I just got a new 14ft boat for the river. What kind of light do I need up front to allow me to see when I am going down the river at night?

I've seen different combinations of light ideas. Spotlights, Fog Lights, Driving Lights.

Aanderud put some kind of new HID lights on his little boat. Best light I've seen so far.

A hand held spot light works well, and is your cheap option.

I got an HID spotlight, took the 12 volt gel cell battery out of it, and just screwed the light to my boat, hooking it up to the main battery for power. It can tilt up/down on the bracket it came with, and I have it screwed in such that there's enough friction to keep it from moving left/right on its own but you can still turn it left and right if you want.

Google search for "HID spotlight" to get some results. The links toward the top have the cabelas price, which is 99 bucks for the "vector" brand. A couple weeks ago cabelas had this one for 39.99. I was going to buy one, it was that price on a Thursday when I looked and still that price on Monday when I looked. Then when I finally pulled the trigger on Tuesday, it was up to 99 bucks. So I got one on Ebay instead, cost me 53 bucks shipped. There are a few different "brands" that are all identical unit (SLH100P is the model). There's also an SLH100V, but I don't know what the difference is. I think it's a newer version, haven't seen it as cheap anywhere. Anyway, mine is a "power on board" branded one. If you search for "HID spotlight" on ebay you will see it. Anyway, it's bright. You'll be surprised how much brighter it is than a regular halogen bulb. It's a bit on the spendy side but when I start adding up every other fishing expense I have, I can easily justify ~50 bucks for a good light that'll get used every time I go out.

Speaking of going out, went out last night and got 3 fish, 2 dink flatheads and a decent sized channel (maybe 10 lbs). broke off on something that felt like a small flat, and missed one. Still waiting for the big ones to start biting.

I would buy lights based on how often you will be out at night, and how fast you want to go. The weekend warrior who isn't in a hurry a handheld spotlight works fine. If you are going to be out every night going 30+ mph I would get the best lights you can buy. The best lights I found were HID off road lights, but they were 500-1200 bucks. I compromised with a set of large halogen off road lights. Make sure your battery and alternator can keep up with your lights. Bright lights take a lot of power.

This is what I did. I took an idea I got from Kyle B last year and built it in to something that worked for my boat.



They are from Northern Tool. All in all it costed my about $22.00. I made the brackets with some scrap I had, painted them and used some wiring I had. Wired them to a switch on the console and them to the battery.

I tell ya, I do not have one thing bad to say about them. They work great even on plane or in fog.

I will have to look into these lights Brian is running. More money, more money, more money
Good luck!

I went out yesterday after work and picked up a light that was rated at 1,000 lumens.....however it takes 15 hours to fully charge! I was kind of dissapointed in the depot's selection. Can anyone suggest a nice handheld for under 75 bucks? Shack those lights are awesome b.t.w.

I definitely saw the HID lights that ed speaks of at various websites. Man, lighting can get expensive! Things I've read about HID is that over the next few years the pricing will come down to about where halogen is now. We'll see. I'm not holding my breath. The HID lights take less power than halogen. Mine is 35 watts, which is only 3 amps of current draw or so. But it's only 1 bulb too...

Jimbuck, the HID spotlight that I got is theoretically hand-held, but it weighs like 7 lbs with the gel-cell battery in there. It is rated at between 3000 and 3200 lumens, depending on who you listen to.

I picked up a handheld at Gander a while back thats called "Seeker" made by cyclops. 3.5 million candlepower and it comes with a red lens you can put over it. Cost $29. Works well.

I honestly think the best deal are those 9.99 yellow handheld jobbies.
Forget the rechargeables they are worthless and heavy.

For $100 you could get two of those lights Brian has. 6W of juice, and you light up the whole darn river bottom.

cant beat the o'l spot light for $9.99

but thats the cheap way if i had to choose i would put PIAA's up front there really bright but i dont have the juice or the cash to do so

Thanks Aanderud. I'm gonna search around for something like that....I don't have the money to step up to some big mounted HID's but would like a decent setup. So you took out the gel-pack and then just hooked it up to the terminals on the 12v battery?

Cheers,

-Jimbuck

Yeah, it's about a 7 lb unit with the battery in it, I'd say 3 without. I drilled 2 small holes in the back door, clipped off the spade connectors that were on the black and red wire, and ran the wires out the back end, and just hooked it to the main 12 volt battery in my boat (which happens to be a deep cycle because I don't have electric start on my motor).

Here's a pic of the light question:



The thing on the bottom is a pivoting stand thingy that lets you adjust the angle of the light vertically. I put a single screw through that, into my boat, and tightened it down just enough that the friction keeps unsolicited side-to-side motion out but loose enough that I can move it if I need/want to. Also, the light can be completely removed from the bottom stand thingy very easily (takes about 5 seconds) and put back on just about as easily (maybe 10-30 seconds depending on how many beers you have had).

Excellent. A visual reference helps. I like the idea of modifying the existing stand as a mount for the boat. It seems like a beefy unit. Is battery life ever a problem for you? I'm running my depth finder, aerator and radio off of my 12v deep cycle for 6 hours without a problem. I imagine this light can't draw very much from the battery if your just using it for running from spot to spot or combing the banks for big foot.

I just got the unit, so I can't tell you from exerience that you won't have a problem, but I can tell you analytically that you're good for over a day.

I measured the current draw on the light. The ballast requires a bit more current at startup, I guess to "prime" itself. Right when you turn it on it draws almost 6 amps. This quickly dissipates to 4 amps (like 5 seconds), and then slowly drops to about 3.75 amps (another 20 seconds or so). It seemed to stay steady there for as long as I felt like watching it. So, if you figure 3.8 amps for the light, and 400 milli-amps for the aerator (that is what my invertor/aerator combo draws), you're up to about 4.2 amps. I don't know what the depth finders take usually, I'd guess less than an amp. (they have like a 3 amp fuse in line, so it can't be much). That puts you at roughly 5 amps or so. Then whatever radio you take I'm sure is less than an amp (especially if it's designed to be able to run off batteries). I'd say you're under 6 amps MAX, and that's while running the light, probably under 2.5 while the light isn't on.

Most batteries have somewhere between 75 and 120 amp hours on a full charge. So a good safe "rough estimate" is that you have at least 30 hours of runtime of your other gear, minus 1.5 hours for each hour you run the light. You should not run out even on a long weekend excursion.