How would You mount an LED light bar on a boat?

[B-man]

Hey guys,


I picked a 24" led light bar for night time navigation. Now I'm looking for ideas on how to mount it to the bow.

It needs to be easily removed so the cover can be put on the boat.

I want it to be elevated somewhat high so the bow of the boat itself can remain unlit (avoiding lighting up the bow and trolling motor will provide better vision ahead).

The boat is a 17' Warrior 98' tiller. There is a fairly large flat area on the nose of the bow to work with.

[REW]

B,
What are you hoping to accomplish with this light bar?

What do you want to light up?

I assume that you only want to do some interior lighting on the boat?

[REW]

B,
Check out what this fellow did with LED lights for his boat.

https://www.walleyecentral.com/forums...d.php?t=220562

He mounted the lights in the rod mounting channels on the sides of his boat.
I know that you don't have these channels on your boats, but the overall light placement and direction of light direction was well thought out and might apply to your boat.

Also, the addition of dimmers has he published the source for his dimmers is a very good idea. After fishing for a while, your night vision kicks in and it is to your advantage to use as dim light as possible to avoid killing your night vision.

[REW]

By the way, if you had any thoughts about using the LED lights for lighting up the area in front of the boat for navigation purposes - think again.

Long range high intensity spot lights work well for navigation needs, but LED lights do not. Led lights are very bright pin points of light that work very well for lighting up very close objects very brightly. But they do not light up objects well if the object is much more than a couple of feet away.

Good luck
REW

[B-man]

It's for navigation. LED technology has come a long way in the last few years.



Look up 120 watt 24" led spot flood combo on ebay

A gentleman from HSO has something very similar rigged onto the front of his boat. He guesstimated it to be 10x brighter than his truck headlights. I asked him if I could ride on plane and safely see far enough ahead.

His answer was....... no problem

Now I just have to figure out the best way to mount it. Right now I'm thinking of extending a seat pedestal post up high and put it in the existing base on the casting deck.

Another option would be on a big ram mount on the very end of the bow.

Any more ideas fellas?

[3M TA3]

Mount it so that it doesnt blind your fellow boaters at night. Many folks don't have any manners when navigating through a nigth time crowd. So be thoughtful when you do.

[B-man]

Originally Posted by 3M TA3

Mount it so that it doesnt blind your fellow boaters at night. Many folks don't have any manners when navigating through a nigth time crowd. So be thoughtful when you do.

I hear ya there. If water is that busy I won't even use it.

It's more for navigating so I can see debris...... and see the dip $hits that park in the middle of the river with their lights off until the last second...... some real smart guys around here.......

[chevtow]

B-man, could you post a picture of the light bar you have?

[B-man]

Here ya go.

These pics are from the seller on Ebay.

I'd say this baby reaches out a little more than a couple feet








You can tell they edited the picture to make it look brighter (look at the sky). And it also appears that the antenna has some light on it too...???

But if this thing is half as bright as they make it look.......... it will be more than enough

[REW]

You might think about a Big john, planer mast.
This mast would have the strength to hold the light bar, and it would have the height to put the light bar where you want it.

If you don't have a big john, you can often just use a piece of conduit that is inserted into a seat pedestal to hold the light.

It is nice to be able to get the light up to about 10 feet off the floor for the best illumination.

http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/produ...FUNlMgodDFEAAA

If you do use something like the Big Jon mast, you can just take a piece of angled aluminum to mount it to the top of the mast.
Then, take a guy cable and hook off each side to stabilize the light.