Rope lights in cockpit

[Johnboy]

Has anyone tried running rope lights around the cockpit? I can use either 12VDC or 120VAC and I have plenty of room under the gunnels. I'm looking for another project for the winter. Any thoughts or help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
John

[bamaboy473]

Since they're a plug-in device, plug in a set and bubble gum them under the gunnels to save drilling if you decide they don't look right, then sit back at dusk and watch their effect. Should be nice, but it won't cost you much to try it.

We have them under the counters in the house and they add a nice effect.

[Lazy_Iguana]

Rope lights work well under the gunwales. There are many many photos and threads relating to this topic. A quick search will turn up a lot of threads loaded with pictures.

It makes for a cool effect, and the project is not hard to pull off. The hardest thing is really just the wiring. If you want the switch on your console then you have to snake a wire from the switch on the helm to under the gunwale, then snake another wire to anywhere there is a ground. After that you can pretty much just glue the rope lights in place.

[Richie]

I put a strip of red rope lights under each gunnel and it gives a soft glow without being too bright. I used peel n stick cable clamps and 2 seasons not one has come off. I ran to an unused switch on the dash. A worth while project for sure.

[capemariner]

What works better is the under car lights. they are very weather proof and 12 volt, you can also change the colors

[1Mainiac]

I have seen both the rope lights and the car neon kits personally I like the neon kits better. I also have a lot of flouresant tape on my fishing gear and use a couple of 12v blacklights at night lights up all the fishing gear when night fishing and looks cool. Also does not kill your night vision very important at night.

[rwidman]

Johnboy - 12/29/2008 4:19 PM

Has anyone tried running rope lights around the cockpit? I can use either 12VDC or 120VAC and I have plenty of room under the gunnels. I'm looking for another project for the winter. Any thoughts or help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
John

Wiring requirements are a lot tougher for 120VAC and the danger is greater so I would recommend 12VDC for your lighting.

[kingair]

This is what I installed on my boat

http://www.superbrightleds.com/specs/als.htm

[Birdman]

I installed rope lights on my old Scout, went all the way around the gunnel in yellow (matched the rest of my color'd cockpit lights). Really looks nice, very usefull (you can see), and is very easy to install. My Rampage came with them installed.

One thing, you can get either regular 12v rope lights, or spend twice as much and get LED 12v rope lights. The LED lights use 1/10th or even less of the amount of power. So if you use them while at anchore, your much better off with the LED's. also, the LED's last alot longer.

Do a google of "12v LED rope lights", there are 100's of online dealers.

[John_Madison CT]

Jim at BOE has a very nice rope light for sale and at excellent prices. I bought 20' of the Red and it was under $70 with everything. The Blue and White are more money.

[John_Madison CT]

Here's the link:

http://byownerelectronics.com/store/...=search&page=1

[Lazy_Iguana]

I got 9 feet of blue LED strip lights that I put under the t-top. It lights up the helm area and back of the boat well. But here is what I am getting next!!



RGB LED strip lights. They have 4 wires, a common ground and a hot for each color LED (red, green, and blue). Now if I want to preserve night vision no problem. Select red. If I want accent light just to look cool then there is blue or green. Turn em all on and Ill have white (or close to it).

And for the ultimate "just because I can" look - Ill also have a RGB controller that will cycle through a whole slew of color changes.

After that Ill pretty much be done with the LED war going on with some friends. Ill win

[Johnboy]

Lazy....those look cool. I like the variability. Where did you find them?

John

[Lazy_Iguana]

http://www.ledlight.com/

The first thing I bought from them was some replacement LED bulbs for my courtesy lights. My fittings take #90 automotive bulbs. Which have BA15D bases. The bulbs I ordered were blue and had 9 LEDs. They just fit in the housings. Which by the way are cheap Seachoice transom 135 degree navigation lights.

They worked very well. So I added two more identical courtesy light fixtures, and ordered two more blue BA15D bulbs. And it was even better. And cheap too. The fixtures were all of $14 each - and two came with the boat. The bulbs were $8 each. So for the price of a single LED courtesy light I can get at least 4 bulbs.

I have since ordered 4 red and 4 green bulbs. So I can change them out as I see fit.

The RGB strips are $14.99 per foot if you buy them in one foot strips, $23.98 for a two foot strip, and $32.98 for a four foot strip. This is not too bad, considering that I got my single color strip lights for $6 for a one foot strip. The single color strips came from Scarb Chris at coastalnightlights.com

This is an old photo of the strips under the t-top, taken before the project was finished. The center support has three strips on it, the other supports have only one. It is kind of hard to explain the whole strips under the t-top thing.



So the total cost to retrofit my boat with blue LED courtesy lights (4 of them) AND accent lights under the t-top (9 one foot strips, connected three at a time) was $114. I checked, and the cost just to replace my original two courtesy lights with LED fixtures would be at least $80 - $100.

The RGB strips will cost a bit more than $54, but if I consider each RGB strip is like three single color strips, it works out.

The cost for the same thing I have now under the t-top but with RGB strips and a color changing controller (with wireless remote) is $205. As opposed to $162 for three sets of single color strips, plus the hassle of having to run three sets of wires and stuff. Oh and no color controller.

But I am considering another option.

LED color changing (supposed to have three million color possibilities) kit made for cars. They may be brighter than the strips, but they are not flat (they are tubes) and the problem here is that the flat strips are so much easier to mount to my t-top hardware.

http://www.ledunderbody.com/index.aspx

Anyhow just some ideas I am kicking around. I am happy with what I have now - but you know how it is. You ALWAYS want to go that one extra step.

[Buoy Scout]

I finished the install of red LED lights under the gunwales in my Tiara. Sorry for the fuzzy pics, needed a tripod for the long exposure, but you get the idea. The red LED lights under the arch are not really visible here. None of the pictures really do the install justice. The flash washes out the color in the last photo.