we've camped for many years in a frame tent & our lighting was 3 flourescent tubes that ran off a leisure battery
we've bought our 1st brand new tent ready for this season - a Vango Zanzibar 600 - but no internal framework so our old lights are now defunct
we don't want to go EHU so went to Attwools campshop in Gloucester where we expalined what we needed & was recommended a gelert 20 led activity lantern that could be hung from the centre of the tent
when we arrived home 90 mins later & tried it in the evening in our bedroom, could hardly see anything, no way could we all sit around & play cards or read like we usually do
can anyone recommend a suitable lantern that will light up the whole living area of an evening
UFO lights, from Wilkinsons, get good reviews on these boards and are cheap as chips. We have just bought one for short stays, so will report back after have had chance to use it...
I'm sure someone else will be along soon to give advice, meanwhile it might be worth checking out old threads on UFO lights, by doing a search using the icon at the top of this page.
UFOs are the way. Three or four around the living room will have 747s coming in to land. ASDA have them cheap at the moment. I get some cheap springy caliper thingies (I know all the technical terms!) and attach the UFOs to different points; for example if you put the zips to the top of a door you can hang a UFO off there.
Hiya, just bought a UFO LED light in ASDA for a few pounds. It's so bright! It has 3 different settings. To be honest the brightest setting is probably too bright! It has a hangy thing and also magnets on the back so you can stick it on a tent pole. Also have a few £1 clip on LED lights which are perfect for reading at night and for the kids.
I got a 1.2metre Awning light, although it is designed to run of EHU, you could quite easaly chop of the mains to 12volt adapter plug and run of a 12volt supply, no problem, the rated output is 75watts! and gives of more than enough light, in fact not only does it fully iluminate the living area of my Biscaya, the light floods over into the bedrooms also, thus lighting up the entire tent, the unit is made by P.L.S. and is basicly a long clear 1" diameter tube containing 150 Super Bright LED rated at 13000 MCD, got mine from Campbells Lostock for £24.50 Waudbys also do them, I just tie it up to the bedroom hangers on the living area side of the tent, to be honest it is a little too bright, and as you can't dim LED's, I am thinking of draping a piece of fabric over it to reduce the glare, it does not emmit any heat so no problem there. hope that helps.
It wouldn't meet your communal requirements but when I'm on my own a head torch is all I need because it always points to where I happen to be looking.
In the Aruba I have an old Camping Gaz "Belvedere" gas lantern which is great but I'd echo Val's point that gas lights in a synthetic tent are dangerous and would add that they would increase the amount of condensation.
I had the same problem. My tubes were fitted with a spring clip at either end. I added a length of wooden dowell sprung into the clips, then tied guy line type cord from either end to a loop in the middle, and hung that from the loops in the top of the tent.
------------- Canvas tent, paraffin light, petrol stove. Heaven
I'd rather be kayaking.
Spent up, not pent up, just had my new tent up.
same here as in i removed the spring clips attached for pole use on my tubes but then added 2 tent rubbers with some cord attached to each rubber,then pass them through the loops in the tent used for rolling the doors up then simply slide the rubbers over each end of the tubes and job done,with this set up i can still use the tubes with a 12volt battery if non EHU, or if im using EHU i simply run the tubes off a 240v-12v transformer...
------------- 2008 Bailey Pageant Champagne series 6 with a Dorema Daytona Awning + Nissan X-Trail + Outwell Trout Lake pollycotton tunnel tent
are these actually called 'ufo' lights, only i went to asda to get some and got several funny looks when i was asking the staff if they could point me in the right direction. Needless to say came home with no lights:(
Quote: Originally posted by scrappy mum on 13/4/2009
Sorry to sound a bit thick but........
are these actually called 'ufo' lights, only i went to asda to get some and got several funny looks when i was asking the staff if they could point me in the right direction. Needless to say came home with no lights:(
No. It's just that they look at little like them: discs about 1.5cm thick, 10-13cm diam.
I used a couple of UFO lights last week . One was a spare and the other I used in the bedroom pod. Very bright. For the living space I used an LED worklight which you can charge up and then use. It was great.
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Topic: Lighting in new tent
