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Xmas lights on a spyder ... how?

bmwlarry

New member
Our group is having a Toy Drive to a local children's hospital and I would like to know if anyone has any experience with that sort of temporary lighting. I spent some time at the local hardware store and found two options. On is the strips of battery operated lights. I question the brightness of these less as there is no lumen rating. the second way was to buy a small inverter and use a 120V set of leds. This is more expensive and I am not sure how the inverter would work with the bike.

Any help out there?

I posted this on Thursday but the post was removed for some reason.
 
All Christmas light sellers have battery operated LEDs. Many designs and sizes. Most are designed to be used in vehicles.:ohyea:
 
Our group is having a Toy Drive to a local children's hospital and I would like to know if anyone has any experience with that sort of temporary lighting. I spent some time at the local hardware store and found two options. On is the strips of battery operated lights. I question the brightness of these less as there is no lumen rating. the second way was to buy a small inverter and use a 120V set of leds. This is more expensive and I am not sure how the inverter would work with the bike.

Any help out there?

I posted this on Thursday but the post was removed for some reason.

I own a Hardware store and we have plenty of battery opp. Led lights that r just as bright as normal.. i would look into those.. plus battery opperated wreaths and other decorations.. im sure if u have a true value hardware store close by they can help.. Good luck
 
How about this? This is the hubby's (Tobor 9) bike at the Law Riders Toy Run last Sunday.bilde.jpeg
 
HOme depot and lowes have battery powered strings and they work very well. they are also wired with micro wire so they are nearly invisible. I dont think the battery boxed are water proof so you may want to put the controller in the trunk.

If I can find some blue, I may use them for lighting.
 
I would think that a cigarette outlet inverter in the trunk outlet would drive an LED strig of lights, depending on the wattage, but I haven't tried that method. The battery lights are probably a better approach.
 
It works

We just got a converter from radio shack that plugs into cig. Lighter, and plugged a string of 50 C6 Xmas lights into it. Looks great on spyder for our park parade.
 
TOY DRIVE

Our group is having a Toy Drive to a local children's hospital and I would like to know if anyone has any experience with that sort of temporary lighting. I spent some time at the local hardware store and found two options. On is the strips of battery operated lights. I question the brightness of these less as there is no lumen rating. the second way was to buy a small inverter and use a 120V set of leds. This is more expensive and I am not sure how the inverter would work with the bike.

Any help out there?

I posted this on Thursday but the post was removed for some reason.


Larry

Where and when is this Toy Drive?
 
The battery lights are probably a better approach.

:agree: Especially if the lights are only for seasonal use and going to remove after the parade or the Holidays. However, if you have the Christmas spirit all year long...:roflblack:

I would think that a cigarette outlet inverter in the trunk outlet would drive an LED strig of lights, depending on the wattage, but I haven't tried that method.

It would work... however, it will drain the battery quick if you don't have the engine running.:lecturef_smilie:
 
Well, I have stopped by the local hardware stores mentioned and the micro wire LED lights mentioned are indoor items only. They could not be used outside where any moisture at all is possible because of the bare wires. I really liked them and was headed for the checkout until I noticed the indoor only emphasis. I may give up on lights and simply decorate with the static cling window type dressings as I will not be going fast on city streets.
 
Get a plug-in inverter (converts 12V to 110V), plug it into the rear trunk outlet, and plug some standard lights into that. I would suggest a low wattage LED set of outdoor lights (or icycles or otherwise) to limit the amperage. Something like this http://www.christmaslightsetc.com/p...reen-Wire-Premium-Mini-Ice-M5--20293--735.htm would only pull about 4 amps on the 12 volt source. As an alternative, the battery lights may not be waterproof, but they are cheap and disposable, and won't be a big loss if they die. They won't hurt anybody or start a fire if they short out, either.
 
If you have some old strands of the mini lights that you don't mind hacking up... Those lights have a resistive load on them so that you can plug a 100 light string into 115V, and still only have 2.5V at the actual bulb. Usually a string of 100 will have 2 circuits of 50 lights, so you would have a string of 50 on one line, and a string of 50 on the other line, then both hooked to neutral to complete the circuit.

You should be able to take a string of 6 hooked to 12 volts to get approx 2 volt at the bulb - 5 would give you 2.4 volts. Given that, you can use multiple "lines" of 5-6 bulbs hooked into your 12V system.

Not the prettiest way, but it should work... :)
 
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