Tower lights, what do you recommend

[Methu969]

Looking to put tower lights on my 2005 24v (phat buddie tower) any recommedations for lights?

[Greg Mallek]

What are you going to use them for? Riding / Surfing, or just around the dock? Here in Cali, the use of lights are illigal for anything but docking.

[Methu969]

Just for leisure rides at night and around dock.

[yellow3]

I made my own 5 light set-up, 3 facing rear 2 facing forward... cheap, very effective, and looks good; I'll get a pic if you'd like.

[CrazyJ83]

Methu
Like yourself I am looking into puting lights on my boat also. here is the best prices light bar I have found yet,
http://www.bulletlines.com/servlet/t...hts/Categories
onlyinboard.com has some good prices too
http://www.onlyinboards.com/Ski-boat...er-lights.html
But I am also looking into making my own. haven't yet decieded which route I am going to go yet.
But I hope this helps in your search

[philwsailz]

I want to caution you guys with regards to using lights at night.

* As has been pointed out it is illegal for any use but docking virtually everywhere.
* The use of lights kills your night vision making it harder for you to see things
* The use of lights on your boat blinds anybody else in your vicinity and makes it inpossible for them to see anything.
* The typical mounting of tower lights points the beam in a direction that does little to aid in navigating in close quarters. Anything illuminated will inadvertantly be too close to avoid in most instances. A handheld spotlight is way more effective.

Boating at night is nice, but it is best done with whatever light is available from a full moon, the shoreline, or whatever else is there to widely illuminate your boating area. To think that adding lights provides you an added margin of safety is totally false.


I am not opposed to their installation and they are way cool for fun, show, and for their inherent bling factor, but to think that they are for anything more than that is asking for trouble. As a fellow boater, I ask that you be mindful of your safety, your passengers safety, and the safety of anyone else who might be out on the water after dark. Please always use your navigation lights, both your red/green bow lights AND your stern/ all-around light, and please never operate your boat at night with your tower lights.


Sorry for the soap box rant, but safety is very important to me, and I want it to be important to all my friends here too.

[yellow3]

I want to caution you guys with regards to using lights at night.

* As has been pointed out it is illegal for any use but docking virtually everywhere.
* The use of lights kills your night vision making it harder for you to see things
* The use of lights on your boat blinds anybody else in your vicinity and makes it inpossible for them to see anything.
* The typical mounting of tower lights points the beam in a direction that does little to aid in navigating in close quarters. Anything illuminated will inadvertantly be too close to avoid in most instances. A handheld spotlight is way more effective.

Boating at night is nice, but it is best done with whatever light is available from a full moon, the shoreline, or whatever else is there to widely illuminate your boating area. To think that adding lights provides you an added margin of safety is totally false.


I am not opposed to their installation and they are way cool for fun, show, and for their inherent bling factor, but to think that they are for anything more than that is asking for trouble. As a fellow boater, I ask that you be mindful of your safety, your passengers safety, and the safety of anyone else who might be out on the water after dark. Please always use your navigation lights, both your red/green bow lights AND your stern/ all-around light, and please never operate your boat at night with your tower lights.


Sorry for the soap box rant, but safety is very important to me, and I want it to be important to all my friends here too.

couldn't agree more phil... In most cases, (in mine at least) I would say they are more for show than anything. However, we do use them at night for reasons other than docking; swimming, surfing, cruizin/jammin or whathaveyou... we live in an area of Texas where not many people even know what wakeboarding or wakesurfing is. When I first started taking my boat out there last summer, we literally drew a crowd when we started throwing down our routines. If you were to ask the gamewarden if He'd heard of "lake holbrook" he would look at you and be like "where the h*ll is that?" I guess we are very forunate....for now anyways

[CrazyJ83]

I want to caution you guys with regards to using lights at night.

* As has been pointed out it is illegal for any use but docking virtually everywhere.

This might be ture UNLESS You live on a Pravite lake like I am moving to here in about 6 months. Then there are no RULES!!!!!!!! lol J/K But Saftey is also important to me. I think they will be mostly a sun going down we are still surfing thing. Can wait to post pics of the new place!!

[Methu969]

Phil,

Thanks, you just saved me about $400.

[MoneyPity]

I have added 4 55 watt halogens on my tower. Two Forward and 2 aft. They give of plenty of light for docking and the rear ones would suffice for wakesurfing if it was not illegal after dusk. Neither set is good for open water at speed like you scan run on Bulshoals,, Tablerock and Norfolk but are great for finding the cove where you are docked at especially on bull shoals where the docks are buried pretty far back in the coves, Where we stay at Bullshoals, it is about a 2/4 mile run from entrance to dock so at slow speed in the narrow channel the lights do help at the just over no wake speed. I wish I added 1 more 55 watt forward but this works out.