Boat Lighting issue, please help?

[Husker525]

I will start by saying I hate electrical with a passion. It has been explained to me numerous times, and I grasp the basics at best.

My situation: I am wiring additional under gunnel LED lighting on both sides of my boat. I currently have factory installed interior lighting that have a push the lens style light to turn the light on.

I checked the LED strips with a battery to make sure they worked. I used my 12v test light to try to find which was the power wire to the factory light. It has a white wire, and a green wire. I tried to use the green wire, and the white wire for a ground, while seeing if the opposite wire was power. Long story short, I could not get my test light to come on in any combination. I checked my test light off the battery and it lights up every time. I turned the factory light on, and still nothing on my test light.

I want to wire in a 3 prong LED rocker switch to manually turn on my new LED's. I followed the directions (I think), and spliced in power to the switch, spliced the grounds from the boat light to the LED's and ran those to the appropriate prong, and ran power out of the center prong for the switch LED to the power on the LED strip.

Big fat nothing. No power, no lights. I know there is power going to the factory light, otherwise it would not work.

The best resolution is to run individual power and grounds to a switch on my dash and to my bus, and do this for both sides. However, trying to run wiring and hide wiring is going to be a huge task with all the disassembly of the floor and consoles to get to the dash and bus for the port side of my boat.

My old boat was easy. Power wires are red, grounds are black. This Tracker does not seem to use the same principle.

Thoughts? Pictures? LOL. Thanks for the help, I can catch fish, but wiring is not my thing, so please excuse my ignorance.

[Wall-i-Lama]

Originally Posted by Husker525

I will start by saying I hate electrical with a passion. It has been explained to me numerous times, and I grasp the basics at best.

My situation: I am wiring additional under gunnel LED lighting on both sides of my boat. I currently have factory installed interior lighting that have a push the lens style light to turn the light on.

I checked the LED strips with a battery to make sure they worked. I used my 12v test light to try to find which was the power wire to the factory light. It has a white wire, and a green wire. I tried to use the green wire, and the white wire for a ground, while seeing if the opposite wire was power. Long story short, I could not get my test light to come on in any combination. I checked my test light off the battery and it lights up every time. I turned the factory light on, and still nothing on my test light.

I want to wire in a 3 prong LED rocker switch to manually turn on my new LED's. I followed the directions (I think), and spliced in power to the switch, spliced the grounds from the boat light to the LED's and ran those to the appropriate prong, and ran power out of the center prong for the switch LED to the power on the LED strip.

Big fat nothing. No power, no lights. I know there is power going to the factory light, otherwise it would not work.

The best resolution is to run individual power and grounds to a switch on my dash and to my bus, and do this for both sides. However, trying to run wiring and hide wiring is going to be a huge task with all the disassembly of the floor and consoles to get to the dash and bus for the port side of my boat.

My old boat was easy. Power wires are red, grounds are black. This Tracker does not seem to use the same principle.

Thoughts? Pictures? LOL. Thanks for the help, I can catch fish, but wiring is not my thing, so please excuse my ignorance.

My only advice is to double check the wiring on the switch. Some of those rocker type switches have power feed into the center pin and some to one of the outside pins. Make sure you have the ground and voltage pins identified correctly before adding on the wires.

[Husker525]

Originally Posted by Wall-i-Lama

My only advice is to double check the wiring on the switch. Some of those rocker type switches have power feed into the center pin and some to one of the outside pins. Make sure you have the ground and voltage pins identified correctly before adding on the wires.

Ok, I will try it. The one I have says "feed" on the far right side, "led" in center pin, and "earth" on the far left side. That obviously didn't work for me. How can something so simple become so difficult for me is the real question. FWIW I did not use Scotch Locks either, I used butt connectors for all my splices. It snowed last night, again, so it will be a few days before I get to tear into it.

[Wall-i-Lama]

Originally Posted by Husker525

Ok, I will try it. The one I have says "feed" on the far right side, "led" in center pin, and "earth" on the far left side. That obviously didn't work for me. How can something so simple become so difficult for me is the real question. FWIW I did not use Scotch Locks either, I used butt connectors for all my splices. It snowed last night, again, so it will be a few days before I get to tear into it.

So if its labeled, you must have the switch correct.

Can you use your test light to see if the wire you are using as power feed along with the ground actually work before getting to the switch?

[Husker525]

That is what is confusing me, so I will try to explain further. Using my test light, I cannot see power coming into the 12v power port I am using to get my ground and power out of. I know the port is functioning, as the plug I am using illuminates when plugged into the port. I know the test light is good, as I kept checking it by going directly to the battery. I also kept checking the LED strip by going to the battery as well, ruling out me blowing out the LED's or the bulb in my test light somehow. It should work, but just doesn't.

[Wall-i-Lama]

Is there any other source of power you can use besides the power port? Is there an open spot in the fuse panel where you can get a fused power source?

It sounds like the wires that you have spliced into (power port) is not working.

[TomP.]

On my boat the switches only control the power side +, all grounds come from the fuse box so I can not pull ground and power from the same switch. To check run your light to a ground then check for power at your switch. Leds will only light when + and - are connected to the correct side.

[ColoGregS]

Originally Posted by TomP.

On my boat the switches only control the power side +, all grounds come from the fuse box so I can not pull ground and power from the same switch. To check run your light to a ground then check for power at your switch. Leds will only light when + and - are connected to the correct side.

I think Tom has it nailed.

I would try to power the lights directly from the battery to assure yourself that they are not the problem.

Then run a ground from your panel and a hot from the switch to your lights and see if that does the trick.

Good Luck

[Hawker]

Pretty sure Tom has it nailed as well. Since the switch used by the OP is a lighted switch, it requires a negative (-) lead for the light in the switch itself to operate. Negative (-) lead to the lights controlled by the switch needs to connect to the negative (-) buss and the positive (+) lead to the switch. Common mistake when using lighted switches.

[Husker525]

That would make sense. I will try that when the snow stops blowing. Thank you for all the suggestions!!