LED Lights under Rear Door Awning - Dutchmen Owners
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Old 09-10-2015, 06:30 PM   #1
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LED Lights under Rear Door Awning

I have a 2015 Voltage 3605 and it has two awnings on the side. The one in front has LED lights under it and turns on from a switch in the front closed. The awning over the rear door does not have any LED lights at all. Two questions. It looks like the lights on the front are about a 1/4 inch wide and are self adhesive and water proof.
Has anyone added lights to that awning? Where did you find lights that would fit? Did you just tap into the front door awning lights?
Looks like I could tie into the front LED and run a couple of small wires back about a foot or so and then start the run for the rear door awning.
-Jeff
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Old 09-10-2015, 09:10 PM   #2
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Ok, first... let's establish which "under-awning" lights you have...

There's the type that simply adhere to the sidewall of the RV, right under the attachment point of the awning to the RV...

And then there's the type that adhere to the awning roller-tube, fitted into the '4th slot'.

If it's the first type, they are simple to purchase (available many places, including Camping World), and usually pretty simple to install... requiring only an appropriate power source to tap into.

The 2nd type is a little more complex. You can buy the kit from Carefree... but the trick is how it's wired. Here's a link to the kit:

LED Lights - Carefree of Colorado

The main issue is convenience, in re how to get power to something that rolls up on a tube.

If you have the 2nd type on your main awning... you'll notice that the edge seam near the front door is a tad thicker than the seam on the rear. That's because the power-wire is pre-sewn into the awning... it connects to the LED light ribbon easily at the roller, and rolls itself up along with the awning when retracted.

If you buy the kit above... well, obviously the power-wire isn't sewn in. That means you'll have to plug & unplug it everytime you extend/retract the awning... or either try to sew it into the awning yourself.

Anyway, those are your options... but, yes, it can be done.
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Old 09-11-2015, 03:50 PM   #3
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For LED lighting I've purchased from https://www.superbrightleds.com/
They have been really good and much less expensive than Camping World.
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Old 09-11-2015, 04:40 PM   #4
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Jeff
I have the same rv that you have but don't have the second awning. You can add onto the LED lights under the main awning. Check on eBay or Amazon as they will have the LED lights in a strip. You just need to solder them into the strip. Or you can just order this.
RGB 5M 3528 LED Strip Light 300Leds 44Key Remote Controller 12V Power Supply | eBay
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Old 09-14-2015, 02:41 PM   #5
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I am still doing some research on this. It looks like there is a 16.5 foot (5 Meter) limit on 12v LED strings. This could be because of the 120 volt to 12v transformer output. Since our travel trailers have 12v already, I am wondering if they are just wired to the 12 volts directly? if that were the case, I would like to just tap into the end of the strip on the front awning and run a short wire over to the back awning and continue the run. Do you guys think I would overload anything? I will see if I can get some pics later today up.
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Old 09-14-2015, 04:00 PM   #6
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I ordered two outside LED strips from Amazon, pulled down the crap already installed, and ran the full length of both awnings. The sets connect together by connectors on the strips, then I connected to the power already at the front awning. They look good, you can tell there is a power drop down the line, as the lights near the end of the line start to turn a different shade of color on certain colors...

Cale
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Old 09-15-2015, 12:36 AM   #7
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I wired 2 16ft strips together in my enclosed trailer and they were dim. Had to go back and wire them seperately and they were much brighter.
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Old 09-15-2015, 01:02 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by calewjohnson View Post
I ordered two outside LED strips from Amazon, pulled down the crap already installed, and ran the full length of both awnings. The sets connect together by connectors on the strips, then I connected to the power already at the front awning. They look good, you can tell there is a power drop down the line, as the lights near the end of the line start to turn a different shade of color on certain colors...

Cale
An LED is a Light Emitting Diode, being it is a diode it has a forward voltage drop, hence the color change towards the end.
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