She Gets New Eyes

So I conjured up this idea about swapping all my lights to LED's after an episode on the river last year that almost drained my batteries. I know LED's only use a fraction of what regular bulbs use, and put off much less heat. So I figured what the hell, it'd be worth a try.

I did some searching on the net, came up with a few limited resources. I found SuperBright LED's based out of Florissant, MO. I used to visit that town quite frequently and figured it'd be the place to order from, since it's only about 8hrs away.

The lights I needed to replace were the Nav Light, and one of the courtesy lamps. However, I went a little haywire, and bought a bunch of bulbs since they were pretty cheap, and I wanted to try a couple different options. I bought the following ones.

My nav light burned out during last year's Riverfest (probably the most important time to have a nav light), so it was first on my list to replace. I purchased the two styles as shown just to see which would be brighter. One has 9 LED's, and the other has 4. I tried the 9 LED one first, but once mounted in the fixture, the bulb became very dim on the port side behind the red glass. This fixture was extremely directional, so I figure that's why it wouldn't work as well. So I mounted the 4 LED bulb, and wow, what a difference! I was concerned about the brightness originally when the idea came up about swapping, but after seeing this, I have no concern whatsoever that my nav light could be the brightest one on the river!

Next were the engine lights. I wanted to use something bright, as it's a pretty important spot to have a bunch of light, just in case. So I found these 5 LED fixtures that seemed to be good for projecting light in all directions. I bought the "Bright White" . They worked great, and I decided that I'd purchase two LED "strips" (like neon tubes) for the engine bay itself just so I could project light in there. I found a great deal on ebay, so I couldn't pass them up. Here's the final outcome of the engine lights, both the 5 LED fixtures (mounted in the transom), and the LED strips in the engine bay.

So then came the courtesy lights. I used the same 5 LED fixtures as the engine lights to project light in a wide angle. I bought both Bright White, and Red. The white is a little harsh in complete darkness, so I went with the Red instead. It's definitely easier on the eyes. Plus it looks pretty cool. I kept the whites onboard just in case I decide to swap.

I tried to replace the transom light in the rear with an LED, but for some reason it didn't work. Maybe I got a defective bulb, or maybe it just doesn't like LED's. At any rate, i put the standard bulb back in, and moved on.

Finally, out of curiosity, I took apart my anchor light just to see what size it took. Just my luck, it took the same size as the courtesy lamps, so I popped in one of those Bright White 5 LED bulbs and WHOA! Brightness in all directions and it's really WHITE!