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Tower lights for 2018 21VLX


604wakesurf

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Would like to add some forward and rear facing tower lights to my boat. Couple questions for those that may have some info. 

Where is a good place to buy lights and mounts for the G3.5 tower online  

It also doesn’t look like the tower is pre wired for the lights. I would like to use the touch screen to control the lights. Does any one know if I can do that and where would the outputs be located?  

Ot if someone has seen a DYI on this could you post the link. I’ve had zero luck searching. 

Thanks. 

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30 minutes ago, 18vlxguy said:

Would like to add some forward and rear facing tower lights to my boat. Couple questions for those that may have some info. 

Where is a good place to buy lights and mounts for the G3.5 tower online  

It also doesn’t look like the tower is pre wired for the lights. I would like to use the touch screen to control the lights. Does any one know if I can do that and where would the outputs be located?  

Ot if someone has seen a DYI on this could you post the link. I’ve had zero luck searching. 

Thanks. 

If you want to add forward and front lights, you would probably want to add those to the bow (docking lights) and transom lights.  If you tie lights into the wires you currently have on the tower, you won't have independent control of them.  The touch screen has individual controls for docking lights and transom lights.

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27 minutes ago, Hemmy said:

If you want to add forward and front lights, you would probably want to add those to the bow (docking lights) and transom lights.  If you tie lights into the wires you currently have on the tower, you won't have independent control of them.  The touch screen has individual controls for docking lights and transom lights.

On the touch screen it has all the functions to turn front on, rear on or both on the tower. It also has docking lights etc... on there too.  Shouldn’t that work? 

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Well I answered some of my own questions

Tower is not wired but I found the plug for tower lights under the dash. It doesn't have any out put though. The fuse/relay panel is in such a crappy position it is literally impossible to see or service. Not sure why Malibu would put that there??

Going to hopefully get some answers when I go to the dealer tomorrow morning and talk to their mechanic 

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The “Tower Lights” plug under the dash is the grounds for the lights. You get power off the circuit panel. You’ll need to turn on the tower light icons in the settings screen so they will display on the lighting screen. The tower light plug is two ground wires. One for front and the other for rear. The icons are the switch to complete the circuit by grounding the circuit for front or rear. 

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2 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

The “Tower Lights” plug under the dash is the grounds for the lights. You get power off the circuit panel. You’ll need to turn on the tower light icons in the settings screen so they will display on the lighting screen. The tower light plug has two ground wires. One for front and the other for rear. 

Ah grounds. So when you say turn on the icon on the setting display how do you do that?

When I first power on my boat the screen that shows up has the lighting on the touch screen. I can turn off and on the interior lights from there etc..

When I push the screen for the tower lights it lights up the tower front lights and then push it one more time it lights the rear lights then one more time and it lights up both. Is there something I need to turn on still?

also is that plug that is under the helm already fused and have a relay? I see there is a resettable breaker under the throttle already.

Thanks for the reply

 

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If you have the icons on your lighting screen already you are good there. 

There’s a circuit breaker for Tower Lights. You’ll get you power from the back of that breaker. 

There is no wiring for tower lighting other than the plug under the dash. Your hot wire goes to the circuit breaker. Your ground wire goes to the tower light plug. 

Any big amperage lighting you add possibly could need a relay. I don’t know what you’re adding for lights so I can’t (won’t) answer that question. 

My suggestion if you don’t understand how to hook up the lights is to pay a pro to do it. When you are adding things like this and you don’t understand what you’re doing, you can damage something and if you have any warranty, Malibu may not honor it. 

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10 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

If you have the icons on your lighting screen already you are good there. 

There’s a circuit breaker for Tower Lights. You’ll get you power from the back of that breaker. 

There is no wiring for tower lighting other than the plug under the dash. Your hot wire goes to the circuit breaker. Your ground wire goes to the tower light plug. 

Any big amperage lighting you add possibly could need a relay. I don’t know what you’re adding for lights so I can’t (won’t) answer that question. 

My suggestion if you don’t understand how to hook up the lights is to pay a pro to do it. When you are adding things like this and you don’t understand what you’re doing, you can damage something and if you have any warranty, Malibu may not honor it. 

