It took three weeks to arrive. I guess someone got a Brexit bonus from the large freight cost and customs charge… Considering the charges, packaging itself was on the light side!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.caravanramblings.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IMG_20220203_171531-363x768.jpg\")
As well as no replaceable parts, the existing light had been bonded to the caravan with a mixture of VHB tape and a silicone adhesive such as Bostik Simson STR-360. It was a pig to remove, achieved with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Heat – very important<\/li>
- Stanley knife<\/li>
- Fishing Line to effectively “cheese cut” under the lamp<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Eventually it was freed from the side of the caravan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.caravanramblings.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IMG_20220124_154713-1024x484.jpg\")
Removal of the old awning light<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n The connection block was then teased out through the hole in the sidewall, disconnected and then the wires held in place with a small clamp. Note there are 4 wires here – two are for the light and two are for the alarm indicator. The alarm indictor is a small red led which flashes when the alarm is set. On a dark night, it’s like some kind of emergency beacon shining across the campsite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We had already disconnected the source of those wires so the new lamp not having the red LED would be no problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.caravanramblings.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IMG_20220125_095708-1024x484.jpg\")
Awning Light bonding<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.caravanramblings.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IMG_20220125_095657-1024x484.jpg\")
Water damaged light unit<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.caravanramblings.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IMG_20220125_095644-1024x484.jpg\")
Side of caravan cleaned-up<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n Ideally I would have had a new replacement connector but I clearly wasn’t going to be able to find one of these in Spain so I carefully teased out the metal inner pins, un-picked the old wires and re-used. Finally sealing the wires into the male part of the connector with a silicon adhesive (see below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To bond the new lamp, I would use a mixture of VHB tape and Sikaflex 522, which is a very strong silicone adhesive which can only<\/em><\/strong> be removed mechanically once it has cured. Full curing takes 48 hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.caravanramblings.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IMG_20220207_182014-1-scaled-e1644571235635-1024x484.jpg\")
Various adhesives to bond the new light<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n I now made a right mess of sticking the lamp on. There are several things which need to happen at the same time and I thought I could manage this. The VHB double-sided tape had already been stuck on the back of the lamp and I needed to remove the sticky backing. Then I chose to apply a bead of silicon adhesive all around the edge of the lamp. Then I would connect up the lamp and simultaneously fill the hole in the side of the van with clear waterproof silicone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This proved impossible. By the time I’d connected the wires together and filled the hole with silicone, I’d got adhesive everywhere. On my hands, on the side of the van, on the awning. Eventually I bailed out of this idea and cleaned off the Sikaflex adhesive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is what I should have done from the start. It was over-ambitious to think I could manage with a bead of silicone around the lamp. Eventually I got the lamp in place, stuck down with the VHB tape and then I ran the Sikaflex around the edge of the light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Final result looks good and the bond seems strong. Lets hope it lasts and we don’t see the light dangling from the side of the van as we travel along a motorway!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.caravanramblings.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IMG_20220207_181929-1-1024x484.jpg\")
New light in place<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.caravanramblings.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IMG_20220207_181942-1-1024x484.jpg\")
New Awning lamp<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Job number two on the first trip of 2022 was to sort out the awning light. The current one has been on the van since new and been shipping water for several years. At first we thought it was just a little condensation but it wasn’t – this is a common fault on the Swift … Continue reading Awning Light replacement<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-caravan-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caravanramblings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caravanramblings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caravanramblings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caravanramblings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caravanramblings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4596"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.caravanramblings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4601,"href":"https:\/\/www.caravanramblings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4596\/revisions\/4601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caravanramblings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caravanramblings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caravanramblings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}