tmphoto
Nashville, TN
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Joined: 10/25/2010
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Doing my part to increase light pollution!!
I saw these at a local campground from a couple of rednecks with 5ers. Was not sure if I could find a place to carry them but had to give them a try. Pretty easy to make, I have seen better designs with a lamp socket mounted to the bucket lid but I am going to go with my low buck design until I start breaking bulbs. They are the bomb for lighting up a camp site when backing in after dark. I cut them off when not needed to keep the other campers from having to wear their sunglasses at night 
125 watt equivalent CFL
Zip tie on top to keep the bulb up.
Lighting up the sewer side
Slide side
Hanging in my outdoor living room
The buckets are 1 gal from Lowe's, I used a 100ft ext cord and cut in half for 50ft on each light. Wrap the cord around the bucket for storage.
Dodge 3500 DRW Crew Cab LB 4X4, 2013 Voltage 3905, Stable Loads, Air Lift Bags, Big Wig Sway Bar, LED Lights, Yamaha SX240 Boat, KTM 500 EXC, Polaris RZR 800, Mini Big Green Egg Maiden Voyage
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lat471
Lebanon, PA
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Joined: 06/15/2007
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Geeez their bright. Please be sure you turn them off when you go to bed.
07 Cameo F35FD3
The Black Cloud
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Helmsey
Knoxville, TN
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Joined: 09/07/2009
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I have one and love it for night arrivals and just hanging out with friends in the evening. However, mine's not not quite that bright.
Bonus: Works well as an outdoor dog water bowl when not in use, that way I dont have to refill some small bowl 50 times per day for them.
KK4PFX
2010 Chaparral 322RLTS
2004 Chevrolet 2500HD D/A CCSB 4x4
Days camped in 2011: 22
Days camped in 2012: 34
Days camped in 2013: 6
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Grammie
North Carolina
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Joined: 01/20/2007
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We have a couple with large citronella bucket inside purchased at WalMart. Serves two purposes, keeps bugs away and provides nice lite. No ugly cords to deal with. I hate cords. Gypsy at heart.
Dream Catcher
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DWeikert
York, PA
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Joined: 02/07/2006
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Nice. My only concern would be rain leaking in and flowing down the cord. Maybe put a liquid tight conduit fitting on the lid and run the cord through that?
2008 Chevy D/A 2500HD ECSB
2010 Northstar 8.5 Adventurer
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mooring product
Pompano Beach Florida
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Joined: 05/08/2011
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I just run my rear flood lights in the back for docking. I also have lights on both sides of the camper. The pop up tent has a LED light that we hang.
2003 F250 CC SB 6.0 Diesel. ARP studs. EGR delete. NOS. GT 4088 Turbo. Stable loads.
2006 Lance 881 Max.
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bka0721
Republic of Colorado
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Joined: 03/19/2008
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The end of June I was camping next to this lake, all by myself and here comes this guy in a travel trailer and pulls along the bluff, a 100 feet from me. All by himself. He strings blue cord lights two times around his TT, and then hangs three of these "bucket lights" around the corners of his TT. Then at 10 PM, he walks over and says hi. "How are you? Pretty cozy here! Guess it's time for me to go to bed." Walks off and climbs into his TT. Yep, you guessed it, left those suckers on all night!!! I am an unabashed "Night Sky" person. But, that was about the limit. I was leaving the next morning, so what do I care. I waved as I left in the morning.
So the consensus is lights are good, even though they extend beyond your area?
I might use a campground once or twice a year. I spent 5 weeks in Yellowstone, last September and never stayed in a campground and haven't since 1972. I have a lot to learn and see a lot of TT and C's and A's leave their "porch light" on all night. Somehow I had thought this guy was unique with his bucket lights (upside down Easter Egg Buckets).
Learning as I go.
bryan
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tmphoto
Nashville, TN
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Joined: 10/25/2010
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I agree that some abuse the light output and always turn the bucket lights off before I go to bed. I do sometimes leave the small margaritaville novelty lights on my awning burning all night but they are not very bright. I think it is unwise to place your peace of mind or happiness in a complete strangers hands and would not get upset if someone near me ran lights all night long. If it bothered me that bad I would avoid camping near other campers. It amazes me how some campers expect other campers to share the same habits and practices that they have. In my opinion, if a guy pays for a camping site and wants to stay up late, get up early, run lights all night or let his truck idle at 6am it is his business and I respect his right to use the space as long as he is not indecent or causing me harm. Just my 2 cents and worth about what you paid for it
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btggraphix
Golden, CO
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Joined: 03/08/2005
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mooring product wrote:I just run my rear flood lights in the back for docking. I also have lights on both sides of the camper. The pop up tent has a LED light that we hang.
I found that my backup lights are high enough wattage that they were browning the plastic light housing quite a bit. I thought about going to lower wattage, but instead I only use them for backing up which reduces how long they run.
That's a pretty cool idea for the outside lighting - I always carry a 5 gallon bucket, and I always carry some extension cords, which means it could make one more use for the gear I carry and I could also stop taking my clamp on floodlight I take for emergencies.
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tmphoto
Nashville, TN
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DWeikert wrote:Nice. My only concern would be rain leaking in and flowing down the cord. Maybe put a liquid tight conduit fitting on the lid and run the cord through that?
Good Idea, I will give that a try.
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