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21 MLX / VLX tower lights


Thild

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Has anyone installed tower lights on the 21 MLX? I've looked around the boat and I cannot find any wires from the factory that are labeled as tower lights. I checked the circuit panel and there is no wire coming from the fuse labeled tower lights.

So my question is:

1. Has anyone wired from the fuse panel and can you confirm if it works from the Malibu control panel.

2. What are your thoughts on wiring the lights to the anchor light? (I'm only adding forward facing lights)

Thanks for any help!

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7 hours ago, Thild said:

2. What are your thoughts on wiring the lights to the anchor light? (I'm only adding forward facing lights)

A forward facing spot light would technically not be in compliant with nav lighting regs. Further, lets say you are anchored up and dont want all that light that you would get from those spots. Heck, there are times when the 360* white is too much, but its required. Place your on their own switched source. 

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3 hours ago, formulaben said:

What year is your model?

2018 MLX

 

1 hour ago, MLA said:

A forward facing spot light would technically not be in compliant with nav lighting regs. Further, lets say you are anchored up and dont want all that light that you would get from those spots. Heck, there are times when the 360* white is too much, but its required. Place your on their own switched source. 

Thank you, great point. Any idea if it is pre-wired for forward facing tower lights?

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This is a basic overview of how I have wired tower lights and control them from the 7 inch screen.

Run appropriately sized power and ground wires, for the amp draw of the lights you are using and the circuit length, up the tower to the lights and then to the under helm area.  Connect the ground wire to the grounding distribution block under the helm, get a relay and connect the power wire to the 87 relay post.  Connect an appropriately sized fused wire from the main power connection post at the helm power module and connect it to the relay 30 post.  Connect a jumper wire from the relay 30 post to the relay 86 post.  Connect one of the two wires from the boat harness plug labeled "tower lights" under the helm to the relay 85 post (one wire on the connector is for forward lights, one is for rear lights).  Use the 7 inch screen settings menu to turn on the tower light option.

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10 hours ago, Thild said:

Thank you, great point. Any idea if it is pre-wired for forward facing tower lights?

If you add docking lights, those are forward facing and you can definitely control those from the touchscreen.  I had my dealer add the docking lights to my 17 VLX so I am not sure if they are pre-wired, but it was well worth it to have them added.

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3 hours ago, Hemmy said:

If you add docking lights, those are forward facing and you can definitely control those from the touchscreen.  I had my dealer add the docking lights to my 17 VLX so I am not sure if they are pre-wired, but it was well worth it to have them added.

I just added forward facing docking lights to my 18LSV this past weekend.  Everything is prewired, which makes the install super simple.  Took about 45 min from start to finish.  

I’m not sure if the tower is pre wired, but I’m pretty sure there should be pigtails labels “Tower Lights” under the helm somewhere as @csleaver stated.  Just wire them up to those, and turn on the tower light option in the setting section of the 7inch screen and you are golden. 

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FWIW, my last 3 boats did not come with the tower wired when no factory tower speaker/lights were ordered. 

Factory lights go on the speaker shelves and are $$$. If you go Non Factory lights, you'll have to find lights and mounts to work with your application.

There is a "Tower Lights" plug under the helm. This is the negative side of the circuit. The positive side can hook up at the breaker panel on a breaker for the lights, depending on how much current your lights draw, you do not want to overload that breaker. That negative helm plug is controlled by the Forward or Rear Tower Light icon on the 7" screen. This plug is a two position plug, one side is Forward, the other side is Rear. If you didn't have factory lights, you'll have to enable the icons in the Settings screen.

After all of this, those lights are essentially useless. The lights do not do anything unless they are bouncing off an object. Otherwise they are just shining out to nothing. 

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There should be plugs on all Malibu/Axis harnesses for optional stuff(underwater lights, tower lights, docking lights). They only make one harness(one for Malibu, one for Axis), only difference being length on what I think they call break out harness B that run from the helm back. It wouldnt make sense to make harness based on every option that may or may not be on a boat. Even on a completely base boat the plugs for the options are there. We have never encountered a boat where they werent. At least from 2015 and up, older boats will be different. We were even told by Malibu that the rear camera input would not be on a 21 VLX harness, but it is.

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Thank you all so mich for the help! I really appreciate! @Ronnie that info was more or less what I was after. I’m mainly looking for some docking lights. My boat doesn’t have any forward facing lights so when I’m coming in late I have no way of seeing.

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10 hours ago, Ronnie said:

This plug is a two position plug, one side is Forward, the other side is Rear.

Regarding this part. Is it obvious under the helm which is forward and which is rear?

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1 hour ago, Thild said:

Thank you all so mich for the help! I really appreciate! @Ronnie that info was more or less what I was after. I’m mainly looking for some docking lights. My boat doesn’t have any forward facing lights so when I’m coming in late I have no way of seeing.

Docking lights might be better for you, not as much reflection in the cabin area. Not sure the 21 has the place in the hull for the lights though. A hand held spot light would be a lot easier.

1 hour ago, Thild said:

Regarding this part. Is it obvious under the helm which is forward and which is rear?

No, you'll have to test each side of the plug.

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Anyone have photos they could share of how their tower lights turned out?  I looking to add lights to my 2018 VLX tower.  I want to improve the lighting to help at night when cleaning out the boat or need to find something.  

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