2016 AR240 Install Wake tower LED lighting

[Majorsmackdown]

If you tilt down your tower you'll find the starboard side has a hole through the mount, and gunwale that runs the wire for the anchor light. It's a small hole that goes into the tower but enough for a pair of wires no problem.

There are other ways to fish the wire though the tower but I found a cabling fish to work really well. I pushed the fish through the base of the tower and up to the hole in the center leading edge of the tower (hole that's already there and has a plug in it). I had a hard time tying the wire to the wire fish so I used some string trimmer line with a knot tied in the end to engage the fish hook and pulled it back through the tower.. Then taped the wire to the string trimmer line to pull it through.

Holes for the LED's

I made a couple starter holes with a 5/8" hole saw then used a stubby step drill to get to 3/4" (maybe a 3/4" hole saw would have done the trick but I felt more comfortable using the step drill to get to the final dimension). This worked really well.

In the gunwale I zip tied the lighting wires up to the loom that's already in there and wired into the helm's courtesy light with a plug on the courtesy light side of the boat's plug. This pair of LED's draw .11 amps. They dim nicely with the courtesy lights and thus didn't require another switch for operation. They're not Monday night football bright - but plenty to find your butt in the dark and even see into the underseat storage compartments decently.

I used 3/4" grommet LED's. At first I planned to put 2 LED's in each cross-member between the two main tubes of the wake tower... but I didn't want to risk the left and right cross-members not being drilled through to the main tubes. I could still do that but it would require drilling through the edge of one of the main tubes then plugging that hole. I still might do it if this proves not to be enough lighting... But I think it's adequate. These LED's have a lens that disperses / floods the light - so they don't hurt your eyes from most angles.. unless you get straight under and look right into the LED...

This took a few hours, but the cost was next to nothing to pull off this mod.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-1-LED-Bul...ance-marker-/291288582855?hash=item43d2270ac7

Last two pics are of one light mocked up to see how effective it would be.. surprisingly one LED alone puts out quite a bit of light...

 

[Britboater]

Nice install, I guess theres not already a light in the tower?

 

[Majorsmackdown]

Just the anchor light.

 

[John Ortega]

Nice job!!
Can you show the plug / wiring on the helm that you used to plug into.
I would not want to cut / tap any factory wiring to do this and sounds like you did a plug and play.
Great addition!

Thanks.

 

[Majorsmackdown]

Sorry, it's beyond taking pictures of now - but I can describe what I did. And tapping into the courtesy light's pig tail is how I did it. If you want to be able to go back to the "I never touched it" look, you may have to find a Y cable with the correct plugs.

I removed the helm area courtesy light by unplugging it from wiring harness then removing the visible 4 screws. This is pretty basic and obvious when you go looking into it. Then with the courtesy light in hand I opened up the insulation on the courtesy light's pig tail and soldered in a pos and neg lead in parallel to a plug used in the RC world called a deans plug. (you could get this at any hobby shop). You'd put the female plug on the hot side as a rule to prevent short circuits. You can use any 2 lead plug you see fit or have laying around, and if you go hunting you might find a Y cable that uses the factory plugs. But why bother ? Then put the male end on the wire to your lights and tie up all your wiring so it's not dangling and bouncing around.

I think I'm going to add to this later on with some "in hatch" lighting.... when I do - I'd just make a jumper that goes in between these two plugs with a couple more plugs (effectively a Y-Cable with deans plugs)

 

[John Ortega]

Thanks !!!!