installing LED bulbs to my 2008Bailey Bordeaux

[Jakeyjohn]

We have 2008 Bailey Bordeaux which as you may know has a wooden surround to the large lounge area Heki rooflight.The surround holds four downlighters.I wish to upgrade these to LED bulbs,but am experiencing great difficulties in removing the chromed top plate on these lights.Can anyone advise if there is an easy,or hard,method of removing these covers without causing too much damage to them?Please,genuine help and advice needed to get these off,no wisecracks,John Smith

[Derek Uzzell]

The types of downlighters fitted to leisure-vehicles come in a wide variety of designs and it’s often far from obvious how they come apart. A photo of the lights fitted to your caravan would be helpful, but there’s still no guarantee that a forum member will be familiar with that design of light and can offer specific advice on disassembly.

 

You might try asking Bailey themselves or the Bailey Owners’ Caravan Club, but asking on the CaravanTalk forum is probably your best bet. You’ll see from this 2011 inquiry relating to a 2008 Bailey Ranger of a similar vintage to your Bordeaux that, even if it is known how lights should come apart, doing this in practice may not be straightforward.

 

http://www.caravantalk.co.uk/community/topic/52956-ranger-downlights/

 

http://www.caravantalk.co.uk/community/topic/79825-removing-downlighters/

 

How important to you is it to fit LED bulbs in these downlighters?

 

Motorcaravanners replace halogen bulbs with LED equivalents primarily to reduce 12V-power consumption when parking off-campsite where leisure-battery charging is impracticable. But caravanners tend to do this less and, consequently, there’s less imperative to ‘go LED’.

 

Even if you do manage to gain access to the downlighters’ interior without causing harm, there’s no certainty that a replacement LED bulb will fit satisfactorily or that you’ll be happy with the light the LED bulb produces.

 

Admittedly it would be useful to know how to get the lights apart in case a current bulb expires, but, if dismantling the lights purely as an ‘upgrading’ exercise is likely to cause damage (seemingly a real possibility based on the CaravanTalk comments) it might be wondered whether it’s worthwhile.