Interior lights question

[kromboy]

So I've got some nice looking interior lights that are dimmable and can change colors (soft white to daylight, nothing crazy)

I took one of my existing lights out and had some questions regarding how I would wire this up.

1. My existing lights only connect to a single wire, there's no ground. Is this normal? should I be worried that I'm installing these lights without any ground?

2. These lights as it currently stands are controlled by the switches by the driver's seat. Is that also where the wires from the ceiling terminate to or should I be looking for a connection somewhere in the electrical panel? I can trace the wires but wanted to get some expert opinions before I just start blindly tugging at wires and making a rat's nest of it.

My ultimate goal is to replace the existing interior lights and terminate them to my house batteries so they don't drain my starter batteries when in use.

[ewo1]

Originally Posted by kromboy

So I've got some nice looking interior lights that are dimmable and can change colors (soft white to daylight, nothing crazy)

I took one of my existing lights out and had some questions regarding how I would wire this up.

1. My existing lights only connect to a single wire, there's no ground. Is this normal? should I be worried that I'm installing these lights without any ground?

2. These lights as it currently stands are controlled by the switches by the driver's seat. Is that also where the wires from the ceiling terminate to or should I be looking for a connection somewhere in the electrical panel? I can trace the wires but wanted to get some expert opinions before I just start blindly tugging at wires and making a rat's nest of it.

My ultimate goal is to replace the existing interior lights and terminate them to my house batteries so they don't drain my starter batteries when in use.

The metal casing of your exiting lighting should be the ground when installed, thats why there is only one wire.

[nikitis]

I just went through this two days ago. The one wire is your power + wire. If you have removed your inner skin off the bus, the best ground connecting you will get is to take a screw that was in the hat channel when the skin was on and wrap your negative wire around the screw and screw it back into your hat channel. So your negative - will be tied to the screw that is screwed into your hat channel and it should work.

If you still have the inner skin off your bus when you use the existing hole where your light was do you see a hat channel and if so drill a hole and thread in a screw and then tie your negative to that screw and done.

You do not wanna use the inner skin. It can work but there is paint on most skins on both sides and doesn't always ground well.

Good luck.

[Iceni John]

Originally Posted by kromboy

My ultimate goal is to replace the existing interior lights and terminate them to my house batteries so they don't drain my starter batteries when in use.

Like you, my bus's original interior lights are switched at the driver's switch panel, but I just wanted them to be powered from my house batteries. I separated those lights' CBs from the chassis 12V feed into the bus's original electrical panel, and instead connected them to a new feed from my house batteries. This way I can still control them while driving, but when parked they don't draw power from the start batteries. Easy!

Any interior lights that I install later will each have their own switches by them, but this way I'll have the best of both worlds (I hope!).

John