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Posts: 400
Location: Metro | Just wondering if anyone has installed LED lighting on their boat before. Looking to put it in the side gunnels as well as where my feet sit on my 97 Skeeter fish and ski. Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction as to what I should buy through amazon to get this done. Was thinking of connecting it to a little Vex battery so I don't have to wire it all the way back to my batteries.
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Posts: 229
Location: Plover, WI | If you have an open accessory switch on your dash panel, you can hook up there. That way you don't have to go all the way back to your batteries. That is what I did. Just had to pull wires through the gunnels and made watertight connections. I am lucky enough to work with LEDs and am able to purchase at cost, but I hear they can get pricey. I recently removed the blue in favor of a softer white. I never keep them on while fishing. Too hard on the eyes. They come on when a fish is caught, retie, or just look for something.
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Posts: 1168
| I ran strips on the outside down the entire length of my boat. Mine are RGB color changing lights ran off of a wireless remote. The entire set up (two strips of lights, connectors, etc.) were pretty darn cheap and ordered it all off of Amazon. I think the company was SuperNight or something like that.
You don't need "waterproof" LEDs because they won't be submerged. You would be wise getting "weatherproof" LEDs though. The lights are encapsulated in silicone.
Since LEDs draw very, very little juice you don't have to worry about killing your batteries so an extra battery isn't necessary. If you get the same type that are run off of a controller you can turn them on and off with that and there is no need to wire in an extra accessory switch. Mine are spliced into the wiring for a 12v accessory plug in the bow and I simply turn them on and off with the remote.
It's pretty funky when I fire them up and make them flash or fade through different color cycles. A buddy of mine said it looks like a space ship landed on the lake and his dad said it looked more like a floating Vegas casino in the dark. I also have a controller that can plug directly in to my radio so the colors change and pulse along with the music that is coming through the speakers.
The biggest tip I can give is before installation have double sided carpet tape on hand or some other good weatherproof tape. The adhesive backing that is on lights like this sucks. It's fine if you are only sticking on a 10 inch strip but anything beyond that and your lights will start unsticking before you get to test them out. |
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