Newell Classic Flourescent Light Fixtures

[chockwald]

Does anyone owning a Newell Classic, or Vintage coach have a source for replacement flourescent light fixtures similar to the ones in these units?

[Richard and Rhonda]

Clarke,

Can you post a picture?

Or you could take Tom's approach and redo the entire coach :-)

[chockwald]

Originally Posted by Richard and Rhonda

Clarke,

Can you post a picture?

Or you could take Tom's approach and redo the entire coach :-)

Hi Richard! Well, that's my next option. One of the fixtures went out, and I may have to update it to something that is available now. I struggle with the urge to keep everything as original as possible, but functional. Sometimes those two objectives cannot occupy the same space at the same time. I'll post a picture later this evening after I get home.

[chockwald]

OK...here are two pix of the fixture.

[Richard and Rhonda]

It doesn't look broken. When you say "went out", do you mean just doesn't light up anymore with even a new bulb? Does the bulb flicker at all?

Most of the time all you need is a new ballast, that's the black box on the inside of the fixture. Take the ballast to home depot or lowes and try a new one. The purpose of the ballast is to blast the flourescent light with a burst of voltage to get the gas excited enough to light up.

If something else is amiss, maybe you can just buy a light fixture of the right length and cannibalize it to put the innards back into yours.

[encantotom]

btw, that is EXACTLY the same fixture i have in mine. a tidbit for you is never to turn the light on with no bulb in them. they will smoke and burn up....i promise.

when you find the parts, let us all know. i wonder if an rv supply has them. they are 12v.

tom

[chockwald]

Interestingly, there appears to be NO circuit board in this fixture. More than likely it was the ballast. Anyway, I'm probably going to update to something newer that will fit the space. This is/was the Vanity light in the bedroom.

Nevertheless, if anyone has some spare fixtures like this (12 Volt, 8 Watt, single 12" bulb) let me know....

[encantotom]

ok, so another dumb comment by me. did you check the fuse?

tom

[chockwald]

Tom, yes I did check the fuse, and unfortunately, it is intact.

[Brad Townsend]

Clarke I replaced a couple fluorescence lights with new ballast in the front of the coach with a more efficient fixture and bulb T8. There is an awful lot to know about florescent lighting. Not all fixtures can recieve just any bulb as the following web site will address.
http://www.servicelighting.com/libra...e_lighting.cfm

I also replaced a bulb such as the one you are having an issue with over my sink area with a LED light strip which works very nice, but I have to admit that LED's have a shorter lighting distance and don't think it would be enough for the bathroom area. For that i believe that richard gave you a good site for replacement ballast. It would be beneficial for folks to get a good understanding of florescence lighting because they are the reason for many fires when not used and cared for properly.

Brad

[GORDON HUMMEL]

Being stuck in the Snow in Ok, I decided to install the LED's I purchased in the past. The bedroom ceiling lights were first. After removing the fixtures, I removed the old guts & glued in 1/2" pvc. Then I put the LED strips on the pvc & thats it. $4.00 of Leds for each fixture. Probably less light than the old ones, but fine in this application. Also +90% less power consumpion.

Also replaced the lights in the cove in the front. Just mounted the LED strips to some pvc & that was it. Checked after installing just one side & could not tell the difference.

Also replaced the 8 down lights under the cove lights with LEDS. Never used them before because they got so hot. $4.00 ea for the new ones & they are brighter!

[Richard and Rhonda]

NICE !

Can you tell us a little more about the source of the LED's, and also how you are controlling the amperage. I think I saw some resistors.

[Brad Townsend]

I sure would like to know where to get led's for $4

[fulltiming]

I have very similar fixtures in my 1992. The new Thinline fixtures use a small internal ballast but are too wide to fit into the same space on the side of the fixture.

[fulltiming]

Another dumb question but did you pull the fuse and ohm it? I have seen what appeared to be good fuses that were open. I had one of my over the bed lights go out and I found two components on the circuit board that had overheated and were shorting together. I separated them, put electrical tape between them and so far, all is good.

[chockwald]

Hi Michael...no, I did not ohm it, but I will this evening....good suggestion....not a dumb question.

[chockwald]

I pulled the fuse and used my multi-meter on the ohm setting of 200k, and got a .9 reading. That is the "resistance" setting according to the user pamplet. It offered no "continuity" setting. Is that the correct setting to check continuity? I am really an illiterate when it comes to electrical terminology. The two other optional settings under "ohms" are 20k and 2k.

[fulltiming]

I would set the ohm scale to 2k to get the most accurate reading. Typically error is a percentage of full scale so you would be looking at 100 times the potential error. There should be very low resistance across a good fuse.

[chockwald]

Ok, 2k it is. What type of a reading should I be looking for? I have no idea, due to total lack of electrical knowledge, what I should be looking for. Will it be on a scale of 1 to 100, or 1 to 10???

[GORDON HUMMEL]

I have the same lights in my 1991. There was one ceiling light that did not provide what I need. I replaced it with a Trucklite 80250c LED. the width is ok, but it is longer & required removing some wood in the ceiling. I tried taking a picture to show the difference, but it did not work out. I would estimate it provides 3x the light

http://www.truck-lite.com/webapp/wcs...2951&langId=-1

Not original, but effective

Gordon