Help Me Rig Headlights On My Boat

Hey guys, so I do a fair amount of night fishing, and want to get some really bright lights up front, so I can focus on driving and not holding a spotlight. My tentative plan is to get the follow LED lights and rig them on a piece of metal trim (the 20″ in the center, with the two smaller ones on offset to the sides) , attach the trim to a RAM mount, and run wire up to the bow. I was thinking about splicing into my bow nav lights, but I’m not sure if the wiring will be big enough to handle the load. So I’m thinking of wiring a 12v plug into the bow, and then just plugging/unplugging the setup whenever I want to remove/store it. I have one huge newbie question: I should be able to splice the leads from the three different lights together and run them into one plug, right? My electrical experience is next to nill, and while it seems like I should be able to, I just want to make sure I’m not going to run into any issues. Also, what do you guys think of my plan overall?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WE47FVM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A212MEDO528TGN

First thing I’d do is consult the USCG rules for the waters you want to operate your boat upon. There are specific rules about what color lights one can run and where they can be mounted.

Huntindave wrote:

First thing I’d do is consult the USCG rules for the waters you want to operate your boat upon. There are specific rules about what color lights one can run and where they can be mounted.

X 2 million. There is nothing more trucking annoying then some jack wagon with headlights on there boat blinding everyone coming towards them on any body of water with out a lick of common sense to turn them off. Slow down like a responsible boater, keep the interior lighting in your boat to a minimum, and let your eyes adjust to the ambient night light and save the money to spend on some new fishing gear..

Seems not much different than I do with my light bar.

I run mine in 24v and then power with trolling motor batteries.

You’ll like the RAM for adjusting beam. That’s also a lot of weight for anything but the biggest RAM.

Yes you can tie all leads together but you can also run switches for each and get variety if you want.

Spotlight is a good thing. Keep you safe at night. Just don’t be blinding other boaters.

You can zoom in and see mine in this picture

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You could tie them together BUT its not a good idea because you cant turn off the headlights without turning off the nav lights. Wire them on there own circuit. And when you see another boat coming your way please turn the headlights off so you don’t blind anyone. It has happened to me more that once and I almost ran into a log jam and a rock pile. Not cool!

Is that about a 1991 Sylvan/Northwood with a 115 Merc ?

I thought I read there were multiple leads for just the spot.. You can tie those together.

You never want your nav and spot on the same switch.

Are you making fun of my Sylvan?

if I was, I would be making fun of my own… got the same set-up

I can attest to the LED 27watt 4in off-road style lights being plenty bright for driving a boat, I ran them for bowfishing. Of course I had mine angled down into the water for finding fish but they still have good light out front. So I would have to say the light bar your looking at looks like it should work.

Thanks for the replies guys! I was thinking about running them to the TM batteries today, the lights are rated for 10-30 volts, so 24 should be just fine, right? It’d be much more simple to just buy another TM plug and be able to just plug them in. I’m glad you guys mentioned blinding other boaters, I didn’t think of that.

Yeah that would work running on the tm batteries and the plug in connection is also a good idea. I used a remote starter button (the kind a mechanic would use) on mine so they were on a momentary switch. That way only on a couple seconds at a time to spot rocks and stuff.

Ram mounts move too much for my preference. I mounted mine on a piece of angle aluminum. The aluminum is attached to the underside of the trolling motor mount, and the light hangs from that. Keep the light below the gunnel to avoid blinding yourself while driving. Use a LED light (or two or three) to keep electrical draw to a minimum. Mine works great.

From the MN Boating Regs, page 19:

Lighting Tips
Docking lights and/or spotlights on boats should only be used near docks or shore – not on open water.
Check navigation light sockets and wiring for corrosion.
Boats on waters subject to U.S. jurisdiction may also display navigation lights under current federal inland regulations.
LED lights must not impact navigation light visibility.

And your not supposed to exceed the speed limit either….

Not many (unusably zero) boats out when my lights are on…

Led light bars are cheap on Amazon. They work great near shore or backwaters. Open water they don’t do you any good. It don’t take much light to illuminate cans on the river. If you run them on open water or main channel be courteous to other boaters and shut them down. It takes too long to be able to see again if you get blasted by spot lights. They will light up ice flow and debris.

The 20″ light bar will be more than plenty bright. I run a 12″ with spot/flood Combo for duck hunting. And I don’t think I need any more than that to run backwaters.