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Scrap Caravan Raiding! Me & the Mrs have been on a road trip around Scotland for the last week or so, currently we're camping at one of my favourite places which is a sort of semi wild campsite (it has very basic toilets but no electricity supply). Anyway the last few years we've been coming, the site manager has been getting rid of old caravans which people have stopped paying for & just left them here. Last year I raided a few 12v fluorescent fixtures and a few tubes, there was a lot more this year, I've got about 25 tubes I think, haven't bothered with any fixtures as they're all crap. I will go through them when I get home.

Scrap Caravan Raiding!


Me & the Mrs have been on a road trip around Scotland for the last week or so, currently we're camping at one of my favourite places which is a sort of semi wild campsite (it has very basic toilets but no electricity supply).

Anyway the last few years we've been coming, the site manager has been getting rid of old caravans which people have stopped paying for & just left them here. Last year I raided a few 12v fluorescent fixtures and a few tubes, there was a lot more this year, I've got about 25 tubes I think, haven't bothered with any fixtures as they're all crap. I will go through them when I get home.

20180628_190355-3744x1872.jpg 20180605_172540-1.jpg 20180603_221454-1-2475x1293.jpg 20180524_130506-1.jpg 20180524_130334-1.jpg
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Album name:fluorescent / Off Topic
Filesize:1475 KiB
Date added:03 Jun, 2018
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AngryHorse   [04 Jun, 2018 at 07:23 AM]
All that ali!, he would get a few bob weighing this lot in! Cool
Funkybulb   [04 Jun, 2018 at 10:11 AM]
Prolly some of these cae across the pond? I have scored few tubes that came across the pond. Problem is now days caravans got Instant start gear in them that will kills tube quicker than any gear. Unless u planning on leaving them on all the time for duratation of the trip.
fluorescent   [04 Jun, 2018 at 06:14 PM]
I mentioned all the scrap metal and the site manager said "it's not worth the hassle". I think they'd prefer it if people didn't abandon caravans there lol... And yes most 12v fixtures like the ones in these van's instant start tubes, under drive them and don't permanently heat the cathodes so the tubes band up and die prematurely
Danny   [04 Jun, 2018 at 07:15 PM]
Id of done exactly the same!
Ash   [04 Jun, 2018 at 07:29 PM]
How broken are they really ?

As for 12V FL lighting, the best option today is to use 12V to 230V inverter and then power from it the lighting with ordinary HF ballasts (most of them are more forgiving to non sine wave power, compared to magnetic)
RobTDCI   [04 Jun, 2018 at 08:09 PM]
It's a shame about the fluorescent lighting for caravans, as you say they are never that good, they kill the tubes and aren't worth bothering with. I do have a couple of good low voltage fluorescent lights by Invertec that were designed for use on buses. They seem to drive the tubes properly and pre-heat them. It's not always so easy to find 12v versions though as the larger buses use 24v electrics.
fluorescent   [04 Jun, 2018 at 08:17 PM]
@Ash, the caravans? Very broken; damp, rotten walls, rotten chassis's etc... We used to run electronically ballasted fluorescent fixtures at work on 220v DC. Most things with a switch mode PSU will operate on DC

@RobTDCI, I hate to say it but 12v systems like in caravans and motorhomes is a place where the use of LED lighting really makes sense
Ash   [05 Jun, 2018 at 07:53 PM]
The problem with DC above few 10's Volts is that it is getting hard to break arcs in it : Switches will have excessive arcing when switched off, under higher load they might not be able to extinguish the arc at all so catch fire. Breakers not made for DC are useless as they won't be able to break short circuits (maybe unless you use a 3 phase breaker with all 3 poles in series for one DC pole or something like that)
fluorescent   [05 Jun, 2018 at 11:21 PM]
Yep we had all them issues at my last work place with the 220v DC supplies. I remember one of the (220vdc) overhead cranes apparently needed a new foot operated switch for the horn, our crane "engineer" fitted a crappy little plastic thing and I said it wouldn't last 10 minutes, he said it'd be fine... I think it lasted 2 days before it set on fire as it couldn't extinguish the arc!
Zelandeth   [16 Mar, 2019 at 12:29 PM]
I need to find somewhere like that near here, reckon I could get a lot of useful stuff from there and save myself a fair bit of fabrication...
oliver   [16 Mar, 2019 at 01:39 PM]
Your local caravan centre might have something.

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