Spotlights

[DougSea]

Ok, I promise that at some point in the not so distant future I'll try and answer more questions than I ask! I'm still in the new (to me) boat 'home improvement' phase so I'll be firing off plenty of questioning posts for the near term.

The latest - do you have a remote spotlight on board? Which one? Do you like it? If you installed it yourself, which is my plan, do you have any tips for someone else doing the same? I'm pretty mechanically inclined and there's not much I won't tackle, this seems like it should be an easy one.

Looking forward to hearing back from you guys!

Doug

[Mariner]

Don't have one. Would like one. But, pops is against it. Always has been.

[chiefrcd]

I have one...remote that is...and hate it. Almost impossible to find anything with it and it's mounted on the roof...so the glare off the forward deck is horrible. I now have two hand held spots that work perfect. Easy to find your target and I can hold it so there is virtually no reflection off the deck. I've seen several forum post on other sites where most folks do not like the remote. I used a through the roof hand operated spot on our old UTB 41 and it was very easy to use....since the deck was dark gray we didn't get much glare at all. I'm thinking about removing the remote and going to the hand operated one, if I can find one.

[AlMar]

I had one on my last boat and it worked quite well, but as chiefrcd says, you don't want it on the roof. I had mine mounted on the bow pulpit so there was no glare. If I put one on my current boat, I MAY try to mount it up on my tuna tower, in a temporary mount to see if it has the same problem a roof mounted unit would. Also, I'm not sure how that would interfere with the USCG lighting regs.
AlMar

[Denis]

I do a lot of night driving and
SCUBA diving so I really needed one. I bought one from Defender last year and mounted it on a piece of starboard cut to the shape of the bow rail at the front of the boat. Mounting it there eliminated any glare you might get off the fore deck and puts it right where you need it. I bought one that uses a remote control and that eliminated having to run wires back to the helm. I picked up 12v from the wire for the bow thruster and ran it through the anchor locker up to the light. I'll try to post some pics.
Denis

[Denis]

Actually if you look at the picture of my boat that is already posted you can see the light mounted up front. I'll try to get a closer view. Denis

[DougSea]

Actually if you look at the picture of my boat that is already posted you can see the light mounted up front. I'll try to get a closer view. Denis

Dennis, that looks like a neat, compact setup. If you have any more pictures I'd like to see them. I had been considering mounting it on the roof, back far enough to avoid the glare, since I didn't like most of the forward mounted ones I'd seen. Do you happen to know which light model you have? And close-ups of the mounting plate you made would be appreciated as well.

Thanks too chiefrcd, ALMar and Mariner as well, I'll be rethinking how to do this based on your feedback.

Doug

[Veebyes2]

I had a remote spotlight but the boat got sideswiped by a twister during a tornado which destroyed the turning/elevation gears. Now I use a 1mil CP handheld rechargeable. Much better than the remote for just 'spotting' hazards & marks.