Converting Marine or RV Dome Lights to LED Lights

If you are surfing our web site, you will notice that the procedure for mounting our Kalokalo 15 LED lights into the larger marine or rv dome lights is very similar to that of the smaller diameter lights (click here). Although the Kalokalo will not fit into the 5-1/2" (138mm) flange base dome lights, it will fit quite neatly into the larger 6-7/8" (174mm) flange base lights

Before and After Installation. The dome light to the left is with an unlit Rinorino LED light, the brass dome cabin light to the right is not yet modified.

To remove the socket, first loosen the two grub screws on the bulb socket (the yellow and blue arrows), THEN unscrew the bulb holder from the reflector. I have had a couple of 'stiff' grub screws (from the wasted heat of the incandescent bulb?), and removing the bulb holder first makes it hard to back out the grub screws. In most, but not all, installations the switch wire carries the positive ('hot') wire. Even some very, very expensive boat manufacturers aren't very careful of polarity on lighting circuits, so it might pay to check the polarity of the ship's wiring instead of relying on colours.

Key Tool If you try to drill a hole with a diameter greater than the actual thickness of sheet metal, especially a soft metal like brass, the metal will 'wrap' around the drill bit and distort and bend the metal. By drilling a small pilot, then using a bit like this to enlarge the hole, will give you a nice, clean, round hole, not just for this job, but for many other jobs around the boat.

Given the amount of metal that serves as a heat sink for the fixture, it is likely unnecessary, but I also chose to drill 3 holes around the perimeter of the light fixture to allow for extra cooling air.

S/V Pure Chance The lights shown in this essay are from S/V Pure Chance, Being thrifty cruisers, Scott and Alisia took advantage of our volume discounts and purchased a total of 16 of our lights. After meeting Scott in Fiji, we realized that we likely knew each other 30 years ago in California. It's what cruising is about; meeting old friends and making new ones. You can see some more of their light conversions at here.

Since this fixture originally also had a red bulb, Scott requested that I wire the switches so that they worked in parallel. You'll note that I used adhesive shrink tubing to seal the soldered joints. You can buy 3 foot sections adhesive shrink tubing for the price of a single package from a marine hardware store. If you would like to know a source, please drop us an email.

A dollop of hot melt glue on the underside of the Rinorino (being careful to keep the FET clear!), and the job is finished. In my opinion, it looks quite a bit neater than the original bulb and socket. If you use hot melt glue, you may want to be aware that there is quite a bit of difference between the different glue sticks themselves. Some have a strength equal to epoxy, others have very little strength and melts at a very low temperature. You might want to consider testing the glue you have in the tool box first before you declare job 'done'.

A couple of more pictures of the lights installed on S/V 'Pure Chance'. To the left, the overhead above the nav station with a flash, to the right, the nav station lit with one Kalokalo. Photos aboard Pure Chance courtesy of Alicia

^*Kalokalo is Fijian for 'star' as in Southern Cross, not as in Mel Gibson, who owns an island here. Bebi (pronounced mbambi is, of course, our mascot who is dazzeLED by our LED lights.