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Disabling/turning off internal lights when parked up

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Disabling/turning off internal lights when parked up

Postby GuyT » Thu Oct 18, 2018 6:11 pm

I’m starting the planning stage of a new, bigger van. I half completed the last van and realised I need something a lot bigger, we did use the swb/lr for quite a few camping weekends though and this is where the question of “disabling internal lights when parked up” comes in. I always have this paranoia when we park up that i will forgot to flick the little switches to deactivate the door sensors which switch on and off the internal lights and my concern is that when we go to leave and start the engine there will be no charge left. How do others overcome this? I figure I could locate the wires/fuse which enables the lights to turn on and remove the fuse or put a switch and flick the switch but am I over complicating things.

Do others have this worry? ....and how do you overcome it?

Cheers
GuyT
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Re: Disabling/turning off internal lights when parked up

Postby dumper » Thu Oct 18, 2018 7:18 pm

On every van I’ve done I’ve put in a leisure battery charged with a split charge relay so be totally independent of the starting battery also I removing the standard van lights altogether
you can get some very good led lights that use a lot less power but I still don’t run the off the starter battery
MK 8 L4 H3 Motorsport campervan
Past camper vans
1974 mk1 v4 with 2.0 pinto fitted
1986 mk3 2.5 di swb
1990 190 lwb 2.5 di
1998 100 lwb 2.5 di
2006 350 jumbo 135 tdci
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Re: Disabling/turning off internal lights when parked up

Postby hectors-tranny » Tue Oct 23, 2018 11:21 am

I located the positive feed for the loadspace rear courtesy lights and added a switch to the circuit. When I am camping I have the switch permanently off so the courtesy lights don't come on at all with the rear doors open. Otherwise I leave it on so the courtesy lights work as normal. I removed the sliding door courtesy lights altogether.

When camping, as mentioned above, internal lighting is provided by low voltage LEDs run from a separate leisure battery.

Note that that tampering with your wiring may invalidate your warranty.
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Re: Disabling/turning off internal lights when parked up

Postby GuyT » Tue Oct 23, 2018 4:43 pm

Thanks for the input. I've done something similar to you hectors-tranny with a switch to disable the courtesy lights when parked up BUT I integrated the lights when I replaced them, so the internal 'camper' lights are also the courtesy lights but running off the leisure when parked up - if that makes any sense. I think the solution is to basically repeat what I've done but have seperate physical lights so that if my courtesy light is on when parked up I know.....

Thanks all
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