Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I'm looking for some kind of lighting to put maybe along the bottom of the seats or maybe along the railing, just to have a little bit of light at night. Any suggestions/photos? I am wanting to just be able to connect the wires to the main battery whenever i want to use them and not have to use my 12 volt outlet.

How 'bout some of those 12v LED strips they use on hotrod/custom cars? It's like a clear flexible plastic tube with an LED every inch or so.

Personally I'd Install White and Red on seperate switches. White works great for for sitting/Floating around and Red is nice while under way as it gives enough light to move around the toon but doesn't damage your night vision nearly as much.

OOPS

Here is a better link for LED lighting

http://www.ecoinnovativeillumination.com/

Check these guys out...
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/ ... xible.html

We were at a concert on the lake Friday night and two boats over was a Harris with the green all down the sides under the railing. Looked really snazzy. When they got under way, they had to turn them off.

Just Google "Marine LED lighting" and you'll get a bunch of places to find lights. Some are very reasonable ($29 or so) and some are outrageous ($200). There are also rope LED lights.

The high line pontoon boat manufacturers are offering Blue Ice LED lighting in cup holders, under the seating lips and on the top railing of their bimini tops. They put out a glow that doesn't hurt the driver's night vision.

Under deck LED's are lighting up the hulls--below the decks.

Kenneth, do you think that the lights would be too bright to have on while underway if they were placed under the seat lip? I would probably only have them on the two front loungers since I have a light in the back.

It really takes a pretty small amount of light to see enough to move around in a "darken ship" environment. A few red LEDs strategically placed around the deck will do a lot.

Jake,

I think a red LED rope light under the seats might not be an issue since they would be dim, diffused and concealed from direct view.

I bought 3 packs of 2 of these lights. Mounted 1 under the lip of seat bottom of both front lounges, 1 under rear lounge, 1 under the rail by the helm, and 2 of them under the boat. They look great but have only had them on for 1 weekend so I do not know how well they will hold up.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Custom-Access ... e/19853328

I bought a 100 ft roll on eBay several years ago and they are still going strong..in both boats.

We were having this conversation on the Bennington Forum.


I see more and more boats (mostly toons) with tricked out LED strip lighting along the toons and reflecting off the tubes and water. These lights shouldn't be running/operational while underway making way as they definitely interfere seeing navigation lighting especially the starboard running light.

I had a 8 mile ride home after 4th fireworks and couldn't believe the number of boats with them and being used while underway. I had to spotlight some boats that were going slowly to quickly determine what they were up to.

Turn the lights off when cruising, simple enough. As you may know the only lights you are supposed to have on at night are navigational lights, nothing else.
If you are looking for a reason to be inspected at night just keep running those lights especially the colored Bimini strips.

Law enforcement on the water informed me that as long as they cant be seen and, do not interfere with nav lights and do not strobe, all is good.

PART C—LIGHTS AND SHAPES

RULE 20

Application


The Rules concerning lights shall be complied with from sunset to sunrise, and during such times no other lights shall be exhibited,except such lights as cannot be mistaken for the lights specified inthese Rules or do not impair their visibility or distinctive character, or
interfere with the keeping of a proper look-out.

And don't run with your docking lights on. You look like a rookie boater and they don't do much good except looking like a Buick running on the water.