• Greg F
    331
    One thing we haven't liked about our new 5th wheel is the location of the main living/kitchen ceiling light switch. We don't like the location behind a cabinet door (thankfully they didn't put all the light switches back there) We also didn't like that the lights were so bright and 8 of them to boot! It was an all or nothing deal and too bright for us almost all the time when we wanted some added light in the room. As a result we just don't used them.

    I installed a dimmable switch for these lights near the controls for the fans and air conditioner.
    This is a pretty easy modification if you have some basic electrical skills. The switch has 3 wires that need to be tapped into the 12v + and - and a third wire ties into the single wire that heads into the ceiling for the lights themselves. The lights already have a ground wire somewhere on the chassis as typical in RV's and cars so just the single 12v power wire is all that leaves the switch to the lights.


    I used heat shrink butt connectors and added enough wire to snake down behind the wall to wire in the switch. The hole in the wall was cut using an utility knife and several carefully passes to make a neat cut. The style of the switch is very similar to the factory switches and looks stock.

    Here is a link to the switch. It works great with the factory LED lights. The dimming is very smooth, not flickering or weirdness at all. :)

    Light Switch

    :)

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  • Ray
    1.3k
    Great mod, good to hear it work on RV LEDs, must use some sort of PWM like the module I used to adjust my bathroom fan speed.
    I think this would be a good thing for our light over the bed that Anne uses to read, it's a little on the bright side being so close.
  • Greg F
    331
    I had to sort of dig into the amazon questions and answers to find that it seemed to use pulse width modulation for dimming based on buyers assumptions. Nowhere in the product info did I see that but I ordered it anyway based on customer reviews.

    The dimming is excellent. No flickering or noise like a standard analog switch can have on LED lights. Denise was so happy with it that she asked me to install a second one in the bedroom that controls 4 ceiling lights and is also pretty bright.

    About the only negative thing I can say so far is that it is very pricey for a light switch at $38.00. :gasp:
  • Greg F
    331
    Thanks Tim! :)
  • Greg F
    331
    LOL Well apparently it was a hit. A second one arrived today(hmmm wonder where that came from) and my wife handed it to me and shooed me out to the camper to install it in the bedroom.

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    She has been working hard herself making some curtains for the camper to replace the roller shades it came with. I think we have way too much time on our hands...

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  • Dhuhn
    94
    Nice mod there Greg. It always nice making your rig your own.
  • Don D
    10
    what type of rod did you use for you curtains. look great Don
  • Greg F
    331
    Thanks! My wife bought some heavy tension rods on Amazon. I supplied some plywood cleats that attached to some of the factory framing to support them. We haven't driven with them yet but they seem very secure. If they slip I will install some closet rod cups.
  • Ray
    1.3k
    Got around to installing the dimmer mod for Anne for the over the bed reading lamp.
    Got the happy wife thumbs up. :up:



    Here is the full blog post - https://www.loveyourrv.com/diy-12v-rv-light-dimmer-mod/
  • Greg F
    331
    Nice Job. Happy wife points is always a good thing. ;-)
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