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We're off to Wales in two weeks time & need help urgently!

We have used battery powered lanterns in the past, but have been disappointed with both the brightness of the lamp & the amount of batteries used on a two week holiday!  We seem to be forever fitting new batteries after only two days to get maximum brightness. 

We are looking for advice & recommendations on a lamp that can be re-charged in the car & give excellent brightness.  Any suggestions?

Thanks - Sue & Steve

Not sure if this is the kind of thing you're looking for...but due to a dearth of camping shops within a 2hr drive of where we live we resorted to paying a visit to our local motor factors.

We bought a 12v inspection lamp (the tube type), and we asked the helpful chap behind the counter to put another 9 metres on the cable, and attach a 'heath robinson' style switch in the cable at the lamp end. Which he did gladly for one or two beer tokens.

The other end has crocodile clips which attach on to the car battery, and the inspection light itself has a hook which hooks onto any pole/tie inside the tent.  Voila!

Super bright, and no battery to run down.....it'd have to be left on an awfully long time before it ran a car battery down! ....and a switch so you can switch it on and off without having to go outside and unclip it from the car, in fact with good positioning you won't even have to get out of bed to turn it off

  I've got one from sealey 12v rechargable via mains or car.

  Also coleman northstar very bright, runs on petrol, with elec ignition

If your tent is large enough to use a gas lantern I would recommend one. The light itself is very bright but also variable too (for that romantic touch!!)  We have a Camping Gaz (206L - I think) which takes the piercable canisters. The last camping trip we went on it lasted about 4/5 nights before the canister was empty. (Obviously not left on all night - lol). The piercable canisters tend to be the cheapest, commonly available for about 99p from hardware stores. . Always make sure you have a spare mantle with you just in case as they are brittle once burned but if not touched or knocked you could get a few trips out of one mantle.

Quote: Originally posted by irishcamper on 23/07/2005

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We bought a 12v inspection lamp (the tube type), and we asked the helpful chap behind the counter to put another 9 metres on the cable, and attach a 'heath robinson' style switch in the cable at the lamp end. Which he did gladly for one or two beer tokens.

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Those tubes are good, cheap and they put out quite a bit of light.

However be careful, run from a car battery and in most sircumstances you wont get a problem. But if your car was static for a week or more, and you used the tube every night for quite a few hours then your car battery will be quite a good way towards flat.