How to Install LED Lights on your Bass Boat

I decided to add some LED lights to the deck of my Ranger RT188 bass boat. It's a fairly simple project and I shared each step so you can make the same upgrade to your boat!
Here is the link to the LED lights I used - they worked very well:
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07...

[@scottscaneh]

Whenever I fish a wire I always pull a string with it for t hat just in case. I ALWAYS have a string in my boat in case I decide to run more wires. Nice install

[@Everydayfishing]

Thanks! That’s a great idea to pull a string through

[@boyerstudios]

Great DIY video. Thank you

[@sbhiggs5]

Great job. Looks excellent! Gave me some good ideas for my boat

[@Everydayfishing]

Thank you! Happy to hear it helped. What kind of boat are you working on?

[@matthewwinn1306]

Looks good

[@yousefhassan6284]

Best video on this subject

[@JT_70]

Your lights look great! I ran similar LED strips (Red for my red boat) front to rear and under the console of my Tracker. White strips were added in every storage compartment, the under seat compartments and the fuel/battery compartment. Blue LED strips were installed in the live well. A secondary fuse panel was added under the console with each section of LED having a separate fuse. Dash switches were installed for each group of lights. Each section of LED is fused and pNothing was connected directly to the battery terminals. On some strips 3M mounting tape was added as the cheap tape that came with some LED strips quickly failed. All mounting surfaces were cleaned with alcohol and the adhesive strip was heated with a hair dryer before applying to get the best adhesion. I did not install the remote control that included dimmer, flashing and special effects as I didn’t need any of those features. I can easily install it later if desired. The deck lights are really cool but having bright lights in the compartments is fantastic. Inexpensive fiberglass wire pull glow sticks from Harbor Freight make running the hidden wires much easier. All wiring was marine grade tinned copper. All connections and soldered joints were sealed with marine heat shrink tubing. 4 separate LED strips were soldered together with short 22 ga wires to create a single continuous rectangular LED strip for the inside of each compartment. The bulbs in the bow and stern navigations were replaced with equivalent and brighter LED bulbs. I recently purchased but have not yet installed 16” LED running/stop/turn strip lights for the vertical bunk supports on the trailer. Everything was purchased from Amazon.

[@Everydayfishing]

Sounds like a very thorough and well executed job! I like the idea of the wire pull glow sticks... that would have made my job easier! I’ll look into those for next time - thanks for sharing!

[@WillemLuntungan]

Good job

[@marklopez8378]

Nice for a single color, I just ordered RGB lights with app for smart phone,disco light,lights go with the beat etc etc etc(wife) well so much for fishing.lol Thanks for the vid👍

[@Everydayfishing]

Awesome man! Sounds like you’ll be fishing in the morning and partying in the evening!

[@ronwallace7563]

Hey man.....it has been almost two years now. Are these still holding up? Any problems or anything you might have done differently?

[@lloyds_fishingjournal]

Dope video. How does this effect your battery life?

[@Everydayfishing]

Thanks - very little effect on batteries... the LEDs don’t require much power at all and I usually only have them on for an hour at most to load up in the early morning

[@RobertTrumpster]

Hey do you think the gunnel is wide enough to put 2 led stripes underneath I was thinking about putting a white light and a red light

[@Everydayfishing]

I think for most of the rail you could fit 2 strips side by side... but probably not the entire length. The distance between the floor and the gunnel gets closer at the front so you might run out is space there. You could just use a set that allows you to change the colors!

[@RobertTrumpster]

I wish you would have shown how you tied both sides into the one wire going into the console how did you do that

[@RobertTrumpster]

And why did you run 2 to the console instead of connecting the left side to the right side and then go from there 🤔

[@RobertTrumpster]

It looks really good 👍and I'm thinking about doing it also but I'm going to do white and red

[@Everydayfishing]

@@RobertTrumpster I did connect left and right side together inside the battery compartment - then ran one set of wires to the console. It was hard to show on camera, but all I did was connect each (+) and (-) to each other with wire nuts, then add a new (+) and (-) to run up front. So each nut has 3 wires in it - resulting in one (+) and one (-) going to console

[@RobertTrumpster]

Thanks thats what I will do

[@brandonb1776]

How did you connect your two wires coming from the LED strips? It looks like you only have one wire going into the power source.