I'm good now. When I was checking for switched power I only looked for a switched positive. I'll just be putting in small LED lights, low amps. But wiring in a relay is no big deal. With your post it all makes sense now. Hopefully being a mechanic for 30 years I should have no problem hooking these up. HAHAH

Thanks

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16 hours ago, 18vlxguy said:

I'm good now. When I was checking for switched power I only looked for a switched positive. I'll just be putting in small LED lights, low amps. But wiring in a relay is no big deal. With your post it all makes sense now. Hopefully being a mechanic for 30 years I should have no problem hooking these up. HAHAH

Thanks

I'm looking to add front/rear tower lights to mine as well. I have the icon on my touch screen but no lights, and it's not wired for lights, that I can tell. 

It would be awesome if you took some pics and wrote up procedure on how you did this to help out other fellow Malibu owners :rockon::thumbup:

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I did the job yesterday. Not too bad. I did take some pics but don't know how to post them. Took about 3hrs start to finished. Would have been faster if I didn't have to modify the LED light mounts and cut down some small 1/2" bolts.

But pretty straight forward after reading @Ronnie advice.

You need some help when fishing the wires from the side of the helm to the bottom of tower as well as through the tower. Extra eyes helps a lot. I had my 12 year old help.

@MalibuRyan you should just open the helm bottom covered and remove the 6 screws from the resettable breakers panel. I think everything will make sense once you see that. 

Good luck!!

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Decided to become a supporter to show Ryan some pics

IMG_5163.jpg.0849feaf90d8a450b38c274e491ed5bd.jpg

You can see the factory weather pack female plug and I wired in the male side. The white wire isn't connected here but that is the power wire coming from the resettable breaker panel

IMG_5164.jpg.ff09314448c679def4a4bf2456555253.jpg 

You can see the red wire hooked up here in the breaker panel. connect that to the whit wire in you 3 wire loom.

.IMG_5165.jpg.ad91e16d8ef7c06d41699c44ea8ca3db.jpg

Fish your wires through the side of the boat. You can get access above cup holders and under the helm once the bottom cover is removed.

IMG_5166.jpg.b41631e6cd3eadbef6176ebbcf9c8d99.jpg  

Here is it with the wires pulled through the starboard side coming through the tower. Remove the bottom plated you can hide all your connections in there. If you have a lower speaker you'll have to remove that to gain access. To do that you need to take the speaker out of the housing to unbolt it. Through the same hole you'll need to fish the wire to the port side hole in the tower. Remember it is a switched ground.

IMG_5167.jpg.e83473dda92d16e8b2778bff7fa5cd0c.jpg

Terrabale finished pic but that's it all done and cleaned up. 

 

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On 6/7/2019 at 4:51 PM, 18vlxguy said:

Decided to become a supporter to show Ryan some pics

IMG_5163.jpg.0849feaf90d8a450b38c274e491ed5bd.jpg

You can see the factory weather pack female plug and I wired in the male side. The white wire isn't connected here but that is the power wire coming from the resettable breaker panel

IMG_5164.jpg.ff09314448c679def4a4bf2456555253.jpg 

You can see the red wire hooked up here in the breaker panel. connect that to the whit wire in you 3 wire loom.

.IMG_5165.jpg.ad91e16d8ef7c06d41699c44ea8ca3db.jpg

Fish your wires through the side of the boat. You can get access above cup holders and under the helm once the bottom cover is removed.

IMG_5166.jpg.b41631e6cd3eadbef6176ebbcf9c8d99.jpg  

Here is it with the wires pulled through the starboard side coming through the tower. Remove the bottom plated you can hide all your connections in there. If you have a lower speaker you'll have to remove that to gain access. To do that you need to take the speaker out of the housing to unbolt it. Through the same hole you'll need to fish the wire to the port side hole in the tower. Remember it is a switched ground.

IMG_5167.jpg.e83473dda92d16e8b2778bff7fa5cd0c.jpg

Terrabale finished pic but that's it all done and cleaned up. 

 

Looks great! Thank you for sharing the pics!

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