hi all can anyone recomend a good tent light? - we dont use electric hook up.
somethng to light up living area so we can read at night etc .if its rechargable is there one that would recharge off a solar phone charger thingy [ as i'm about to buy one]?
had lots of lights in pastcouple of years and non have been any good!
it's a kampa sabre 150 led from about £40.
it runs off 12 volt or 240 volt for those with EHU.
The portable power pack came from Maplin, they are currently £49.99, but we got ours half price. It is small only about 8 inches wide.
It runs the light for a long weekend of nights at least.
It has 2 car sockets so can charge my smartphone too.
------------- Yes, the car is bigger than the 'van.
Please forgive my ignorance, but are the gas ones okay to hang from a tent ceiling? We have a handy ring in the centre of the living area ceiling which would be great for LED lights but not so sure about anything that gives off heat
We just bought one of these and it was brilliant. We have young kids so it was left on all night for two nights without recharging and it still had power on the second morning..: -
Please forgive my ignorance, but are the gas ones okay to hang from a tent ceiling? We have a handy ring in the centre of the living area ceiling which would be great for LED lights but not so sure about anything that gives off heat
Thanks
I wouldn't hang a gas or dual fuel lantern from the ceiling of any tent - far too much heat is given off.
I also use the Wilkinsons UFOs (also available from ASDA but a little more expensive). They are very good indeed (bright and compact for staorage - I stoor mine inside the pans for transit) but you may find you require a couple rather than just one. But there are other hanging points other than the obvious ring. For example I also make use of the hanging points for the bedroom pods and the toggles for the curtains and doors.
We have Coleman lamps for outside the tent but have tried lots of other things inside, UFO's and those inspection lamps when we are on EHU. We do use head torches when reading in bed but recently we tried out my husband's Alpkit lamp he uses when he's going his lightweight camping. Bulb II
I then found a lookylikee on ebay here which is identical except for the branding and colour.
These are all we took to use in our frame tent recently as an experiment. The cheaper one was somewhat brighter than the Alpkit but both did a fantastic job of lighting up the living area, good enough to read by.
These are better than anything else we've tried so far and so light they can hang from the centre loop, they fit in your hand they are so small. A real powerhouse.
I wont be taking anything else in future as anything that cuts down in on packing and does a better job is up there on my list.
Now, what to do with all those spare battery, rechargeable/ehu lamps? :D
edit - if you are happy to wait for delivery from China then I'd go for the ebay one as it has more lumens or whatever but Alpkit are great on customer service.
I can def recommend the alpkit bulb which Chirstine has mentioned..very small but packs a punch...only thing I would say is the light is quite bright when directly looked at but I just frosted the glass with some spray and it's perfect for hanging in the middle of the tent (you def cant do this with the coleman)