Van LED Lights - Why You Should Use Them - Weekender Van Life (2024)

Van LED Lights. Most standard van cargo area lighting is dull and not suited for anything more than convenience lighting when entering or exiting the van. Also, the standard cargo lighting is connected to our Van’s start battery, giving another way to be left stranded with a flat battery and no way to start your engine. Because of this, you should seriously consider designing and installing some LED interior lighting as part of your Van Conversion Build.

Using LED Lights For Our Van Conversion Interior Lighting

Why Use LED Lights In Your Van Conversion?

There are many great reasons to use LED Lights in your van conversion. Let’s quickly touch on the most relevant.

Low Power Consumption

When living with an off-grid power source being mindful of your power usage is very important. LED Lights are by far the most energy-efficient option for lighting.

Less Heat Output

Another reason to consider LED lighting is heat output. With Standard incandescent lighting, 10% of the energy used produces light, the other 90% is lost to heat. On a warm summer evening, you don’t want to heat up your van right before bed!

Long-Lasting

With up to 50,000 hours of life for some LED lights. Normal incandescent lamps do not come close.

Types Of 12v LED Light Mounting Options Suited For Use In A Van Conversion.

There are many 12v LED lights that are perfectly suited for use in a conversion van project, they include

Recessed
Surface
Flush
Flexible

Recessed Mount LED Lights

Some great choices for Recessed Mount LEDs are the acegoo Recessed Ceiling Light or the Facon Recessed Mount Down Light, we are using 8 of the ALOVECO 12V LED Recessed Cabinet Lights.

Surface Mount LED Lights

Surface Mount LED lights are great as they easily mount on top of existing panels. We like the look of this acegoo Surface Mount 12 Volt Puck Lights

Flush Mount LED Lights

Flush Mount LED lights are similar to Recessed Mount options as they sit into the mounting surface. The difference is flush mount will have less of the light assembly protruding out. These Partsam LED cabin lights are a great Flush Mount LED option.

Flexible LED Strip Lights

Flexible LED Strip Lights are perfect for decorative valance or cove lighting. This option from Lighting EVER is low-cost and installs with simple peel-back adhesive.

Choosing The Right LED Lights For Our Van Conversion Ceiling.

Ceiling Lights

We designed our ceiling to lose as little headroom as possible. Because of this, we could either choose a Surface Mount or thin profile Recessed Mount LED. Decisions, decisions!! To give our van a unique and modern feel we decided to use these Recessed Mount LED Lights with an extra slim profile to fit in this small ceiling void.

Cabinet Top Cove Lighting

When we get to our Van conversion cabinet installation project, we will install 12v LED Flexible Strip Lighting above the cabinets to give a warm ambiance to the van. Keep an eye out for this.

Ram Promaster LED Cargo Light Strips

We ordered our Ram Promaster with the factory optional Mopar LED Cargo Light Strips. For supplemental lighting or to cast light to the exterior of the Van, we will relocate the factory Ram Promaster LED Cargo Light Strips to sit over each of the cargo area entryways. We will leave the on-off switch in the same position for ease of access when loading the Van.

Installing a 12V LED Dimmer

Installing a dimmer is also very important when considering LED Lights for your van. The added benefits far outweigh the cost and effort of installation. We installed a 12v Dimmer Switch after using our lights for a while and wish we had done it sooner.

Now Let’s Get To The Fun Part – Installing LED Lights in Our Van Conversion Interior

Installing Recessed Mount LED Lights in Our Van Conversion Ceiling

Step-1 Collect All The Tools And Materials

Tools and Materials

Step-2 Drilling Out The Mounting Holes

The ceiling is in, you can check out the installation of the ceiling here, now for the lights, we have to cut out holes to fit in the Recessed Mount Lights. We drilled out eight holes using a 2-¼” Hole Saw. To make a clean cut, we drilled a little on one side then flipped it over and finished from the other side. Then used the sandpaper to clean up any rough edges.

Step-3 Planing The Power Wiring – Simple Van Lighting Wiring Diagram

This is our simple Van Lighting Wiring Diagram.

Step-4 Pulling The Power Wiring

We used 16 AWG Wire to supply power to our new lights we pulled a simple wiring circuit. The eight lights are split into two circuits with four lights in the front and four lights in the rear.

Step-5 Connecting The Lights To The Wiring

By using Insulated Crimp Terminal Quick Connectors we can easily remove the lights if required.

Step-6 Mounting The Switches

We wired in hallway switching so the lights could be controlled from two locations. One behind the driver’s seat, and one near the passenger side C-pillar. In order to achieve the hallway switching, we needed to use Single Pole Double Throw switches. This is a nice low-cost option from JR Products. There is a little extra wiring involved, but will be very convenient. We will use the JR Products Face Plate to hold the switches in place.

Step-7 Turn On The Lights And……

Stand back and admire the beauty that you created.

What’s The Next Project In Our Family Friendly Ram Promaster Weekender Van Conversion?

USB and 12V Sockets

For ease of charging devices, we will be adding USB and 12v sockets in three corners of the van. We will be using a quick change 3.0 model to allow for the charging of new high-power use tablets and phones. This aluminum model with a voltage readout looks like it will work perfectly.

DC Fuse Panel

All of our DC Loads will need to be fused, to make this easy and neat, we have chosen to use the Blue Sea Systems 12 circuit model. This should be enough for all our load, and if not we can easily install a small sub-panel later.

Tie Down Rails

To keep any cargo secure and for the convenience of hanging future installs, we need a system of Tie-Down Rail. We seriously thought about using L-Track for tie-down but at $10 a foot, we decided against it. Keep an eye out for our simple low-cost solution for our conversion van cargo tie-down system.

Finally – Here Are Some Of The Other Van Electrical Systems We Have Installed So Far

Gasoline Parking Heater

Webasto Copy Gasoline Parking Heater – First Look
Installing A Webasto Copy Gasoline Parking Heater

Van Roof Vent Fan

Camper Van Roof Vents
Campervan Ventilation – What You Need To Know
Van Roof Vent Installation

Check Out How We Power Our Van With A Simple and Portable Solar System

DIY Portable Solar Generator
Van Conversion Battery Isolator

Lastly, if you have any questions, post a comment below, we would be happy to help.

Thanks for reading, and remember to always take the road less traveled!