180 Challenger owners with LEDs

[timhood]

OK, whoever has a 180 Challenger with LEDs, where did you put the underwater lights? I was looking at the stern and it seems like the only flat section under the water line is down at the very bottom of the hull, but I'm concerned that may be a thicker, more structural part.

On the interior, has anyone found any LED replacements for the existing courtesy lights? Not just adding LEDs in new locations but replacing the courtesy lights near the floor in the bow and at the side of the two bucket seats in the helm. The existing lights are roughly 2 1/4" square (though the plastic bezel is slightly curved on the sides). I couldn't see an obvious way to get them out (there must be a way, in case you have to change the bulb).

 

[RFoster130]

My boat isnt a challenger, but i am messing with the idea of making the existing interior lights LED. I think the newer boats like yours still use the same lights as my old boat. Sometime over the winter I am gonna try to hack one up and retrofit an LED into it. If you come across any before then be sure to share what ya find.

 

[timhood]

I'd like to figure out how to get one of the existing courtesy lights out without wrecking it… I may have to get a manual and consult. I was originally thinking about replacing the whole unit with a pre-made LED light, but it might be easier just to change the bulbs like you were thinking.

 

[RFoster130]

Any way you can post a pic of one? I am working at the firehouse till 7am. If they are the same as mine, they just pop out.

 

[WOOSAB]

I have mine just left of the water jet.. Two lights on each side.. Then 1 light in the vent hole.. Looks great at night in the wake or when the kids are just swimming around behind the boat...

i have 2010 challenger 180 (255hpse)

I got these lights from http://www.oznium.com/marine-led-spotlight

 

[WOOSAB]

These come from http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-...category=MR16&Page2Disp=/specs/G4-xWHP6-D.htm

 

[timhood]

A picture is worth a thousand words. Here's what my courtesy light looks like.

Based on the other picture I see, it looks like I can just pop that cover off and replace the bulb with LEDs.

 

[timhood]

These come from http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-...category=MR16&Page2Disp=/specs/G4-xWHP6-D.htm

Thanks, WOOSAB, for those great pictures. Do you find the courtesy light LEDs are bright enough? Do they really light up the boat inside, or just provide enough light so people can see where they are going? It's hard to tell without seeing it in person and I have no idea how bright 850 "mcds" is! (From the web site).

For the underwater lights, I was thinking of going with the Coastal Night Lights, http://www.coastalnightlights.com/styles-UWlights.html either a single or double-wide, because I wasn't sure how bright the Oznium lights are. The Coastal lights are either 380 or 760 lumens, depending on size. According to their web site, a pair of doubles is 500,000 candle power. I wish Oznium would put some specs on their lights, because they are cheaper.

How far away do your lights project under water?

 

[WOOSAB]

On the inside of my boat i used the FLEx led 2.4 strips i believe i put in two in the bow 1 on each side and 1 under driver and passenger seat and 3 in the back row 1 between each seat... I actually had to install a 2nd switch because it was 2 bright.. As far as the little dome lights they are a little less then the standard white lights... They dont bother you as much while driving because i think the blue is softer on the eyes then the white... I put the LED STRIPS in my Seadoo.. the pics of the dome lights are from Yamaha but those have screws on the corners if you look close.. Never tried my dome ligths on the Seadoo because the strips were cheaper and it gave me options on where i could put them....

The underwater lights work great! you can see clearly in the water maybe 5-7 feet behind the boat and they hold up great! as you can see in the pics i have 4 total underwater ligths.. I have 1 spot light and 1 flood light on each side.. If i was to do it again i think i would use all spot lights and no flood lights.. As a winter project im going to add a 2nd spot light in between the 2 that are already there.. The spot lights are brighter... Don't fan as far but because they are so close together you can't really tell. But when above the water you can see clearly the spot lights show farther and deeper in the water then the floods do...

 

[timhood]

I went to superbrightleds.com with the plan of ordering some of those bulbs you got. I saw they had some with 9 LEDs instead of 6, so I went to the boat to measure to see if they would fit. After I popped off the cover, I noticed that Sea-Doo rivets the lights in (they sure love their rivets, don't they?). The stock bulbs are interesting--they look like old-style fuses.

As I was surfing around their web site looking for other products to add to the order, I noticed they have LED bulbs that are a drop-in replacement for the bulbs in the light already. I found out they are called "festoon" bulbs. Here's a link for anyone interested: http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&Page2Disp=%2Fspecs%2Ffestoonhp_3022-xHP4.htm#photos. So I ordered some of those and will report back here how well they do. I also picked up a couple of lights for the rear storage bin and the glove compartment. At $6 each, it would have been nice if Sea-Doo had put them in there in the first place--at least on the SE model.

Next, I need to decide between Oznium and CoastalNightLights.com for the underwater lights.

 

[RFoster130]

Tim, i found some PERKO LED lights that look like a direct replacement for the interior lights. you have the same ones I do. The ebay item # is 260646863713 Also, Oznium.com has great prices on LED's and they are a quality light. Look up Tresvatos on here. He used them and they look awesome, much cheaper than anyone else.

 

[timhood]

Tim, i found some PERKO LED lights that look like a direct replacement for the interior lights. you have the same ones I do. The ebay item # is 260646863713 Also, Oznium.com has great prices on LED's and they are a quality light. Look up Tresvatos on here. He used them and they look awesome, much cheaper than anyone else.

