Navigational Lights

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crankbait09

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According to my state laws, I need to have a white stern light which must be visible for 2 miles.

The red/green sidelights must be visible for 1 mile.

I have a 14' Jonboat. I have one battery in the boat which controls my trolling motor. I am trying not to do a couple of things here. 1) I don't really want to add another battery at this time (a lot of cost), 2) I don't want to hook these lights up to my existing battery and have it take up a lot of power which the trolling motor would use.

So, my question is this. I have seen LED battery operated lights which cover the colors needed per state laws. Can the battery operated lights put out enough light to be seen from 1-2 miles away? are there any lights that work just as well as a 12v power source would?

Does anyone run off of battery powered navigational lights that can provide assistance?
 
Look for portable/clamp on lights that stay they are USCG approved, the leds are pretty bright and should work for you. Another thought is leds mountable type do not pull many amps and you could hook them up to your single battery and you probably would not have problem.
 
with that being said.........I have a MAXX 29 marine battery which is a few years old. I have a 30# thrust MK trolling motor that I can run for about 4-5hrs straight on the battery. If you were to look at the overall power of these lights, how much time would be taken off the battery if these were running as well?
 
crankbait09 said:
with that being said.........I have a MAXX 29 marine battery which is a few years old. I have a 30# thrust MK trolling motor that I can run for about 4-5hrs straight on the battery. If you were to look at the overall power of these lights, how much time would be taken off the battery if these were running as well?

You would not notice any difference. I believe it would be in matter of only few minutes if that.
A trolling motor, depending on speed, will take multiple amps of current, LED lights take milli amps of current. I bet if one turned a LED light on a trolling motor battery one could leave it on close to 2-3 weeks or more before even running it dead, Depending on size of battery of .
 
....I use the LED nav lights that are battery powered and they put off more than enough light. On the flat bottom I use the clamp on type as you don't have to worry about any wiring issues that salt water can cause due to corrosion as well as they stay in the storage bin until I need them thus keeping them out of harms way. The ones I have use three AAA batteries per light and usually last a full summer without having to replace the batteries.
 
Agreed. No sense wiring up your boat and getting a big car battery etc...., if you don't need to. They now make very nice, detachable, LED bow and stern lights. Best of all, you can simply put them on any boat you want, as needed. Here's a link to a site with great prices on them and all kinds of other great motorboat/sailing items.

https://www.duckworksbbs.com/hardware/electrical/il-560-111x/index.htm
 
I'm using LED lights in all my gauges, and in my nav lights. I also run LED's in my prow lights, to replace the factory MR-16 halogens. I can run all my lights with very minimal power draw on the battery.

For the stern light, a 'wedge bulb' LED is what you need.

Bow lights typically use 'festoon bulbs' If you check a site called 'superbrightleds.com' you can find festoon LED's there.

As far as battery-operated nav lights, I've never had good luck with them. Batteries go dead, then you have to replace them, or the batteries leak, from heat and cold, and once they leak, it eats up the guts of the light.

Flipping a switch is a lot easier than having to deal with all that BS.
 

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