Curbside LED strip lighting

[CRM]

Just finished up adding some curbside LED lighting to our Ollie and we're more than happy with the results. To begin this project I painted two 8' sections of 3/8 x 1/2 aluminum C-Channel in white epoxy paint, and then once dry, used 1/2" 3M VXB tape to attach the channel to just below the rain guard weather stripping under the awning. Once that set, I installed 2 IP65 weatherproof LED silicon neon strips into the channel. We decided on one white and one blue but these strips are also available in several other colors if desired. Tried to talk the wife out of blue since I'm afraid it will attract too many insects, but she put her foot down and said she wanted blue and only blue 😄.. I fully expect to be replacing that blue strip with yellow at some point down the road, though.

It's a decent friction fit once both strips are installed in the channel but I put a dab of silicon in the channel every couple of feet just for piece of mind. From there I ran the wires down through a new penetration just under the awning bracket above the porch light, sealed it with Dicor and connected them to a SPDT rocker switch. I will most likely be adding a dimmer to the circuit since the lights are much brighter than expected.

All in all, very happy and I think it came out better and cleaner looking than the off-the-shelf options I was looking at. These strips emit a nice neon-like glow instead of the individual "dot" look most other LED strips have . Hope this helps anyone else looking to do something similar. I'll add more pics and parts links once I'm happy with the final switch/dimmer setup.

C-Channel

LED light strip

3M 1/2" VXB tape

[Patriot]

5 hours ago, CRM said:

From there I ran the wires down through a new penetration just under the awning bracket above the porch light, sealed it with Dicor and connected them to a SPDT rocker switch.

Can you provide a pic of where your drilled through the hull?
Thanks!

Patriot🇺🇸

[CRM]

3 hours ago, Patriot said:

Can you provide a pic of where your drilled through the hull?
Thanks!

Patriot🇺🇸

Yes, I'll post more pics soon once I have all the wiring and switches complete. I made the penetration just underneath the awning bracket directly above the porch light near the door.

[CRM]

Finally got around to finishing up this project. Ended up ditching the rocker switch with dimmer setup and decided to add on/off dimmer switches on the outside above the lower fridge vent instead. I was a little concerned about running wiring behind the fridge so I ran all the wiring in a high temp shield back up to the panel. Much nicer to be able to control the lighting from the outside and I think it's a cleaner install this way, too.

On to the next project!

Dimmer switches

High temp wire shield

 

[MAX Burner]

Very sanitary install, @CRM!  Sweet set-up!  Thanks for posting your mod.

[CRM]

1 hour ago, MAX Burner said:

Very sanitary install, @CRM!  Sweet set-up!  Thanks for posting your mod.

Thank you! Overall very happy with how it turned out, and more importantly- it makes the wife happy!

[MAX Burner]

4 hours ago, CRM said:

it makes the wife happy!

Perfect!  Happy Wife - Happy Life; true as ever!