LED Spreader Lights

[gradyfish22]

Has anyone yet install LED spreader lights on their boat? I know there are a few out there. Here are the one's I've found so far.

Pyramid Tech:
http://www.pyramidtech.com/Catalog/Prod ... ductID=103
I believe they are 600 or 700 lumens
1.25 amp draw
$150

Lunar LED "Polaris"
http://www.boemarine.com/Products/LUN-P ... fault.aspx
800 lumens
1 amp draw
$75 introductory price $129 regular price
(This one is just being introduced, but has been at boat shows and installed on a few boats so far but I have not seen it in person yet)

Vision X "Xmitter"
http://www.visionxusa.com/led/xmitter/

XIL-40
800 lumens
1 amp draw
$150

XIL-80
1440 lumens
2 amp draw
$270

A comparable 50watt halogen is supposed to be around 800 lumens, but it is hard to compare the 2 types of lights since they have a different color light. I was hoping someone has installed these lights and has some input to compare to a 50w or 55w halogen spreader lights.

Originally I was leaning toward's the Lunar's, I have talked with the designer and they seem like a nice product, but I'm not a huge fan of the look nor the mounting system for them. Also not sure if 800 lumens is enough since the color looks different. All 5 of my spreader light's would be Lunar's if I go this way. I am now leaning towards replacing my 3 4x6 halogen's with 3 XIL-80's and my 2 stock 3x5's with XIL-40's. This will drop my lighting load from almost 24 amps to 8 amps, a significant drop for the system and hopefully provide the same amount, or more lighting.

Any input on these products would be appreciated. I have seen the Vision X's in person at bopat shows and they look nice, but it is hard to tell just how bright they are in a lite building. Figured I'd also pass along the info on the product's I have found so far. I know Hella has a LED spreader, but it is junk at only 250 lumens and .58amp draw. I would not recommend them as a replacement, they run $150 each, the other 3 are far better.

 

[ocdansar]

Scarab Chris over on the hull truth makes a nice led spreader light very helpful person also his web site is coastalnightlights.com

 

[Tuna Man]

I am going to actively folloow this thread as I also plan on switching over to LED spreaders eventually. Would be nice to draw about a quarter of the amperage with better lighting.

Did you ever add the underwater lights you were considering?

Please keep us posted on what you decide to do.

 

[el jefe]

Two thumbs up on Scarabchris's lights. Look at coastalnightlights.com

 

[BobP]

Every post I read over at THT who has installed Scrab Chris's lights (as above post) is happy, and the price is very reasonable IMHO.

If I have to replace one of my incandescent originals, the entire fixture is about 60 bucks now. Whoa!

But they do double duty as hand warmers on cold nights!!

 

[gradyfish22]

I know scarb Chris makes good products, but they are nowhere near bright enough by today's standards. At 380 lumens, his lights get blwon out by the others, and in his pictures you can tell they aren't super bright. They would be good enough for a guy who doesn't need a ton of light, or who doesn;t boat much in the dark, but I want as much as I can get for when I'm tuna fishing, the more bait I can attract the better, and having no blind spots is important too. I currently have 5 spreader lights and they cover my cockpit and around the back and sides of the boat perfectly so I'm looking to match that or do better if I'm going to invest a good chunk of change for LED spreader lights.

 

[BobP]

I thought the OP's post was about spreaders?

How about using the underwater lights to attract fish?

 

[gradyfish22]

I plan to add underwater lights next season, but right now my biggest priority is dropping my electrical load so my Honda EU2000i can handle it all night. Right now I am drawing too much power so this is my biggest concern. We had tons of bait this season on all of our overnighters, we couldn't have attracted more bait, but underwater lights would be a good addition. I've fished on tons of bigger boats with underwater LED's, but they are not cheap for good ones. I can get Ocean or Abyss underwater's through work for close to cost, but my budget this season does not allow for them, I'm already adding an autopilot, putting the LED spreaders on and installing a new stereo and speakers.

