LED lights???
 

I have an embarrassing love for LED's and I want to convert all the lights in my 95 Z202.

Anyone done this? The only LED front nav lights I've seen are really expensive. Can't I convert the one I have now? What about the curiosity lights?

I think I would use blue for the curiosity lights, otherwise they could be too bright.

Let me know what you guys have done.
Steve

Re: LED lights???
 

I changed out the bulbs in my existing lights to LED's a while back. Mine used the 1 1/4" "Festoon" style bulbs. LED Lights, Bulbs & Accessories - SUPER BRIGHT LEDS seems to have almost every replacement led bulb known to man. check them out.

Re: LED lights???
 

A number of us have done this conversion. I've used red LED's for my interior lights as to not affect my night vision.

Here's a link to a "How To" by our Admin ShabahZ250.

Re: LED lights???
 

I swapped all mine out, courtesy lights, nav and anchor lights all of them. I have a green LE Shabah so I swapped all the interior lights for green ones and it looks sweet.

I recommend SuperBrightLeds also.

Re: LED lights???
 

I hage a green/white interior as well. Do you have any pics?

Re: LED lights???
 

Alright, I've got my order ready to go, except for the transom light and anchor light. They are both the same dual contact type base.

So.....which ones are they? The ones I think they could be are these:

1142-x19: 19-LED 1142 Bulb

If you copy and paste into the search bar, it'll come up. I just don't know if it's too big or too small.

Anyone have a part number?

Thanks,
Steve

Re: LED lights???
 

I ordered a 12, 15 and 19. I believe I used the 19 in the anchor light but I'm not sure. My boat is in the shop getting a new impeller so I can't look at the moment

Re: LED lights???
 

The 1142X19 I ordered from them was a 1/2 inch too long to fit in the anchor light without a major modification. Put the bulb in and then the lens hits the face of the bulb leaving the lens cover with about a 1/2 inch gap between it and the housing.

To make it work I had to remount the light housing on the inside of the hull to get the extra 1/2 inch spacing...and even then the bulb face is right up against the outer lens. The original #90 bulb is 1-5/16 long whereas the 1142 is 1-3/4 inches long.

A year ago when I was doing this, I remember reading where the admin here was replacing his bulbs with leds and his nav light up on the bow kept giving him trouble with the led bulb (can't remember the reason) so he finally replaced it with a new led nav light. So after reading of his experience I didin't even try it and ordered a new led nav light for the bow online at a decent price. I'm pretty sure I got a Attwood brand. Looks great and is super bright.

Re: LED lights???
 

Steve, I too have a love for LED's now. My son put LED's all through our boat. He left the courtesy lights alone because he put dimmable accent lighting all through the interior of our boat. (green since that's our boat color) He also put them in all the storage compartments so that when you open them at night, they are lit up. He also put them on and around the swim platform that we made ourselves. All the LED's everywhere throughout the boat and on the swim platform, they are sooo awesome looking at night there is just no words good enough to describe it.

Re: LED lights???
 

Thanks for the post, I was just getting ready to hit the order button when I saw this. What about the pole light? That one has a lot more room for the 1142, right? I'll look look for another LED that might work for the anchor light.

A little off topic, but there are two white lights on the back of the boat. The one on the pole and the one on the stern. The pole is used for navigation while under way, but are you allowed to run the stern light as well? Is that what you guys are calling the anchor light? I thought the pole light was to be used while at anchor as well.

Re: LED lights???
 

The anchor light is the one on the stern. As far as I know you could run it too while underway.
And yes you definitely need the pole light on while you are anchored out at night or underway.

Re: LED lights???
 

Just wanted to mention that I did take some pictures that I will be posting later on when I get the time to do a DIY (do-it-yourself) article. Not only the lights but the swim platform as well.

Re: LED lights???
 

Awesome, that'd be great.

I just got off the phone with the guys at superbright. Very helpful. He said the courtesy lights are not the brightest, but I explained that is probably a good thing for the interior.

As for the anchor light, I told him I needed a shorter light and he told me about a 15 LED light that is basically the same thing as the 19, but it doesn't use high intensity bulbs, but they are 1/4" shorter. I'm going to get that along with the 19 and see what happens.

As for the pole light, he told me these are the way to go. Super bright. More expensive, but more better.

Check it out. The 45 led is 1.7" tall and .7" wide. I'm going to take my pole light apart and see if it'll fit.

1142-x45-T: 45HP-LED BA15D Tower Bulb

Re: LED lights???
 

I already replaced the bulb in my pole light with a LED that "looked like that one", but naturally I can't remember the number of the bulb...it's a really really really bright one though.

Instead of using the auto extending pole light that came with the boat (4 footer), I use one that is 6 foot long so that it puts the light well above my line of sight if I look back at night. My pole light also has a deflector on it that directs the light outward and not down so it doesn't blind you at night.

Re: LED lights???
 

That makes a lot of sense, I'll probably end up doing the same.

Re: LED lights???
 

I too converted all my lights to LED including the console lights. The console lights were the trickiest because you have to be double jointed to reach up behind the console but the bleeding knuckles paid off:D. I also added LED's to all the cup holders and inside my speakers. Makes night time cruising very cool.

In about 2 weeks I will be mounting underwater LED's i purchased yesterday in the transom area.

The one caution that i will tell you is that some (actually just one that I found) LED's do have a power bleed as i found on my anchor light. My 2001 Shabah Z222 came equipped with the telescoping anchor light and one night while putting the boat away for the evening i noticed the light was dimly lit. If you have a battery switch and use it religiously, it should not be an issue. But if you dont, it will drain the battery fairly quick.

Re: LED lights???
 

Got the LED lights installed. The 15 LED light fits perfectly in the transom light, no modification necessary. And the tall tower LED worked great for the anchor light.

Brewfixer, you're positive it's the LED lights that cause the power draw? I don't see how that's possible because no power is provided to the lights when the switch is off. Using the battery switch is still probably a good idea. I need to upgrade to dual batteries soon.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...-54-38_887.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...-11-30_722.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...-11-38_974.jpg

Re: LED lights???
 

Is it possible that you may have some sort of short in the electrical connection for the power anchor light that might be bleeding power to the bulb?

Re: LED lights???
 

I also wanted to add that superbrightled got my lights to me VERY quick. I placed the order on Friday and they were here on Monday. Doesn't get much better than that.

Re: LED lights???
 

Well anything is possible but when I put a meter across the switch I had nothing. However I did not do a continuity test to ground but you bet this weekend I will.

Re: LED lights???
 

Do you homebrew?

Re: LED lights???
 

Not anymore... I work in Milwaukee for a major brewery.