12-Volt Wedge Bulb - Which Number Bulb Do I Need?

[Geary]

I need to replace my 12-volt "patio" bulb. The old burned out bulb is a wedge type but has no number on it. My supply catalogue has several numbers for different wedge type bulbs including: 168, 194, 906, 912, 921, 922, and 3157. I can't find anything on the coach that tells me which number bulb I need. How can I find out which numbered bulb I need? Thanks.

Also: there is a new LED bulb that advertises it will replace wedge based bulbs and last for 40,000 hours. It costs $32.99 compared to about $6 or $7 for the other old type. Is the new LED replacement worth it? Will it work in any type of 12 volt wedge? Thanks.

[hermanmullins]

Geary,

Welcome to the Forum.

Take the Bulb you have to the auto parts house. They can tell you which bulb you have and for $6 to 7.00 they will sell you quite a few bulbs. I would only go with the LED if I knew that it would emit a bunch more light without increasing the heat generated by the incandescent bulb.

Herman

[RVerOnTheMove]

I have replaced many bulbs with LED, but you will never be able to justify doing this on price or even common sense. They are WAY too expensive so the only valid reason is for some substantial heat or energy savings. I would never replace a bulb such as the patio light with a $12 bulb when I can buy a regular one for $2. It would take at least 12 years (replace the bulb every other year) to just break even.

[gmoreno]

I agree with Bill's post as noted abovel LED bulb for a patio light just doesn't seem to make sense at a cost of $12. I will add one thought: EBAY.

I've been scouting out LED bulbs on EBAY to replace my 1141 type of bulb. So far, I found a U.S. vendor that can offer these LED bulbs for me at a price of about $3 per bulb. I haven't pulled the trigger on purchasing these bulbs because I have some questions that I asked the vendor to answer; basically lumen output with his bulbs vs. my current 1141, which emit an initial +/- 259 lumens but dwindle to +/- 104 lumens over the life of the bulb. Also, kelvin output.

What I am saying is that if you are dead set on purchasing LED bulbs, you may want to consider EBAY as your vendor supplier. I have scouted out some of the other major big players who sell LED bulbs and I find that their prices are astronomical when compared to EBAY. So it is feasible to replace your patio light bulb with an LED at nearly the cost of an identical incadenscent bulb if you use EBAY as your alternative supplier.

And for the record, I have replaced some of my brick-and-mortar house that use flourescent bulbs to LED, using an LED bulb supplier in China, through EBAY. The product took a little longer to arrive (free shipping), but all the bulbs arrived safely and work fine.

good luck!

Rob

[ploiselle]

If you take a cell phone picture of the porch light and take it to a reputable RV dealer that sells RV parts, they will be able to tell you which lamp is supposed to go in the fixture. From experience, putting the wrong bulb in overheated the fixture and caused the lens to melt. I had to replace the porch light.

LED's are very sensitive to voltage fluctuation. LED's have two methods to regulate the voltage, voltage regulator circuits or resistors. It has been reported that some very low cost LEDs don't have any voltage regulation at all and will not last. The voltage regulation circuit method is the more expensive method, but in some LED's have been know to cause RF interference..

I am not an expert, so my point is to do your research before spending any money on LED's. http://www.superbrightleds.com/ have been recommended many times on different forums. If nothing else, they have a lot of good information about LED's. I have never purchased from them.

I replaced the marker lights on our RV with the exact LED replacement from a local large truck parts store. (One was leaking, so I replaced all of them) The expense of switching out the interior bulbs with LED's does not seem cost effective to me until the cost of the good ones comes down significantly.

Paul

[Geary]

I thank all of you for your comments and thoughts. Today I'll try taking the old bulb to a local auto parts store and see if they can help. It seems to me that the thing to do is tell the auto store associate that I do not want a bulb that gets so hot that it may melt the plastic housing on the light.

I'm satisfied, at lease for the present, to not go with the LED. My motor home is an '08 and the bulb I'm now replacing came with it, so once every 4 years isn't too bad.

Regarding checking with a RV dealer: I had the motor home at the local Camping World for other work and asked them which bulb I needed. Camping World sells and services my make and model motor home. I was told emphatically that I needed an 1141 and that I didn't even need to look. I bought the 1141, got home and went to change the bulb and discoveed that that was not the correct bulb. This is not the only problem I've had with that Camping World.

Geary

[ploiselle]

Regarding checking with a RV dealer: I had the motor home at the local Camping World for other work and asked them which bulb I needed.

This is not the only problem I've had with that Camping World.

Hi Gary.

You must have missed the part when I mentioned "take it to a reputable RV dealer that sells RV parts," lol

If my motorhome broke down in their driveway, I would have it towed elsewhere, of course by CoachNet.

Camping World needs to start a program where ALL their techs become certified by a nationally recognized provider. "On the job training" is not working.

