Montana Owners Club - Keystone Montana 5th Wheel Forum - View Single Post - LED lighting -- a find

snfexpress · 08-08-2011, 06:53 PM

For those who are interested, here is the evolution of the LED process.

We originally purchased 5000k color range bulbs at an outrageous price and didn't like the color - it was fluorescent.

Then, we purchased 3200k color range bulbs at an even more outrageous price. We liked the color but couldn't afford to replace all of our bulbs at the price quoted and we like to boondock on just two golf cart batteries.

Next step was to find a manufacturer. But, how could we commit to 1000 bulbs per order? We know, on Ebay, you can find a bunch of suppliers/manufacturers who will give you a good price on a bulb. We tried them to our disappointment. No consistency and the color output was in the pink to blue color range; not what we wanted. We like what we are used to: a slight yellowish tint.

Finally, we found a company who could provide consistent color temperature range LED's but we had more problems. First, the base (the wedge part) would break from the rest of the LED bulb meaning that you couldn't rotate the wedge to make contact.That caused the second problem: the contact wire was too small to make consistent contact with the fixture which meant that after a day's worth of traveling, some of the bulbs were not illuminating. We asked the manufacturer to affix the bases to the rest of the bulb and also to increase the gauge of the wedge base wire so that it wouldn't break and that it would remain lit after traveling.

So now we have the LED we want, but we have another problem: we have to have an IRS registered company with an EIN to accept the shipment and pay the import duty. Okay, we set this up. Let me tell you, FedEx likes to be the import broker, charging a lucrative fee to front the money to Customs!

Now we have most of the costs down and we sent out some samples to a few MOC members. Stiles was one of the recipients of our sample. He liked them and posted this original thread. Without him we don't think we would have posted that we made an order for 500 LED's because we did not want to arbitrarily post that we have LED's - that would be against the MOC policy and we wouldn't want to be admonished, or worse banned, from our MOC community.

It has been a slow and methodical journey...

So, we have all this done and then the manufacturer says that in order to make these changes we have to order 1000 units of each LED in order to meet our requirements. Start from scratch...

We finally found a manufacturer who would work with us (of course the price was higher), and who would accept smaller unit orders.

We have gained a rapport with the current manufacturer and are pleased with their quality and their stance regarding failure replacement.

It has taken since November of last year to finally propose these LED's to the members of the forum.

08-08-2011, 06:53 PM	#51
snfexpress Montana Master Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: South Posts: 2,499 M.O.C. #5140	For those who are interested, here is the evolution of the LED process. We originally purchased 5000k color range bulbs at an outrageous price and didn't like the color - it was fluorescent. Then, we purchased 3200k color range bulbs at an even more outrageous price. We liked the color but couldn't afford to replace all of our bulbs at the price quoted and we like to boondock on just two golf cart batteries. Next step was to find a manufacturer. But, how could we commit to 1000 bulbs per order? We know, on Ebay, you can find a bunch of suppliers/manufacturers who will give you a good price on a bulb. We tried them to our disappointment. No consistency and the color output was in the pink to blue color range; not what we wanted. We like what we are used to: a slight yellowish tint. Finally, we found a company who could provide consistent color temperature range LED's but we had more problems. First, the base (the wedge part) would break from the rest of the LED bulb meaning that you couldn't rotate the wedge to make contact.That caused the second problem: the contact wire was too small to make consistent contact with the fixture which meant that after a day's worth of traveling, some of the bulbs were not illuminating. We asked the manufacturer to affix the bases to the rest of the bulb and also to increase the gauge of the wedge base wire so that it wouldn't break and that it would remain lit after traveling. So now we have the LED we want, but we have another problem: we have to have an IRS registered company with an EIN to accept the shipment and pay the import duty. Okay, we set this up. Let me tell you, FedEx likes to be the import broker, charging a lucrative fee to front the money to Customs! Now we have most of the costs down and we sent out some samples to a few MOC members. Stiles was one of the recipients of our sample. He liked them and posted this original thread. Without him we don't think we would have posted that we made an order for 500 LED's because we did not want to arbitrarily post that we have LED's - that would be against the MOC policy and we wouldn't want to be admonished, or worse banned, from our MOC community. It has been a slow and methodical journey... So, we have all this done and then the manufacturer says that in order to make these changes we have to order 1000 units of each LED in order to meet our requirements. Start from scratch... We finally found a manufacturer who would work with us (of course the price was higher), and who would accept smaller unit orders. We have gained a rapport with the current manufacturer and are pleased with their quality and their stance regarding failure replacement. It has taken since November of last year to finally propose these LED's to the members of the forum.