Recessed lighting for low clearance applications?

[ilyafish]

I was thinking of installing recessed lighting in my coach, but raising the roof isnt something i am looking to do. I was going to have cabinets on both sides of the coach, so i was just going to square off the middle section of the roof, giving me a few inches of clearance.

I was at home depot and the smallest recessed lighting housing was about 6 inches tall or so.  Is there any kind of specialty recessed lighting for low clearance?

[Tom Y]

I looked at a bus last week that had recessed lights. They just had a metal tray to hold 1 thin light mounted in the ceiling with a plastic lens and trim over it. Maybe 1.5 inches deep and  a 10 inch fluorescent.  Tom y

[PP]

Iminaccess,
What voltage are you going with? I have some (12 to be exact) 12V 18" Flourescents that are recessed and withdrawn they are only 2" thick (deep?) 6"X20"  Not sure exactly what you've got in mind, but these are available through most RV outlets for around $30. each. Wood trim that screws to the ceiling and plexi lenses finish off the visible part. I think they're pretty standard units, Will

[ilyafish]

im looking for 120v

[Blacksheep]

I have a local source for 3 inch round puck lights that are 12v in chrome, gold, nickel
Pretty flat when installed. I have 9 of them in my ceiling and 3 on my steps coming in the bus.
15.00 each the last time I got them!
Ace

[RTS/Daytona]

check out--> http://www.itc-rv.com/ovrhdctsy1008.html

[fraser8]

Try thin lite  http://www.thinlite.com/ I have 4 of them in the kitchen area of my coach with a custom made frame and defuser on them. It protrudes from the center of the ceiling 2" and 1 1/2" on the outside edge. The fixture with 8 florescent tubes/ 4 thin light fixtures mounted inside is 28" X 48". Lots of light but a single fixture could be used along the center of the coach. A single fixture is 6 1/2" X 20 1/2" and has 1" sticking out from the roof. I just checked their web site and they are all 12 volt.

[JimC]

iminaccess,
I did basically what you are talking about doing, I dropped the center down 3/12 inches, I probably could have gotten by with less than 3 inches but I wanted to set the LED lights along the side for indirect lighting. You will see in the pics that I used fluorescent fixtures from home depot, if I remember correctly they are only about 1 3/4 inches high without the ugly plastic cover on them. I mounted them directly to the ceiling and then I used white grid light covers under them to hide them. You don't really see them unless you stand under and look directly up, and with them working they are too bright to look at. I have no problem running them off of the modified sine wave inverter, there are actually two bulbs for each fixture and they are plenty bright.
Jim

[cody]

I have 12 volt and 120 lights recessed into not only my ceilings but hidden under overhangs and under my dinette seats, the pic isn't very good but looking toward the back of the bus you can see the ceiling light, that one is 120 and is flush to the ceiling, you can also see the accent lighting shining under the dinette seats.


http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/index.php?topic=4621.0

[ilyafish]

looks good to me guys...my only thing, and i have a feeling its going to come down to a beggers cant be choosers situation is i do prefer halogen lights or something that would work with a dimmer....i know with fluorescent lights that is not the case unless your looking for a strobe light show haha

[Blacksheep]

The puck lights I mentioned are halogen and I'm sure you could put a dimmer in line somehow.

Ace

[ilyafish]

blacksheep,

do you have a picture of those lights?

sounds pretty much what i am looking for

[TomC]

I have 5 surfact mounted halogen puck lights that have 10 watt Zenon lights in them.  Have 4 more over the side of the sofa and Dinette.  Very pleased with them-will use LED when they get bright enough.  Good Luck, TomC

[BG6]

Have you considered indirect lighting?  You can also put track lighting in places that you don't need the headroom.

[Blacksheep]

Sorry for the delay in answering your post as I have been pretty busy but I found this pic that might give you an idea as to what I used! The 3 lights in the back divider are regular halogen puck TYPE lights from HD. The other 6 that you can see in the ceiling are the ones I am talking about! There is actually 9 of them, with 3 in each row. I just realized ONE of the 9 was out during this picture but they all are working now! HMM!

Ace