Jwestpro
Explorer
I have heard something about the exterior bulbs too but can't remember. You first need to say WHY you want to change any bulbs. If they all work, then why "fix" what isn't "broken"?
My reasons may differ vastly from yours but I can assure you that my situation is different to start with even if you have the same goals, because of the electrical mods on mine:
1st, before the LED craze, I found no reason to change out lamps. It was all new after all and they should last for years, and they did.
2-During the first month of ownership, as part of extensive modifications, I had a 2nd battery installed and at the same time, re-powered all of the "outboard" dome lamps to the 2nd battery. (this means that in the front row, 2nd row where you see 3 buttons for 3 lamps, left, middle, right, I had the left and right lamps run off the 2nd battery.)
Why? When you open the doors, the center dome lights come on, or all, I don't remember. BUT, you can hold the front center button for a few seconds to keep anything from coming on when doors open/close. (it's in the manual). Sometimes I like the auto on to work, sometimes not. Next, for actual camping, I wanted to know that what I turn on, only draws from the house battery. Hence, the outboard lights only. Press on, they stay on until battery dead, period
But they won't because it's a 200 AH Odyssey 2150 that never goes dead, ever. This worked flawlessly for several years. Then while looking at ways I could also reduce the draw on my starter battery and the auto-on interior lights, like footwell, door bottoms, etc, I figured LED all around would be a great benefit.
So with the LED sickness infecting me now...I changed all of the interior lamps to LED except the 3rd row side reading rocker switch lamp. It only comes on when you press it and I only use it when interior "camping" so there's no concern over its amp draw when doors open, etc. Also, I really prefer the soft warm glow of incandescent over LED for actual reading if I'm hanging out back there.
There are "puddle" lamps in each door, the tailgate lamp, front footwell, and domes. It's brighter too I think so that's not so bad seeing as only one on does the job of previous 2 and the amp draw is still a fraction.
I also have 3 additional 12v sockets and the left one up front run from the house battery. This way there "always hot" 12v one left of "ash tray", 1 at 3rd row cup holder and 1 each side at very end of cargo cubby shelf. These are so convenient for things like recharging a headlamp, phone, camp lamp, 12v fridge, etc.
A 120v inverter is a nice idea too for powering bigger things like a large laptop or ski boot dryer...
Overall though, knowing how to use the "hunting" feature of turning off the auto interior lights is the first thing to do. Leaving the radio on multiple times while loading for a trip all day is one sure way to find your battery dead the moment you try to leave....so, keep that in mind. Having a battery charger on it is not a bad routine.
