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Posts: 388
| Thinking a bout running some of these beneath my gunwhale to illuminate the deck of my boat for night fishing. Red LED's do not attract bugs and also do not make your eyes dialate as much to keep your night vision. Not sure how many to get. Four of the 19.5" strips would run about $60. Strips have 30 LED lights each and can be cut down to 3 light segments to better distribute light.
Website for ordering is:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/
Edited by Yake Bait 12/26/2008 11:20 AM
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 Light Strip.jpg (32KB - 101 downloads)
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Posts: 102
| Another place to look at is this site:
http://www.bluewaterled.com/
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Posts: 105
| I have 7 light fixtures in my boat, each fixture contains 2 LED's. It lights my 17' Targa up OK. It was one of the best add on's to my boat. Great for when you need some light while fishing but also a huge help when you're at the ramp at dark, makes getting in and out of the boat much safer. The red is the only way to go, now bugs and night blindness.
M4L |
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Posts: 388
| Good info M4L. Being that you have done this, what advice could you give as far as distributing these and how many LED's to put at each location. The ones I am looking at can be cut in sections, 3 LED's per group.
My boat is a 1750 Crestliner Fishhawk which has a rectangular aluminum channel that runs around the gunwale. I think that I can simply use some existing openings on the underside of the channel to fish my wiriing through and attach the the adhesive backing to attach the LED strips to the underside of the gunwale. I'm thinking about putting lights in 3 locations along the port side of my boat, and two locations on the starboard (due to console location). I may try to get a strip along the underside of my rear casting deck along the spillwell edge. to illuminate that also.
Edited by Yake Bait 12/26/2008 1:14 PM
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| Those light are really great and they are super bright. Actually I think they are too bright so I put rheosrars on mine so I can turn them down. I put some under my consoles and the are really nice. Those are white and are no problem. Just make sure you dont have direct vision of them cause they will blind you. Where are you buying the strips? |
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| Sorry, I mean rheostats |
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Posts: 388
| Ordering from
http://www.superbrightleds.com/
All of the lights will be beneath my gunnel so I can't look at them dead on. Above website does not supply a rheostat. Where did you get yours?
Here is what I had in mind for a layout. Thinking about grouping 6 LED's at each location.
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1750.jpg (45KB - 96 downloads)
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| That looks like a great setup. Got them at radio shack. They have a long shaft on them that you can cut down. Its not named rheostat but thats what it is. They work great. Try yours without one first to see if you need it. |
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Posts: 105
| YB,
I think your light layout looks good. It is very close to mine.
M4L |
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Posts: 388
| Finished installing these and I was pretty happy with the results. After experimenting with how many to group together I settled on a 3 LED group every 24". I wired it into my existing deck light so the switch on the console ligthts these up instead of the single incandescent bulb on the side of the console. Pics did not turn out too well but I'll put them up anyway.
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IMG_1206b.JPG (79KB - 95 downloads)
IMG_1207b.JPG (15KB - 98 downloads)
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Posts: 619
Location: Verona, WI | Would these be lights you would keep on all the time or just when the fish is on? |
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Posts: 388
| Keep them on while fishing. They illuminate inside the gunnel, not outside so they don't help you land a fish. The red LED's do not attract bugs and illuminate the deck so you don't trip over fishing rods or lures. |
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Posts: 717
Location: Grand Rapids, MI | That looks SWEET, Yake Bait! I'm jealous!  |
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Posts: 1456
Location: Kronenwetter, WI | http://muskie.outdoorsfirst.com/board/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=42... |
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Posts: 4266
| Those look great for any low light fishing. I like the "no bugs" property also. Personally I would like to get the lights for the compartments in my boat. I hate fumbling in the dark looking for tackle or tools with a flashlight in my mouth.
With all of the stuff that is available, you can pretty much rig your boat any way that you want.
Did any of you guys put lights in your compartments? I'm thinking it might be easier to use battery-operated lights inside the compartment lids and use the strips around the decks and under the console. Both of them look good. |
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Posts: 388
| I did not wire up the compartments but have materials left over that I may use for that purpose. When testing my soldering I could run the whole lot of them on a single 9V battery so you could do the battery option easily with these if you wanted to for this particular light. Need to check the voltage specifications on the lights that you use. Automotive LED's can run over a range of voltage 9 to 14V. LED's that run off of a 120V tranformer need exactly 12V. |
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Posts: 727
| Wow great job. Now you gotta get some green ones and then you can go out when it's snowing in a red suit. |
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