 

[NOTHING ELSE MATTERS]

I'm using Chris's underwater lights and i'm very happy even with his "first generation". I had told him i needed spreader lights and he told me he could take my housings and convert them with what ever power i want, assuming he could fit those LED's in there. That was more than a year ago and i'm sure technology advanced and he could get top of line stuff if i want. I will contanct him soon and find out what the story is.

 

[el jefe]

Not to hijackth the thread, but NEM do you have any pix of the Chris' underwater lights and how you set them up. In particular, how where did you place them in relation to engines, how high/low, how did you run electrical (through hull or over transom), and what did you run the electrical into and what do you turn them on and off with. I will probably add the uw lights when I do my next haul out and paint in may/june and have not decided the best way to hook up. Thanks.

 

[gradyfish22]

My advice on Chris's UW's....buy his longer strips, they light way better then the standard size, I've seen both. the standard size are just ok , to do it right the wide strips light better.

If you have a single 2 of the longer strips work best, if you have twins, either 1 regular size strip on the outboard side of each engine and a wide in the middle would be the best to light behind your transom. I would highly recommend blue as the top color, then green. I would not put white, they shine the least distance and will attract the least amount of bait and they look blah. Blue looks the best and has been proven to be a soothing color for fish but also very appealing and draws them in the best, green is second best out there.

As for mounting, I'd say the lower the better since they shine up and down, if you mount them too close to the surface you waste the top portion of the light beam by shining.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... n%26sa%3DN

There is a single engine application, although I'd get the wider light strips. I would also raise them an inch up from the bottom fo the transom, as water comes off the back edge on this boat it is catching the lip of the light and putting a lot of pressure on it as well as adding to spray behind the boat, on windy days this spray will end up in the cockpit if it is from your back. 3ft under your water line is ideal, but that is not really possible on most boats, especially singles. On twins, the middle light might be closer to that 3 ft measurement.

 

[NOTHING ELSE MATTERS]

This is what i put on my skiff, those are his first ones.

 

[gradyfish22]

I have spoken with a lot of Rep's and now some boat owner's with various lights. Being that the Lunar's are so new and have not been installed on many boats, and that I personally feel they look really ugly, I am not going to go with them. It looks like a great product, and for just replacing the stock spreader's they are a great value and will work very well for that use. for those just upgrading the stock halogen's, that is probably the way to go for the price and quality of the light output, much better then most out there.

For my use, I have choosen to go with VisionX Xmitters. I need a lot of light on my boat, the more the better since I fish offshore. I need light not only for my cockpit but for lighting the water around the boat to attract bait, as well as to avoid any blind spots of landing and fighting fish. Out of all of the products that exist currently, the Xmitter's support my needs the best. For the flood light you want a model ending in 1, that designates a flood beam which gives off roughly a 30 degree beam from the sides of the lenses(roughly a 60 degree beam in total). The 0 designates a euro light which is narrower at 15 degrees from each side of the lens(roughly a 30 degree beam in total. After Speaking with VisionX directly they refered me to Marine Beam in SC and Apex Lighting in Fl. These two dealers have dealt with their products the longest and have their the products in stock in Black, White and Chrome housings, other vendors might not have all colors, White is the hardest to find right now. I was also told that the XIL-81 draws closer to 1.7-1.8 amps, not the 2 amps as advertised. the XIL-41 draws between .9-1.0amps. The lights have a limited lifetime warranty, I was told the LED's themselves are covered for replacement if they burn out. As of now I plan to be installing the lights some time in mid to late March so I will have plenty of pictures to follow once they are installed. I will give a complete overview of my thoughts once they are installed, but after talking with many who have installed them, all were pleased with them. If anyone has any VisionX Xmitter's already installed, I'd love to see more pictures and hear any comments.

