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LED Light Tower Build Malibu VLX Tower


Air Tahoe

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I thought I'd share my latest upgrade. We haven't been happy with the halogen light tower that came with the boat since day one. The halogen are not very bright, and very omni directional focus with light scattering everywhere. But the bar and fit/finish are good. We use them mostly for docking at night or pulling into the marinas. 

I replaced the front two lights with 18 watt LED spotlights that are much more focused. I replaced the rear facing lights with a 20" 126watt LED bar that has both focus and broad beam clusters. The LEDs have come a long way recently and they are very affordable now, very bright, less power draw and dimmable. 

The entire light bar is separated front and back via switches and is powered through a remote dimmer switch. So at the end of the night you can put the cover on with the lights ON, then walk away and hit the remote to kill the lights from 100 ft. away. The power draw when the remote on standby is minimal according to the manual's specs. I added a 12v power port up top for future upgrades and a usb outlet to power a Gopro for extended periods of time when training people and needing to review footage. 

So the entire system is only around 144 watts of power, vs. the halogen which were 330 watts. 

You can also dim the lights perfectly down to nearly off and it makes for a cool atmosphere and reference light when anchored. I haven't used them on the water yet, but they are twice as bright as the 55watt halogen's were. 

 

Old Sky Lights Bar:

IMG_5044_zpskapypdws.jpg

IMG_4880_zpspsbqu4mm.jpg

 

New: 

IMG_5267_zpsimvmsj2y.jpg

IMG_5266_zps5bx7wfd0.jpg

41pSloVa2aL.jpg

 

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