LED Awning light

Kemerton-bath wrote:What type is fitted to your Kingham?  It's most likely one of the following:

The Labcraft Astro ... https://www.labcraft.co.uk/product/astro-ll2/

or the Dometic Raintec which acts as a gutter across the full width of the sliding side-door aperture ... [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I have experience of both and can give you advice pertinent to whichever of these you have.

Tim

Kemerton-bath wrote:Dave,

I had the same thing occur with my Raintec.  I at least had the advantage that I'd retrofitted it myself in preference to the Labcraft Astro that was original to the van, so I was familiar with its construction and the connection to the electrics.

The LED strip slides into the metal chassis so (in principle) can be replaced without unfixing the whole assembly.  That's handy, given the latter is most likely stuck to the bodywork with Sikaflex or something similar, not just the 2 or 3 self tappers that should be visible under the top edge of the door aperture.  It's worth checking that out though, as the operation will be easier if you're able to remove the whole thing, rather than threading the old strip out of, and the new one into, the chassis still in situ.  

As you've said, the key factor is the electrical connection. In my case I wasn't able to access that without significant de-construction of cabinetry above the sliding door, so I opted for a different approach.  Fortunately there was sufficient slack in the cable to be able to pull out enough (working outside the van) so that I could cut it and solder the new LED strip cable connection onto it.  I used heat shrinkable sleeves to insulate the soldered connections and then threaded the cable into the hole drilled in the bodywork.  

Your first step is to prise off the plastic end-caps of the Raintec, which will reveal which end of the LED strip is connected to the 12V lighting circuit.  They are a push-fit into the metal chassis but you may find them stuck with Sikaflex residue.  The left-hand cap slides towards the front of the van and the right-hand one towards the rear.  Take care not to lose them, they are very small. In my case the cable feed is at the forward end.  You may need to pick away any Sikaflex that's blocking the cable-hole in order to free the cable.  With luck you'll be able to pull (gently) a few inches of cable out of the van body in order to make a new connection.  The hole in the bodywork of my van is only a few millimetres in diameter so soldering the cable of the replacement strip onto the circuit wiring was the only option; any other form of connection would not fit through the hole.  The Kingham cabinetry will be different to that of the Kemerton so you may able to get onto the wiring connection more easily and avoid the sort of keyhole surgery I've described.

My failed LEDs had occurred within 12 months of me buying the Raintec from AS so I was able to get a replacement strip under its warranty.  It's not an easy thing to replace and I was forced to damage the failed strip while sliding it out of the chassis, but fortunately the replacement slid in easily.  The challenge was the electrical connection, as you've anticipated.

I've no idea what caused some of the LEDs to fail so soon.  I've installed countless metres of LED tape in homes over the past 10 years and have never known a failure.  The tape in the Raintec is designed to be waterproof in its silicon sleeve, though the Dometic literature (see link below) doesn't state an ingress protection (IP) rating.  Maybe it's just not able to cope with such an exposed position on the van.  If moisture ingress was the cause then I would have expected the failed LEDS to be at the forward (leading) end of the strip which bears the brunt of driving weather when underway.  However they were randomly scattered towards the trailing end and was no sign of any condensation within the silicon sleeve.  I took the precaution of adding my own silicon to both ends of the replacement strip but time will tell if this has made any difference.  If the same failures occur again I doubt AS will agree to replace FOC, in which case I'll source my own waterproof strip that might hopefully be a better spec.

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Tim