LED lightbulb manipulation

[rgreenwell8962]

I am slowly replacing the bulbs in the cabin with the G4 10 light LED's. They are side pin, but the pins seem a little long. I can still install them and replace the light fixture cover, however they are not quite centered.

Can I clip the pins so that they are a bit shorter or will this deem them inoperable?

Thanks all,
Rich

[Nimh]

I can't see a problem with shortening the conductors, just leave enough for a solid contact in the sockets.

Did you find a fair deal locally, or did you order online? I paid about $12 each for warm white G4 6's online last year at ledlight.com.

[rgreenwell8962]

Nope! 24 bucks! I knew it was too much, and was going to buy them from your source, but before doing so I wanted to test one out and see how it looked and fit. I think I am going to go with the 6 bulb like yours. The 10 is nice, but maybe a bit too bright. What did you do for your courtest lights? They are not the same kind of bulb with the pins.

[Nimh]

With the G4's, we like the warm whites. We tried the "white" LED's and they were too blue/green for our taste.

For the courtesy lights I used red T10 3-LED lights as they were low profile enough to fit under the lenses, and in low light conditions on the hook they don't blow out my night vision.

http://www.ledlight.com/t10-wedge-3-led-light.aspx

FWIW - we replaced the anchor light bulb with one of these. Low amps and very bright.

http://www.ledlight.com/SearchResult...KeyWords=34211

[Tommyfmu]

You can clip the leads. I ordered (20) 18 bulb LED's from a Hong Kong company for about $2.75 each delivered, found on Ebay and they worked fine. Even though labeled 'warm white,' some had a green tinge, but they were fine from our standpoint. Only warning on clipping the leads is to be careful not to put stress on the lead to where it is soldered onto the light. I had one break free, so then useless. Did the whole boat (16 lights) for under $50.

One other thing is you might have to reverse the polarity on your socket wiring. I had to clip and change the wires on about 1/2 of my lights, as the LED lights I bought are polarity sensitive.

[dronthelake]

Made the decision to lower my power consumption and replaced all 34 ceiling (G4B-CWHP10-DAC cool white), 12 courtesy (WLED-NW5 natural white), 11 engine gauges (WLED-NW5 natural white) and 1 water tank level (WLED-NW5 red) gauge lights with LEDS.

I bought a couple cool white and a couple warm white to test. We went with the cool white. We prefer the white/blue tint over the yellow tint of the warm white. I also find it easier to read with the whiter light. The main cabin is on 3 switches, the bath on 2, the forward birth on 2 and the rear birth on 2 so we can adjust the amount of light for any given need. The courtesy lights are in the cockpit, swim platform and bow pulpit and are controlled by 3 switches.

[dyna962007]

I love your ideas but curious about something.
Why replace the gauges with LEd when they presumably only run when the engines are on??

[seaman-recruit]

I too would like to replace my bulbs with LED's for the reduced current load on the house battery. Is there a trick to popping the lens off to get to the bulb? I haven't tried it yet but was taking a look at one of the lights over the weekend and didn't see an obvious was to get the lens off - but like I tell the Admiral - I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed.

[shrew]

Originally Posted by dyna962007

Why replace the gauges with LEd when they presumably only run when the engines are on??

the duty cycle on LED is such that you will probably only need to change them once in your lifetime. The colors cand be changed so all lit accessories match. Just a couple of thoughts.

Originally Posted by seaman-recruit

I too would like to replace my bulbs with LED's for the reduced current load on the house battery. Is there a trick to popping the lens off to get to the bulb? I haven't tried it yet but was taking a look at one of the lights over the weekend and didn't see an obvious was to get the lens off - but like I tell the Admiral - I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed.

It depends on the type of light. If it is the surface mounted puck lights, they should unscrew a quarter turn to the left. If they are the flush mounted oval lights, there is a dlot for a flathead screwdriver. Take a pic to confirm which you have to determine the proper method.

[seaman-recruit]

Shrew - I actually have and want to replace both of those styles. I wasn't specific in my post but was thinking about the oval style - thanks for the tip - I will take a closer look for the screwdriver slot. BTW - do they both (puck and oval) use the same model/type bulb?

[seaman-recruit]

Never mind - found the answer earlier in the thread. If I had actually been on my boat at night this would have been obvious but my first few outings (and pre-purchase inspections) have been during the daytime hours. (Boat is kept in a rack/launch facility so not easy to jump on at night to fire up all the lights!)

