Awning LED light strip

Anyone encounter this small issue?

The LED light strip under both of our 2014 Big Horn awnings were great for quite some time ... nice and bright. As of late, both strips ... although lit ... are quite a bit dimmer than they originally were. They seem to be slowly fading out on me. Is there a cause for it that you know of? If replacement is needed, do you know who the supplier was for Heartland so that I can contact them.

Thanks for any input ....

I don't know if they came with a remote or dimmer, but a lot of LED strips can be changed or dimmed, You might also check to make sure you have 12v at the switch. Maybe low voltage due to bad connection.

Jim M

Glenn I have a 2014 BH with that strip. I had the factory replace it while still under warranty. It was getting very dim and some of the LDS's went bad. Just as a side note, you don't run them with the awning rolled up do you? That would not be good.

happykraut said:

Glenn I have a 2014 BH with that strip. I had the factory replace it while still under warranty. It was getting very dim and some of the LDS's went bad. Just as a side note, you don't run them with the awning rolled up do you? That would not be good.

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We run ours when the awning is rolled up.

The LED lights are mounted along the base of the awning . . . not rolled up inside of the awning.

The only thing I don't like about the awning lights is that they are way too bright!

When on, they light up the whole side of our neighbors' trailer . . . and half of the campground!

And if you are within 100 yards . . . you'll need 100 SPF lotion to keep from getting second degree burns!

I'm looking at a couple of dimmer options for them . . .



Somewhere I've got a shot of them on with the awning rolled up . . . I'll look for it later!

Thanks Jim, I'll check the voltage there ... and then check with the factory (I'm out of warranty at this point).
Bernie, I don't usually run them on when awning is up, unless I hit the wrong switched inside
lol John ... I guess I should just park next to you to light up my awning !!

JohnD said:

The only thing I don't like about the awning lights is that they are way too bright!

When on, they light up the whole side of our neighbors' trailer . . . and half of the campground!

And if you are within 100 yards . . . you'll need 100 SPF lotion to keep from getting second degree burns!

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John, this is SO true. Throw on these awning lights and both security lights and it's as bright as a baseball stadium.

We're looking for a sort of plug-and-play dimmer for these awning lights so let us know what you can find.

We are having the same issues on our 2014 BH. Our strip is dimming, some segments are starting to fail.

I engage in doing a rather modest (compared to some others) holiday lighting show on my home that are set to music and have been utilizing them for about 6 years now. At best the type of strip they choose might last 2 years in most cases of outdoor exposure, everyone's mileage may vary of course. The source of these strips (china) likes to lead everyone to believe that IP-66 and this type of waterproofing is adequate. I started with this type of strip on our home (if you dig through the videos the last year those were used was 2012) and in 2 years replaced them all. I'm now on year 4 of the silicone tube encased IP-68 replacements with zero issues, and many folks in our CLAP (Christmas Light Addiction Problem) community can attest to this.

Example Halloween Show:

Example Holiday Show:

The IP-66 strip is laminated with a clear flexible resin. When the resin is exposed to the elements, sun, etc. it starts to delaminate from the strip itself. In the sun, the resin becomes very soft and pliable. If they are not handled with great care at time of installation, any excessive flex/bending will start the issues earlier. If they are not IP-68 rated (fully enclosed in a solid silicone tube), the will inevitably fail. The 'naked' strips have exposed circuitry and contact points, without proper weather protection they will start to corrode and those are the failure points.

For me, I looked at that strip when we purchased our BH and not only identified the type of strip (a poor choice IMO), I immediately planned in my mind how I could replace it with a better protected RGB strip that I can do fun things with by adding some DMX control and a soundtrack.

Also, to replace that LED strip would be a PITA. I recently had to replace my entire awning (different story) and noted how the LED strip is mounted. It has a molded lip that matches the round part of the awning that slides into the metal strip that is mounted on the side of your rig. The LED strip and the awning fabric had to be threaded into the mounting strip at the same time. It didn't appear that you could slide the LED strip out independently.

Some strips are mounted like yours Lynn and others have a adhesive backing.

I want to have that addiction but the wife wont let me... I am pretty sad about that.

Very cool, I thought sure there must be a name for such afflictions, but bless your heart. Rhyph ,

Lots of time and money put into all of that, for sure. Hope the neighbors are OK with all this, or maybe they are not near by.

Carry on.

I'm pretty lucky all of the neighbors love it, some of them have a case of the CLAP going on too, but maybe not to the extent I do. The neighbors directly on either side of us have kids, so they especially like to help, watch the whole process of set-up and then enjoy them.

I have a 2014 Bighorn 3585rl that is out of warranty. My exterior under awning LED light strip has not been functioning properly for some time. Most lights are very dim with ONE bright light. I called Heartland and they said there is NO replacement for the strip and they are supposed to be coming out with a new light strip. They don't know if it would replace my light strip or not. They gave me Dometics number and I called them. They can't help me either. They told me to call some place called All Seasons RV. Haven't done that yet. I'm wondering if anyone has had this problem out of warranty and had to replace on your own? Where did you get a replacement and how did you get the old lights out and new strip in? Very frustrating that Heartland is of NO help. Thanks for any input.

lowryc50 said:

I have a 2014 Bighorn 3585rl that is out of warranty. My exterior under awning LED light strip has not been functioning properly for some time. Most lights are very dim with ONE bright light. I called Heartland and they said there is NO replacement for the strip and they are supposed to be coming out with a new light strip. They don't know if it would replace my light strip or not. They gave me Dometics number and I called them. They can't help me either. They told me to call some place called All Seasons RV. Haven't done that yet. I'm wondering if anyone has had this problem out of warranty and had to replace on your own? Where did you get a replacement and how did you get the old lights out and new strip in? Very frustrating that Heartland is of NO help. Thanks for any input.

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Check out superbrightlight.com

TxCowboy said:

John, this is SO true. Throw on these awning lights and both security lights and it's as bright as a baseball stadium.

We're looking for a sort of plug-and-play dimmer for these awning lights so let us know what you can find.

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I started a topic thread here a couple of months back about LED awning light dimmer switches . . .

Here is a link to that thread: https://heartlandowners.org/showthread.php/53976-Dimmer-switch-for-awning-LED-lights