Electric Light for my Portable

I’m kind of getting bored waiting for good ice. This afternoon I put together a cheap and easy lighting system for my portable while watching the Viking Game. I looked at all the lights at the Ice Show but I wasn’t overly impressed with what I saw. I am trying to get smaller, brighter, and easier with my lights. I’ve gone from a gas two mantle Coleman lantern (I hate mantles they keep breaking) to an electric lantern (too big and cumbersome and not that good a light) and now to an electric light. This set-up is easy to set up, easy to take down and pack up and fits easily in a small box in the bottom of a bucket.

I built an electric light this afternoon in about an hour that will run off my extra 12V 7.0 amp Vexilar battery and the total cost was $7.12. I picked up all the components at Menards. 1 each temporary light socket ($1.88); 1 each 50Watt Low Voltage Frosted 12V Bulb ($1.48); 1 each 9′ Indoor 16-2 Extension Cord ($.99 cents); 1 set of Insulated Alligator Clips 22-14AWG ($.89 cents); 1 set of 8″ X 1/2″ Get A Grip Velcro One-Wrap storage straps ($1.88).

Clip one end off the 9′ extension cord and wire in the temporary light socket. This takes 10 seconds using a temporary light socket: just cut the cord, split out the two wires and hang them over the tabs on the temporary socket and rotate the socket into the locking position and it will puncture the wires and establish a connection. Clip the other end of the extension cord and wire in the two alligator clips to hook to the 12V battery. I took an 8″ velcro wrap, folded it in half, made a 1/2″ slit in the center of the fold, then took that slit and ran it through the temporary socket hanger and with a needle nose pliers closed the loop on the hanger. I use the velcro to hang the socket from my portable’s center tubing frame. Hook the alligator clips to the 12V battery and “LET THERE BE LIGHT”. It works great in my basement. As soon as we get some ice I plan on taking it for a cruise. Here is a picture of the finished product.

Steve, what kind of run time are you expecting out of the vex battery?

Hmmmm…Might have to make a trip down to the Axe Man in St Paul!

thank you very much i have been trying to construct one for a year i dont now why i didnt think of this myself i have no clue i didnt see much at the ice show either thanks a lot you saved me about another year

Thanks for sharing.
I think I will have to make one up for myself. Feb. crappies are not far off
It would be nice to know how long the battery will last. I would think a guy could get at least 4-6 hours out of it

I dont think your going to get much run time out of a 7 ah battery for a 50 watt bulb. It might be more practical to just turn the light on once in a while when a ton of light is really needed.

I might be wrong, but I used to use these lights in a permanent years ago and I would run them off a trolling motor battery, and at other times, the battery in my truck. There was quite a dirrence in light when I left it connected to my truck for a couple hours.. I would start the truck to recharge the battery.

How long it would run off the deep cycle? I dont know. It would make it all night. A 7 ah battery? thats a really good question.

Brian, if they dont have what your looking for there tomorrow(ax man), let me know, I can take a look at the St louis park location. That is also a great place to get items to create ice house *inventions*

Brian – I’m not sure, I ran it an hour and it stayed nice and bright and the battery still had a good charge. There is probably some kind of electric math thing you can do to figure out the watts, amps, volts stuff to compute how long it will last. I don’t understand any of that – I wasn’t even sure the thing would light up when I hooked up the alligator clips – but it did!! Hallelujah!!
Operating in the cold could impact it’s stamina too so I’ll let you know how long it seems to last once I test it on the ice.

I really like that simple set up. It would beat the heck out of weaving rope lighting through the supports. If you would not mind, perhaps you could hook that up to the vex battery to see how long it lasts? 4-6 hours on one charge would be enough for me. Good idea. Good idea.

I plan on running a power cord from my shack to my trolling motor battery in the back of my truck, so all I have to do to have a good amount of power available is to run my cord to my truck, when I get home I can charge my battery right in the back of my truck, and just leave it in the back, that way I only have to lift my battery twice this ice season, one to out of the boat, and once to put it back in.

Then I can run mulitple thing off the battery and not have to worry about not having enough juice. I suppose I could even drop my battery in a cooler to keep the battery insulated from the cold for maximum power too.

Why not just use the headlamps you guys use for cattin’? That is my plan for the year. Nothing light hands free light right at the front of your head. Wherever you look, there it is

After a 12 pack I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the head lamp wats

I am going to give it a try on my spare vex. battery. If I would have to carring a deep C. then I will stick with the lantern. I’m hoping it gives me at least 4 hrs. That would be great

Might be just me Wats…I do use my headlamp…but when you look at someone while talking…they get kinda po’ed.

Concidering the guys I fish with…not a big deal though!

Yeah, the deer in the headlights look is kind of rude We could have a late night ice fishing Olympics. Everybody slam a beer and then follow your headlamp around the tip-ups. Keep doing this until only one man is standing Since I drink very little, I better be the official judge and referee

I use a booster pack and a flourescent light that has a cigarette plug in on it. The light is $12 at a hardware store. Lasts about 40 hours on a booster pack. Then if my car battery is dead I’ve got the booster pack. When I go home
I plug it in to my truck and it charges over night. Good to go the next night! Works awesome.

The 12volt 50 watt bulb will eat up the vex battery pretty quick. Although you may get 2-3 hrs of usable light out of it.

Many of us are now using LED lighting in our portables attached to a support bar with the wires attached outside or through the bar with a small hole drilles near the light location with a vex battery for power. You have a pretty good selection at most truck stops. Depending on how many you use you can get 30-60+hours of usuable light using a vex battery.

Down side is that it will be more costly to assemble than the 12v 50 watt bulb setup. Generally in the 20-50 dollar range depending on how much light you need.

Although the long term cost is signicantly less than using a propane lantern and you don’t need to figure out what to do with all the empties.

I’m pretty sure they make an LED bulb that would screw into that setup. However I don’t know the cost of such a setup.

Borch, I think you meant “with a MarCum battery”

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Borch, I think you meant “with a MarCum battery”

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Yeah that’s right. But I know how it works here. I saw the depth finder thread.

Psss…..Actually it’s just some generic knock off.

I know 50 watt, 12 volt bulbs are cheap but if you go to the hardware store for under $5 you can get a 15 or 25 watt 12 volt bulb that will not drain whatever kind of battery your using and still be plenty of light.
We use the lower wattage bulbs in our houses to conserve energy.

Thanks for the info, Hooks. Do those lower voltage bulbs use a standard base?

Hey jwfilm1 – Thanks for the reply about using a booster pack. That may be the ticket for powering electric lights rather than the small vexilar battery. There are quite a few different kinds available. I found one at Northern website for $13 called “Power-2-Play”. I’m thinking of going to the Booster Pack to power the my ice fishing light plus I can use it in the summer to power my catfishing lights too.

Yes they do. I use two in the boat for night fishing too. Those cheap clamp lights work good for this too.