[@Everydayfishing]

You’re right - I made a three way connection between both LEDs and the wire going to the power block under the console. This was made inside the battery compartment with wire nuts and more heat wrap. That way I could connect both strips to the same switch with one wire

[@brainfart225]

Asking myself the same question. Thanks for asking

[@FlyingPaintMonkey]

So do you still like your light you have on your boat? Do they put out enough light to see anything pointed down?

[@Everydayfishing]

I actually sold this boat just a few months ago, but as far as I know the new owner still uses them! They are enough light to see the front deck but not enough to see well inside the hatches. But it was light enough that I could prep the boat in darkness

[@relaxationsoothingsoundsof6034]

Hey dude just curious how long did it stick for did you have any issues yet. Ps your boat is bad ass what is the boat name and year thanks your vid was great 👍

[@Everydayfishing]

The lights are still in place - I haven’t had any part of the string fall off yet. My boat is a 2019 Ranger RT188 - Thanks!

[@colw07]

Hey man, how did you run that wire from the battery compartment to the back part of the deck on your port side? I am having a hell of a time. got the starboard side no problem..

[@Everydayfishing]

Yeah port side is tough. I actually had to push my fish tape through some of the foam… it helped to have a metal tape. There is a channel if you look in the battery compartment, up to the right and towards the back corner of the boat. But I did have to push it through some foam and then I unscrewed part of the rubber trim so I could see enough to grab the end in the corner from the deck

[@colw07]

@@Everydayfishing thanks man! I actually figured it out after about 2 hours. I took my plastic fish tape and duct taped a really powerful small magnet and ran that from the battery compartment towards the corner, and used another really powerful magnet to drag the fish tape to the corner. I was afraid I would lose a magnet in the hull but it worked out perfectly. once I tried the magnet it took about 30 seconds to get the job done. crazy

[@Everydayfishing]

@@colw07 Awesome! That was smart… here I am just ramming it through, haha. Glad you got it going

[@Bkkelley11]

Did you have to do anything with the fuse? I got both sides hooked up, did the port side first, cut them on worked great, installed starboard side today cut them on, came on for a second then blew the fuse

[@Everydayfishing]

No I didn’t have to mess with the fuse. Maybe double check you don’t have any wires exposed touching something? LEDs shouldn’t pull more than 3A but I suppose you could go to a 5A fuse if you’re confident in your wiring job

[@Bkkelley11]

@@Everydayfishing ok thank you

[@JT_70]

@@Bkkelley11 I had to use a 5 amp fuse on my longer LED runs.

[@Bkkelley11]

@@JT_70 thanks my friend, I forgot to update on here that is exactly what I did. 5amp works great hasn’t cut off once

[@Bkkelley11]

So it’s 1 power source running to both LED strips and then another power source spliced into the original power source to the terminals?

[@Everydayfishing]

I have the port string of lights and the starboard string of lights spliced into one wire (inside battery compartment), then that one wire goes to the power terminal behind the dash. I used the terminal controlled by my existing light switch - it had an open slot. Hope that helps!

[@Bkkelley11]

@@Everydayfishing thanks! I just bought a 198p and am going to do the same thing. I ran one marine grade power supply to both openings through the battery compartment, the lights are in order so as soon as they come in I’ll run port and starboard lights to those power supplies, then feed another power supply from the console, connect to the terminals on the circuit board and run it back to the battery compartment and tap into the original power supply. Sound right?

[@Everydayfishing]

@@Bkkelley11 yeah sounds like a good plan! The 198p is a great boat. Fishing the wire from the back to the console is the hardest part but sounds like you are off to a good start

[@Bkkelley11]

@@Everydayfishing thanks a ton for your help

[@Outdoor_Don]

Those are not outdoors?