[dyna962007]

Originally Posted by seaman-recruit

Never mind - found the answer earlier in the thread. If I had actually been on my boat at night this would have been obvious but my first few outings (and pre-purchase inspections) have been during the daytime hours. (Boat is kept in a rack/launch facility so not easy to jump on at night to fire up all the lights!)

Good luck buddy,
I've been all through this LED thing and have them installed in my boat now everywhere and its a wonderful thing.
Courtesy lights up top, Arch lights, Anchor lights, Cabin lights, reading lights, etc.
Any questions just ask, mike

[seaman-recruit]

Thanks for the offer Mike. Always good to know help is only a few keystrokes away from someone that has "been there - done that".

[Nauti Jenks]

I have a 2001 2400 SCR and am wanting to change everything over to LED for that White light effect, how do i figure out what types of bulbs to buy for each different light? Any help would be appreciated as id love to do this soon on my boat for the over night and late night rides

[dyna962007]

Originally Posted by Nauti Jenks

I have a 2001 2400 SCR and am wanting to change everything over to LED for that White light effect, how do i figure out what types of bulbs to buy for each different light? Any help would be appreciated as id love to do this soon on my boat for the over night and late night rides

There are many variations of LED bulbs.
The plugs are quite different as well as current draw, number of LED's, amount of illumination, color spectrum, and on and on.
Within any given boat, you may encounter a variety of different bulb configuration requirements.
The only way to be sure of what you need is to pull a bulb from each of the fixtures you are trying to replace and compare its look and dimensions to those available on most LED sites.
If you buy on eBay, the thousands of ads for LED's will show you the exact picture of the bulb and also give dimensions that you can compare with what you have.
Most replacement LED bulbs for your application will draw between .1 - 1.0 amps, whereas a typical incandescent bulb, be it halogen or whatever can draw up to 20 amps each depending, with 5-10 being more common.
if you start looking around on eBay, and reading, it will be quite an illuminating experience LOL
mike

[shrew]

Originally Posted by Nauti Jenks

I have a 2001 2400 SCR and am wanting to change everything over to LED for that White light effect, how do i figure out what types of bulbs to buy for each different light? Any help would be appreciated as id love to do this soon on my boat for the over night and late night rides

Take a look at this thread:

http://www.maxumownersclub.com/forum...849-LED-Lights

The links should be helpful. Swego was the 3rd party vendor for the lights for Maxum for many years. Drill through their standard lights and you may be able to find your specific lights. Then use their charts to match for the appropriate LED conversion. Swego is a bit pricey, however the ones I got don't have that cold, blue light. They are very warm and the bulbs were direct replacements.

[Nauti Jenks]

Originally Posted by shrew

Take a look at this thread:

http://www.maxumownersclub.com/forum...849-LED-Lights

The links should be helpful. Swego was the 3rd party vendor for the lights for Maxum for many years. Drill through their standard lights and you may be able to find your specific lights. Then use their charts to match for the appropriate LED conversion. Swego is a bit pricey, however the ones I got don't have that cold, blue light. They are very warm and the bulbs were direct replacements.

So i have done some research and think i know what bulbs i need for the inside of the cabin lights, the only questions i have is they come with like 6 or 10 or 15 actual led's on them, anyone know how bright these are or what the best option is to not be over powered with light or not have enough light?

Thanks,

Nauti Jenks

[ss3964spd]

There should be an easy way to tell - like comparing lumins or something, I never did find out. I simply ordered several different LED configurations, visually compared the old to the new, picked the ones I liked the most, and then ordered the rest in those sizes. For instance; I had the option of using a single LED lamp with a 30 degree angle for my my deck courtesy lights, or a 3 LED 70 degree lamp. Tested both - decided on the 3/70 lamp.

[Nauti Jenks]

Originally Posted by ss3964spd

There should be an easy way to tell - like comparing lumins or something, I never did find out. I simply ordered several different LED configurations, visually compared the old to the new, picked the ones I liked the most, and then ordered the rest in those sizes. For instance; I had the option of using a single LED lamp with a 30 degree angle for my my deck courtesy lights, or a 3 LED 70 degree lamp. Tested both - decided on the 3/70 lamp.

Has anyone changed out there bathroom lights to LED's? I took a bulb out and its a wedge bulb and can't find anything that matches, didn't know if there was one that fits or not? i got all my other cabin lights figured out and wanted to do the bathroom as well but cant find any matches to the bulb

[Exodus]

I have heard that you may need to change out your fused because of the lesser amp draw. From everything I have read, that does not seem to be true. Can someone please varify? Thanks