 

[gradyfish22]

Recieved the VisionX xmitter's today, 3 XIL-80's and 2 XIL-40's. Went with the narrower beam over flood beam, only about 10 degree difference in coverage, but huge difference in distance. A compared them in the drive way, 1 3x5 halogen vs 1 XIL-40 vs 1 XIL-80. No picks, camera wasn't working properly, but I will have pictures once they are installed. As far as the XIL-40 vs the halogen which is a closer comparison, Hella halogen puts out about 800 lumens, XIL is 720 so I expected the XIL to not be as bright. As far as lighting area, it is similar but the XIL-40 does not blind you and has a solid even beam, would be a great replacement for stock halogen's on any boat to light the cockpit. The slight loss, and I mean slight would be well worth it to drop from 4.5amps to 1 amp per light, and the light color is much more pleseant to the eye. As for the XIL-80, WOW!! It puts out 1440 lumens at 2 amp draw, and boy does this light light up!! My front yard is 100ft wide and 75 ft across and it lit up just about all of it, the first 50 ft were even light, then it faded off cleanly, very easy on the eyes having a clrean pure white light. The build quality of the VisionX Xmitter's is top notch, heavy duty aluminum frame, a great warranty and a great light beam. They will hopefully be installed on the boat by the weekend so I will have picks to follow shortly!!! Very pleased with my decision to go with these lights, much better light then any of the other's I looked at. Can't wait to see all 5 lit up at once!!! VisionX was great to deal with, very informative and helpful and a top notch company. Joe Biro is a stand up guy and will help answer any questions you might have. I went through Yachtlights.com as well, Petro is the marine salesmen who deals with these lights and he runs them on his boat as well, he is very informative. There are optional mounts to allow them to cleamp onto tube's, great for rocket launcher's, and there are heavy duty metal brackets that connect the double mounts on the XIL-80 to adapt to a single bolt just like other lights, ask for the double stack light mount if you would require that.

 

[Tuna Man]

Gradyfish22 keep us updated with the photos and your thoughts. I may be following your lead in the not too distant future.

 

[gradyfish22]

Plan to mount them and wire them tommorrow with this better weather that they are predicting. The XIL-80's will mount nicely with the additional bracket, the XIL-40's have a built in stud, hoping it is long enough, going to be close, otherwise I will have to get creative to get it through the hardtop and mounted, will post my findings and pictures.

 

[gradyfish22]

Lights were installed, but no pictures. I stayed late to get some but the found out there is a huge bright spreader light located above my boat, nice to know it is well lit and safe, but sure killed any chance of getting good pictures. You coudl clearly see where the lights lit up and how well they lit the area but in pictures they did not come out well, will have to wait until the boat is splashed for them I guess. The XIL-80's are awesome, a ton of light and very good range as well. Never had the over bearing feeling that halogen;s give you from their light beam, the LED's are very calm on the eyes and do not blind you. The light color is pure white, not yellow and blaring. Only issue I did come across was that the lights only angle about 30 up and down so I need to find some brackets where I can adjust the angle to get it directed better. Should not be a problem for the XIL80's on top since I want them in the water, but the XIL-40's in the cockpit need more angle down to light the whole cockpit. Working on that now and will keep everyone posted on what mounts I find or buy, if anyone has any ideas would be greatly appreciated as well. Also hooked the led rope lighting up. I have pictures of the lights installed and the rope lighting on. Didn't have time to clean up wiring properly and neatly, and left some slack since I will be adding mounts to adjust the angle more.

 

[Grog]

Looks nice. I'm putting LED lights in this year too.

 

[gradyfish22]

Grog, what brand? Make sure the led spreaders are close to 800 lumens or the light quality will not come close to comparing to what is stock. My smaller one's are 720 and the 3 bigger are 1440lumens each. There are a bunch out there, some better then others. I've been researching for a year and half and did not buy until I found a product that was well built and had good light, too many lack in lumens of light. I love mine, only flaw is the lack of angle adjustment, but nothing about $10 worth of hardware and some creativity cannot fix, ordering parts to make an adjustable mount tommorrow from mcmaster-carr. After staying late tonight, about 10 buddies from my marina saw the led lights and the rope lighting, they are all ordering the rope lighting and 2 or 3 are ordering the led spreader's i have as well since they too run offshore and overnight using a small generator.

 

[Grog]

I went with the Lunar spreader that BOE is/going to carry. Mounting them will require making a bracket but that shouldn't be a problem. The rope lights are going to be a "in the water" project, there's too many other jobs in the que.