Paul

[Geary]

Paul:

I appreciate the comment. I had not done business with Camping World before except to buy parts and supplies from them when they had a good price. They ran a special on upgrading my manual awning with an electric one at a good price so I thought I'd try them even though they are 50 miles one way from my house. I was told the exchange would take 2 hours so I could wait. It ended up taking 3 days!!! Their attitude toward me as the customer was that I was something they had to put up with and that to talk to me was taking them away from something really important. Luckily I had my wife and my car with me and I told them (after being there since 8 AM with an appointment) that I had to know by 3pm if they could finish that day. I had to be back home not later than 4 and if they could finish in one day my wife could come back home, take care of the business, and I'd wait and drive the motor home. If they couldn't have it ready in one day my wife and I would both come home in the car and come back to pick up the motor home when it was ready. They simply could not or would not give me an answer. I talked to the service manager who promised to help and then refused to speak further with me and passed me down to a subordinate. At 3:30 I was finally told that the work could not be finisihed that day. I learned that they had pulled the tech off of my job and put him on another job.

So, I am now with you. If my motorhome breaks down in their drive way I'll have it towed somewhere else for work.

Geary

[Geary]

Herman:

Thanks for the advice. I took the old bulb to a local Auto Zone and they had as good a supply of bulbs as the Camping World. In the size that I needed they had a 15 watt and a 12 watt so I got the 12 watt. I put it in and it works fine. I would not expect 12 watts to overheat.

Thanks again,

Geary

[paulcarson]

Paul:

I appreciate the comment. I had not done business with Camping World before except to buy parts and supplies from them when they had a good price. They ran a special on upgrading my manual awning with an electric one at a good price so I thought I'd try them even though they are 50 miles one way from my house. I was told the exchange would take 2 hours so I could wait. It ended up taking 3 days!!! Their attitude toward me as the customer was that I was something they had to put up with and that to talk to me was taking them away from something really important. Luckily I had my wife and my car with me and I told them (after being there since 8 AM with an appointment) that I had to know by 3pm if they could finish that day. I had to be back home not later than 4 and if they could finish in one day my wife could come back home, take care of the business, and I'd wait and drive the motor home. If they couldn't have it ready in one day my wife and I would both come home in the car and come back to pick up the motor home when it was ready. They simply could not or would not give me an answer. I talked to the service manager who promised to help and then refused to speak further with me and passed me down to a subordinate. At 3:30 I was finally told that the work could not be finisihed that day. I learned that they had pulled the tech off of my job and put him on another job.

So, I am now with you. If my motorhome breaks down in their drive way I'll have it towed somewhere else for work.

Geary

Man, I am now wondering about Camping World. There is a CW store not too far from my son's home in New Braunfels, TX. I was thinking of having some window awnings installed next trip down, but reading these comments I am not sure I need to get into that.

[ClayL]

Just for reference - often but not always, the bulb number is stamped or stickered on the inside of the light fixture.

[gmoreno]

Gotta put my two cents worth about CW. I've had to purchase a few things from them and service has just been OK. My biggest gripe was when we were about to purchase our first Class A MH.

We never camped before...ever. Never driven a rig before....ever. Visited our local CW and looked at a Class A. Got pressured from the sales clerk to at least place a $500 deposit to hold the rig. Of course, his argument was that without the deposit, the rig could be sold and we would lose out on the deal. He also assured us that the deposit would be refundable. This was a brand new gas 35' Class A we were talking about, 2010 model year. In short, we placed a $250 deposit on the rig...went to another dealer and purchased a similiar rig for a better price. We went back to CW and requested a refund of our $250. Manager said "NO!" We pressed the issue and the manager stated that the deposit was for the time we took away from his sales staff to show us the rig! NO JOKE! REALLY! We really made a scene on the show-room floor and told any potential buyers of any RV or pull-behind NOT to place a so called refundable deposit...you'll never get that money back! Only after this crazy scene did the manager finally conceded and returned our money!

So, this is my two cents worth about our local CW....just thought I'd share this story in the event there are any readers out there that are considering using CW in our area as a source of purchase for their 1st or last RV.

Rob

[BillySpencer]

Wow, Camping World, We have had hitches, tow vehicle braking systems installed at "different" Camping World Stores. Different times they installed equipment and really didn't seem to care that systems actually worked together, ie; Batttery Disconnect. New tow change overs. Don't they get it. The old blank stare.

Billy in Michigan

[gmoreno]

Follow-up to LED topic:

For those folks out there considering making the switch from incandescent to LED interior bulbs, I did back in July '12. The real incentive to go this route were my two young kids (4 and 7 years of age). The incandescent bulbs get mighty hot to the touch and I didn't want my kids to get finger burns when it came to lights out. This is especially true for each of their lights located in the bunks. They like to turn off the lights in the rig. There has been some chatter about full time Rv'rs wanting to make the transition to LED - to save battery consumption - but didn't want to break the bank making the transition.

I can't speak to battery consumption being decreased, but can attest that the LED bulbs I installed emit pretty much the same lumen output and fit nicely into the base units of each lighting fixture.

I found a nice fella on the internet who sells all sorts of LEDs at a very fair price. The owner's name is Rob. I purchased my goods from him.

http://www.eversale.com/

I paid just under $90 for 18 LEDs to replace my 1156s (EV-BA15S-18) and just under $15 to replace my 3 t10s (EV-LED-T10-18-WW). In all, out of pocket just over $100. Haven't yet replaced the t8s I have, but thinking about it.

Finally, there was some chatter somewhere on the FMCA discussion forum about LEDs and some of the cheaper models interfering with some RV electrical stuff. Six months after purchasing and installing these LEDS and 3k miles later, I can report that I did not encounter any issues; no radio frequency distortions or anything of this sort.

FYI,

rob