How did you set up the outdoor lights? Would love more info on this mod!
For ease of explaining I will call the annex poles pole 1, pole 2, pole 3, pole 4. Pole 1 are the edge poles over the kitchen area, pole 2 next one along (next to the window), pole 3 the next one (over the door area) and pole 4 the outer end poles.
We have have 2 solid 12v LED light strips for our outdoor area which we attach using magnets (they give out great light for 40cm strips - thanks to Mr Twine for supplying such great lights!), We place one on the spreader bar between pole 1 and pole 2 for the kitchen area (this one is operated by a light switch hanging down the second pole so I can switch it on and off from outside) and the second one is located on the spreader bar between pole 3 and pole 4 (this one is operated using a switch inside, I could have made an exterior switch or remote but didnt feel the need.)
Our interior lights (helps explain the exterior setup) we have one light permantly setup on the second bow and one on the 3rd bow with all the wiring coming down to the side of the bows where we have light switches setup. The wiring then continues down the bows to a weatherproof light box situated under the rear left hand side of the camper.
Our old annex setup (you may have read in the above post that we recently had our old tent replaced with a new one) the roof poles 1,2 & 3 that joined the legs to the main tent went through holes in the main tent canvas and hooked into the main tent bows (doing away with the need to build a frame and have legs against the main tent.) Our exterior lights have attached leads (and the one for the kitchen also has attached light switch) with a spade connectors on the end. The tent bows on the interior that have the wiring have spade connectors situated next to the hole in the canvas. We simply stick the lights to the spreader bars (using the magnets), take the leads to the canvas holes and then pull the interior spade connectors through the holes and clip the connections together - done, outdoor lights.
The new tent and annex does not setup this way, though we will be modifying the tent/annex so it goes back to the old setup. The new setup takes longer, uses more poles and uses alot more eye to eye poles and one (shudder) triple pole.
We have only been out in the new tent once so the solution we came up with would change from what we did, but it was enough to get us happily through the weekend and we wont change it because we have already made the decision to change the annex setup.
For the light between pole 1 and 2, we took the lead down pole 2 (next to the tent) and fed it through the side area between the tent and the trailer, through the interior zip, up the 2nd interior bow and upto the spade connector.
For the light between pole 3 and 4, we took the lead across pole 3 and fed it through the door, over to the 3rd interior bow and attached it to the spade connector. Unfortunately this meant we couldn't zip down the left side of the canvas door (though no problem with the other side or the fly screen part of the door.)
It would be much easier to show you photos rather than explain, but I dont have any. I hope this all makes sense, my head is a little fuzzy tonight and I cant seem to concentrate
I would to take photos next time we are out, but netball season starts next week so our weekends are spoken for till the end of August. Though I might manage to get it up one Sunday so we can do the annex mods!
