$12 LED lighting in use.. Good Idea?

[h2osk8er00]

Anyone ever use the LED strip lighting for their boats and had a problem? I got some off amazon for less than 12 dollars. I wired them in parallel to my inboard lights.. also ordered some LEDs to replace the old halogen style bulbs you currently see in the photo.. Looks like these things draw up to 1.5 Amps and 24 watts... Will it be an issue the way I wired them would it? If not.. I am going to put some in the bow tonight.. They were so inexpensive if they only lasted the reunion I would be okay with that..Just don't want them to kill the battery but when I had them on and watched the voltage drop it went from 12.4 to 12.2 Volts so I figured I was okay. It was a simple install and I can easily take them out. Def not permanent by any means as I want to do a much better install job once I learn more about the lighting and how to wire them correctly. This was just to see how they would look/function and to test out at the reunion hopefully.

[b_jackson_03]

I have actually installed these on my boat, however, I made them their own wiring harness. I try and refrain from taping into factory wires as much as possible. Also, I used white/opaque polypropylene rings around my speakers to make it so that you cannot see the individual lights. There is a great instructional video that will walk you through it, I will add the link at the bottom. I will also add a pic of what mine look like. You can buy polypropylene sheets from Amazon or you can do what I did and just buy cutting boards from Wal-Mart. I bought the large board for $12.97 and I was able to get (4) six inch speakers out of one board.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raWI_SZpsrw

LED.jpg

[h2osk8er00]

Thanks b_jackson! Good work btw~ Seems like an easy upgrade and minimal cost... I need to get my engineering hat on and try to put them in a place where they don't get hit and can be hidden.. Not too many places on my old hog!

[BCRider]

Did the same as above http://www.tigeowners.com/forum/show...light=lighting

[h2osk8er00]

Thanks BC.. I seen that post but didn't dissect it all that much as the pics wouldn't load on my crappy computer for some reason (work computer).

[boonecragun]

I ordered a RoLoghtic strip off amazon. It is a good quality LED strip. I tied into my courtesy lights so they are on the same switch. I had to buy connectors as I cut my strip in two places as I placed them underneath the seats so they shine down on the floor of the boat. Very cool effect, but due to the back seat removal for maintenance I cut them to allow me to remove the seat in the future. My only issue is make sure you get a brand with good adhesive. I think mine has 3m adhesive. I made sure I cleaned the fiberglass, but there are a couple of spots where if just isn't sticky enough I had to get some additional clear adhesive to fix this. They are very cool and surprisingly a decent product for the price.

[h2osk8er00]

Thanks Boone! Glad the way I wired them shouldn't be an issue... what additional adhesive did you use and did you end up covering them with anything?

[h2osk8er00]

Just testing the lights. Cost was 23 bucks overall. We will see how long it lasts as they're pretty exposed. Going to keep some adhesive close by and as I see them start to fall off I will spit treat the area. Other than that I think they look great. Def need to put some more time into them.