nlange Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Me and my dad had just built an ice house and its on one of them retratcable trailer i have bought. Its completly almost vented off an the propane lanturn is giving me a headache. today i tryed installing a regular old style ceiling light for the time being fo light. the hard ware store didnt know much but they said you dont need a 12 volt on the fixture but the bulb has to be 12volt so i did all that an ran the 2 wires from behind the fixture to the battery charger pack i have but it dies in like an hour. then i use my vexlar battery and that dies in a few mins. what am i doing wrong and how do i do it right? what do i need? and if i wanted to run like 4 seperate led lights by each hole like i seen in other houses how do they keep a charge? what size wire do you recomend? does it matter if i have to much wire running around? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nlange Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 thanx! please help! thanx! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelicFatum Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 You might want to look into Best king Kong LED strips, I haven't used them, but apparently they work very well and run for a long time on a vex type battery. I have a "puck" LED light in my otter and it works pretty well for a spot light for a hole or for tying knots. Check this thread out it's for portables, but it might give you an idea Ideas for lighting a portable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surface Tension Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 I'm guessing your trying to run a 75 watt incandescent 12v light bulb. Figure on 6 amp draw, poor choice for lighting. Its going to drain a 7 amp hr battery real quick, if the battery is cold even quicker. Even a 115 amp hr deep cycle dedicated to that one bulb will get you by for a long day. That is not the way to go now a days. LEDs are the way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nlange Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 its a rv light bulb i got from the hardware store. its 50watts but its a 12v bulb. i could have get the 25watt but they said it wont be as bright. and the ceiling fixture is ok right? i have seen other people do this and it works great but i just dont know how they make them last. also i wana wire it up to have a few lights around the shack. does it matter if i have to much wire feeding around? will that drain the battery more or will it not give the light enouph power? im going to be getting a battery that is 115 amp hrs, 700 cranking amps, 620 cold cranking amps for 50 bux from a friend. its used a little but should be good. would that work well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Duckslayer Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 The more wire you have to go through the more resistance there will be. I am not one to cut it with just barely enough wire to make the connection but I usually leave a 6 inch leeway in the event that I have to rewire something. Would not think that the fixture would make any difference as long as it provides a good connection from the bulb to the wires. Battery should be OK as long as it is a deep cycle. Don't forget there is a difference between them and a car battery. Deep cycles are made of a long slow drain and caranking batteries are made for shot perions of hi current draw. Hope that helps... Take care and N JOy the Hunt././Jimbo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acman2u Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 You need lower wattage bulbs. I have 4 rv fixtures in my crankdown and they also drained the deep cycle quickly. I ended up buying breadboard (blank circuitboard) leds, and resistors and building led boards that fit into my fixtures and connected them into them. I also built some 3 led lights to hang at the holes for better visibility of my spring bobber and it does EXCELLENT at charging my glow lures. I run forever on these lights as they draw almost no power, what kills me now is my fan.With leds you get superbright light but more shadows but I will never go back to the old ones. Wire is not your problem, the load is.DONT buy LED strips for your perm you wont be happy, go with fixtures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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