Interior Light Mod

Vanagon Westfalias do not have a "courtesy light" that comes on when the slider door is opened.  Presumably the designers did not want the users to run the battery down when the door is left open  while camping.  There is, however, a cut-out in the passenger side column for a switch and getting wires to a spot above the door is fairly easy.  For me, finding a low-profile light was a bit of a challenge but I did find one that fits well.

 

The Light I Found:  Most lights I found were 8 watt, 12 volt fluorescents, but stand a bit higher than I wanted.  I found a nice low-profile light at an RV equipment site but nobody there could tell me the dimensions.   That was www.ApacheCamper.com.  They list it for $38.59.  Their part number is 55-7758.   I eBay-searched a description of the light and found it on a "Buy It Now" price of about $15.00 from Seller "randpcarriages".  The light is 19" long and about 3" wide.  It's a single tube.  All two-tube models were way too wide. 

Before putting the light up, make sure the switch operates like you want it.  For me, up is "on" and down is "off".  The switch can be turned around if necessary.  There is a replacement ballast available.

 

 

Mounting Location and Access Points: If you remove the vents you see that the air channel is a couple of inches back.  The air duct goes forward and joins up with the hollow door column. 

 

 

 

 

Mounting the Light: I positioned the light between the vents and traced the ends with a pencil.  I then measured and marked the wires' "up" and "over" offset distances and drilled a hole for a grommet to pass the wires through the steel wall.  The inside is packed with foam so I had to pry it back to get the light's wires back to the rear vent.

I soldered the wires and taped them up well.  Remember to leave enough slack so you can pull the light back off in case you need to replace the ballast.

 

 

Fish Wires from the Door Air Duct: I ran a fish wire from the front vent down to the hole where air comes in from the door.  I tried 8 gauge THHN wire but it was not stout enough.  I used a piece of steel wire but it kept finding a crevice to dig into.  Finally I put a loop in the end of the wire and it found its way just fine.  On another later project I found a $12.00 Greeley 25 ft. fish tape at Home Despot that would have done the job much better.

It's best to pull all the wire up through the front duct, then fish from the rear duct and pull it the rest of the way.

 

 

Air Duct is Access Point: The vent  cover pops right off.  You can easily access the spot where the switch will go.  The light works off of 12 volts and needs two wires.  One wire will supply the 12 volts and the other wire will complete the path to ground when the door is opened.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Door Switch and Power: The action of the door switch is to ground the wire to the chassis when when the door opens and to release the connection when the door closes.  That's a "normally closed" switch.  My switch is an OEM that is, by the way, the same as the front door switches.   Some switches for car alarms are "normally open" and break a circuit when a door opens.  They will not work here.

I will eventually get power from my auxiliary battery but for now I am borrowing from the power door locks.  The second push-post down (yellow wire) is the "unlock" signal.  It has 12 volts when the doors are unlocked.  This means the light will only operate when the doors are unlocked (I only open doors when they are unlocked anyway).  Actually, if you unlock the slider with the key, there will be no signal.  No problem, this is only temporary.

 

Switch Operator Bumper: The door switch is not long enough to be closed by the door without something mounted on the door.  There is a hole right where this extender should be.  Apparently the proper item is NLA.  I will bolt a bumper of some kind there the next time I have the door panel off.  In the meantime, I found that a 1/4" lead anchor fits nicely and a screw can be adjusted to push the button.

I wouldn't leave the screw there because I think it is a snag point.  Maybe if I found a plastic ferrule to fit over it I would just leave it.

 

It doesn't seem like 8 watts is that much power, but this really lights up the interior.   The rocker switch on the light is left in the "on" position to operate.  Obviously, if the door is going to be left open during the daylight, you can reach up and turn the light off.

Now the challenge is to get a wire from the aux battery into the door column.  Thanks for visiting.

 

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