WOW! I finally found some time and extra $$$$ (really only $ 49 on sale!) and replaced my trailer lights with LED's. Holy #$%@ !!!!!
I think the people behind me will need sunglasses. They are some serious bright even in daylight. At night I'm almost thinking tooo bright. Still, I wish I had bought additional kits to replace all my trailers (4) lights with these. I also took Jakes experience to heart and put the whole system on it's own circut....... AND mounted the whole thing up on the guideposts to keep them out of the water........... AND used Plumbers GOOP inside the shrinkwrap. Now, if I could just stop the planes from thinking these LEDS are landing lights for a runway........

Could anyone tell me whether the AMBER RUNNING LIGHTS on the side of the trailer are mandatory or not anymore since the cat on the trailer is over 80 inches wide? I attached them but I'm not sure if I needed to. Seems like just another thing to go wrong and since they are mostly hidden by the hulls I thought about by-passing them. The kit I bought said "for trailers over 80 inches" but then didn't include the amber running lights (I had them on the trailer already) which got me to wondering but they were there (and worked) so I just spliced them in.
Now I'm thinking I didn't have to. A friend, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, suggested putting a length of the blue Painters Tape on the rear beam on top of which he wanted a section of "OVERSIZED LOAD" tape. Not really a bad idea if I was going any distance with the boat and trailer.

Greg

Many modern monohulls are now equipped with fiber optic lights. This should be really easy to adapt to trailer lights. The light sources are simply located inside a little box up by the tongue of the trailer and fiber optic lines run to the desired locations. It's really easy to make one little light box waterproof. All the rest of the components in the system are non-corroding plastic. I woudn't be suprised if someone already makes a kit, but it would be an easy DIY project if not. The light sources could be LED's if you desired.

Jimbo

NOW you tell me! Usually I'm behind the learning curve by months but you've put me there in mere hours!
Would be a great idea though. I would have thought the fibre optic cabling itself would be cost-prohitive to use for this kind of situation... or has the price dropped as the technology evolves?

Greg

I can just imagine trying to repair a severed or chaffed fiber optic cable...proper installation would undoubtedly be critical to success. I think I'll stick with the 12V distribution system to sealed LED units.

It's become so cheap and easy it's a joke! The cable is made of special plastic and costs few cents a foot. The only critical thing is cutting it off smooth and square, but they have a special cutting plier for that. Chafing should be no more an issue than for electric wire. If you anticipate chafing, just use braided sleeve or the like.

Jimbo

I checked Pep Boys Auto Parts last night. They have a 12 white LED insert that replaces a conventional #1157 12 volt double filament bulb for $9 each. These should NEVER ever burn out, and probably run 5 LEDs for the tail light, the rest for stop(?). I'm going to spend $18 to NEVER futz with lights again-- at least if I permanently solder the new bulb contacts to the 12 v wires inside conventional tail light assembly.

ground, ground, ground wire. 90% of light problems are from bad ground at the light or at the frame. If all else works you should check the ground at the light. I never frame ground anymore, to many problems. I always run a wire to each light on boat and snowmobile trailer and solder then heat shrink the connection.
Good luck