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What makes GFC’s new Pro Interior Lighting Kit worth $400? ($369 through 9/18 with the upgrade sale!) I think I’m in a unique position to answer that question, since I’ve been running one since late 2020.
The kit includes four LED strips that mount with VHB adhesive in the downstairs of the camper, to illuminate your truck bed, plus a single strip that mounts to the ceiling upstairs, to illuminate your sleeping area. Each is individually switched so you can operate them independently.
There’s also a $325 (on-sale for $299) four-strip setup for the Topper, and a $140 ($119 sale price) single-strip for the RTT.
Power is provided through an included cigarette lighter plug designed to work with your aftermarket power supply, or the $179 ($159 sale price) GFC Pro Power Pack Upgrade Kit. The lights can be connected to your vehicle’s in-bed power supply if it has one, or wired into vehicle power.
The kits come standard on Pro models. Earlier campers, toppers and RTTs can be retrofitted easily.
Where a lot of aftermarket lighting options are designed to achieve a low price, this GFC kit is designed to function well, and hold up to harsh environments and hard driving long-term.
A big part of that quality is LED potting. Where many diodes are simply soldered to a power supply, leaving their tiny wires exposed to vibration, environmental conditions, and foreign object incursion, every single LED in this kit is potted.
If you’re into high-end flashlights, you may already have heard of potting. If not, the basic idea is that you can use a non-conductive compound to fill the area around the diode connections, which sets them firmly in place, and prevents the intrusion of any dust or precipitation. Done properly, it can make LEDs impervious to vibration, weather, and other factors.
All wiring connection are screw-together barrels. That means they connect or disconnect quickly and securely. So, the kit is simple to install and robust, but can be taken apart just as quickly, should you need to service, repair, or reconfigure something inside your camper.
Well it lights up obviously. There’s a dial dimmer for both upstairs and downstairs areas that allows you to go from barely-there to very bright illumination, and clicks to cycle between red and white light.
That white is 3,500 kelvin color temperature, which corresponds to what you get naturally at sunrise or sunset. It renders colors accurately, and isn’t harsh on your eyes.
Downstairs, you get light strips that mount inside the top frame rails on the front, sides, and rear. Upstairs, that single strip mounts best at the very peak of the ceiling. All the cables are sized accordingly.
Aside from the camper itself, the lighting kit is my favorite thing about my GFC. Graeme brought over an early prototype to try on my V1 in 2020, and I swiped a pre-production unit from his garage when I upgraded my truck and added a V2 in 2021. In that time, I've run into zero issues.
With those four LED strips illuminating the truck bed, you just get even illumination in and around the back of your vehicle. Since light is shining in from all sides, it also means that you won’t lose stuff behind or to the sides of boxes or anything else you’re carrying. The rear strip does a great job of illuminating your tailgate, turning that into an incredibly useful workbench or kitchen counter after dark.
And I end up using that capability regularly, outside of camping trips. On Thursday night, I pulled up to our cabin around midnight, with a bed full of luggage to unload and carry across the yard. One switch, and that entire job was illuminated in a way a headlamp could never have achieved.
In camp the system is also useful. I like to keep the upstairs set to red, to avoid attracting bugs, and am then able to freely move in and out through the Transform-A-Floor to set up bedding, change clothes, or climb into bed, without bringing mosquitoes, gnats or moths inside. And that’s while having all the white lights on down below so I can see what I’m doing. I keep the illumination turned up while working or cooking, and dim it all the way down while chilling by the campfire.
Power draw is anywhere from one to seven watts per-hour, depending on how many lights you have running at which brightness. That’s so little, I don’t even bother adding it to my power capacity calculations on big trips. —Wes Siler
