Following the maiden voyage of our bus motorhome conversion, the time has come to commence the alteration and maintenance program. The first task is drawing up an agenda of things to do. Our list currently stands at twenty plus items! However, this includes servicing and maintenace and our modifications. Over the coming weeks, we will document our work and update you with the progress of the bus motorhome conversion.
Bus motorhome conversion – bulb replacement
With a list in hand, our first job relates to replacing the interior lighting in our bus motorhome conversion. Our Irizar features various lights, but like most – if not all – coaches in the UK, the ceiling has two types of light. Firstly, there are dim, ceiling lights. On a commercial coach, these will be in use when travelling at night. Furthermore, we have bright tube style lighting. Both these sets of lights are partially hidden behind a trim panel to deflect the light. This piece of trim is the start of our problems and the cause of a lot of bad language!
This trim panel partially covers all high level light bulbs and fittings.
In order to change the bulbs, we must remove the trim panel. The first one was easy, simply clicking on and off. The second and third pieces of trim were stuck fast. Indeed – “stuck” is the correct word! In addition to clicking into place, four of the six trim pieces were also glued into place! A combination of a hammer, chisel, screwdriver and brute force….. but to no avail. Alas, the trim pieces remained in situ! However – a breakthrough – using our breadknife to cut through the glue! Bingo – we are in! Trim pieces off, numerous bulbs in and then we are able to re-fit the trim panels.
With the trim panel removed, access to the fittings is easy.
We now have much brighter and low wattage tube lights, plus the night time running lights.
New tube lights in situ
We prefer to call the night time running lights our “romantic setting!”
The low wattage bulbs create a romatic zone!
Bus motorhome conversion – more lighting!
As you are able to see on the above photograph, we also have numerous – approximately twenty – LED downlighters. These are remaining “in residence” due to their incredibly low power use. As a result of this, wild camping when not on hook up ensures the lighting places minimal demand on our leisure batteries. At floor level, we have more LEDs – similar to the aisle on an aircraft, plus safety lights near the front and central stairwell. Finally, the kitchen area has LED strip lighting that we are replacing with a soft white bulb.
We source our lights online, with most so far coming from Amazon and Screwfix.
