. The glue held, but the rat fur failed. It seems the weight of the fixture and the inertia generated by bouncing over a gazillion potholes etc. pulled the ratfur away from the roof.

    2. The LED burnout was a manufacturers defect. They explained it as a problem soldering some of the resistors.

    3. a new LED fixture has been installed. I re-glued the fallen ratfur, made a wood mounting block for the new light, and this time I cut the rat fur and glued the wooden block to the fiberglass. The wooden block is slightly larger than the hole, and I routed out a space for the ratfur. It looks like a custom fit. Let's hope it holds up.

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