I'm going the lazy route--once I saw those lights are riveted in, I decided I wasn't as motivated to solder in a replacement LED (I'd either have to work in a very uncomfortable position or drill out the rivets and re-rivet when I'm done), I decided to dry the replacement "festoon" bulbs. I'll let you know how they work out. I got the blue ones, but I'd bet the white ones would be even brighter. Three bulbs is less than the whole replacement light, so it's a fairly low-risk gamble.

 

[RFoster130]

To swap them does the cover come off the other lights and the bulb pops out? If so, I might try that too. I had the whole fixture pop out of the hole on one of mine and i just pushed it back in.

 

[timhood]

Yes, I used a small screwdriver (from a jeweler's set) because I didn't want to mark or ding the fiberglass. A thin putty knife would work well, too. The front cover pops off, revealing the 4 rivets, one in each corner. Then the translucent circular light cover just comes right out with your fingernail. Behind that, the bulb is mounted horizontally. It looks a lot like the old, see-through tube-shaped fuses. The two metal tabs on each end hold it in place, so it's just as easy to replace as those old-style fuses. The light that WOOSAB got was soldered to the tabs and it had more LEDs, so it's probably brighter, but these are cheaper and easier to install ($7 vs $12 each) and drop-in easy. I think all three lights could be swapped out in about 5 minutes total.

The lights that I want to put in the rear storage and the glove box are going to take quite a bit longer, but will be worth it. I just have to decide which switch it makes the most sense to connect them to.

 

[RFoster130]

Sounds easy. I think I will order the replacement bulbs too. What size did you go with? For the glove box, you should look at the Oznium individual lights. Each one has 4 LED chips. They are very bright and easy to install. Just drill a hole and drop them in with a little epoxy or pvc glue. They come with wires attached and dont need any transformer. Just wire them to a switch. And they are cheap, you can get 10 for like 35 bucks. That is what I used on my interior lights. You can mix and match colors too and they have like 14 colors i think.

 

[DonoBBD]

Those in RGB would be sweet!

I own an LED company and can have the factory make this G4 in RGB but you would need a small RGB controller that would have fifteen pre set settings dimmer and speed setting for color change.

Would need to have a four wire connect as well.

http://oceanclear.ca/

We have some very very nice under water ones in RGB that are surface mount and one wire through hull. You guys have got my juices flowing now.......... arrr.

I have a directors meeting this week. I will see if this is something we will take on.

Cheers Don.

EDIT: some pictures of my hot tub room.

 

[RFoster130]

With your resources Don, my boat would be totally lit up and decked out. Wanna sponsor someone? :hurray:

 

[DonoBBD]

With your resources Don, my boat would be totally lit up and decked out. Wanna sponsor someone? :hurray:

How about this guy? This single light is huge. Massive output. Might be to big. You would only need one of these at the back of the boat and one wire through the hull.

Color: R/G/B/Y/DW/CW/WW/RGB
Standard: CE certification and RoHS compliance
Light source: 6 x 1W/6 x 3W high power LED
Output Current: 350-700mA
Net weight: 1.45Kg
Beam Angle: 15/30
Size: Dia115*32mm
IP Rate: IP68

Housing: 304" stainless steel
Glass: Step tempered glass T=8mm
Loading capacity: Exert force area of Ø 10=650kgs Ø 30=1530kgs
Lens: Separate optical lens, efficiency≥ 85%
Cable gland: IP-68 PG-11 copper and nickel coated
Waterproof seal: Molding shaped silicone double seal
LED: To type power LED
Driver: Constant current output
Single color LED=1circuit output
RGB LED=3-circuit output
RGB 3in1 LED=3-circuit output
Application environment: In normal temperature water,
Water depth: Within 2 meter

Cheers Don.

 

[RFoster130]

Wow thats massive. 1.45kg...thats like 3 lbs. That is a heavy light. I dont see any size though. Any idea how big it is? I'm PM'ing ya.

 

[timhood]

Sounds easy. I think I will order the replacement bulbs too. What size did you go with?

The bulbs are 31mm long, so the only choice was 3022-xHP4. I went with blue, so the part number was 3022-BHP4. Cool white would be 3022-CWHP4, which I will get if the blues aren't bright enough. I'm not going for super bright, just enough for ambiance and so people can see where they are walking if it's dark. I think the blues will be bright enough and will report back when I get them installed.

 

[RFoster130]

I found tons of the 4 LED 31MM festoon lights on ebay. Some as cheap as a buck a piece. Cant find any other color besides white though.

I take that back..just found other colors but they are like 6 bucks...same as the other site.

 

[dsw222]

tim - i'd like to see some pics of your courtesy lights after you get them installed... thats an excellent idea and i'd like to get my boat lit up soon too!

 

[WOOSAB]

Tim, i found some PERKO LED lights that look like a direct replacement for the interior lights. you have the same ones I do. The ebay item # is 260646863713 Also, Oznium.com has great prices on LED's and they are a quality light. Look up Tresvatos on here. He used them and they look awesome, much cheaper than anyone else.

I used the oznium's as well on both my boats.. I have been very satisfied with them and haven't had a problem.. I have abut 9-12 lights on each boat.. So maybe 20 lights all together and i haven't had a problem with a single one..

 

[moosehead]

Woosab, thanks for the photos. Nice little soder replacement of the courtesy lights, I'm definitely going to add those.

Just received the LED strings that Rfoster recommended, +1 also an easy splice with no transformer. Agree with commentary that these should be more subtle and actually less light than white lites (went with blue).

 

[WOOSAB]

The inside lights i took those pics from YJB and used them to do mine.. But the actual pics aren't of me or my boat. A few months back when i was interested in putting led in my boat i used those pic to figure out how. So i figured i'd pass the info on... The green lights on the outside are mine and my boat..