I am in the process of tearing my boat apart and re-wiring it before duck season. I pulled my light bar off to re-paint it and decided to do a quick writeup on how I built it in case anyone wanted to build their own. Last year I wanted to mount lights to the front of my boat, but was having a hard time figuring out how and where I wanted them mounted so they were inside the gunnels but still out of the way. I wanted something that looked clean and hid the wires, but was having a hard time finding a suitable mounting bar until I walked past a shower grab bar in Home Depot. They are designed for wet environments, mount flush, and are a clean tubular design. Best of all, they come in various lengths for different size boats. I chose a 36" for mine which allowed enough room on the sides to mount my trolling motor and my front depth finder. While it is off, I am looking at the options of running LED bulbs or HID bulbs in the housings. The current 55w per light x 4 is a huge draw on my batteries if I am running all 4 at once. Going to HID's will only drop the draw by 80 watts but will be a brighter option than going with LED's which will drop the entire draw to around 30-40 watts but wont provide as much light. During the summer we run the rivers at night cat fishing, so forward lighting while running is crucial for avoiding obstacles.
From there, I picked up some one hole conduit hangars that fit snugly onto the bar. (My shower bar was 1 1/2" so I used 1 1/2" hanger strap)
I spent some time laying out where I wanted lights to go, and in the end I was able to fit 4 55w offroad lights and my navigation light. Once I had decided where the straps were going to go, I drilled and riveted them on in 3 places for each strap. Each strap has the hole facing up for light bracket mounting. (Shown with light bracket already mounted)
I drilled a hole directly under my nav. light, so the wire could be run directly down into the bar, but the swamp lights required a hole for each of the light's wiring.
And once all the lights are mounted, all the wiring can be run through the bar and then through a hole in the deck.
The final install
From there, I picked up some one hole conduit hangars that fit snugly onto the bar. (My shower bar was 1 1/2" so I used 1 1/2" hanger strap)
I spent some time laying out where I wanted lights to go, and in the end I was able to fit 4 55w offroad lights and my navigation light. Once I had decided where the straps were going to go, I drilled and riveted them on in 3 places for each strap. Each strap has the hole facing up for light bracket mounting. (Shown with light bracket already mounted)
I drilled a hole directly under my nav. light, so the wire could be run directly down into the bar, but the swamp lights required a hole for each of the light's wiring.
And once all the lights are mounted, all the wiring can be run through the bar and then through a hole in the deck.
The final install
