Installed two spreaders on t-top

I installed two Wave One spreaders over the weekend. I used 16/2 marine wire in white sheathing and wired them up to my 4th accessory switch, which was empty. I was skeptical of being able to successfully snake the wires through the t-top so I just zip tied the wire against the t-top tubing. I'm all about doing things proper and not zip tying things for the sake of being lazy, but, with the white sheathed wire for the runs against the white tubing, you don't really notice it. I may just leave it that way. I personally don't need to remove my t-top for storage so I did not add in clip/harness thingy. I used a 3A inline fuse. The hardware included with the lights was not long enough to go through the tubing so a hardware store run was needed.

The lights are great. Super bright. When setting the lights up during the daytime I was a little worried that the beam angle wasn't wide enough, but, once it got dark I was pleasantly surprised. The beam is wide enough that the entire boat is covered, and, being that the inside of the boat is white the light bounces around into every nook and cranny. It was a nice surprise to see that even the console was illuminated despite the lights being pointed to the bow and swim deck! Night photos can be deceiving but in this case I would say the lights are as bright as they seem in the photos. They light up white or red. Flipping the switch repeatedly cycles through the two colors. I wanted red lights so that night vision wouldn't be disrupted. We like to crab early AM and it's dark while we're getting prepped and out on the water. These lights will also be super handy for rinsing the boat off when we get back home after dark. I'd also like to try some night fishing. No more dealing with a flashlight/headlamp!

I also took this time to finally wire up the LEDs on my Kicker speakers. Looks pretty neat with the blue speakers under the red light.

Just wanted to share!

That’s dope!

What’s the supplied bolt long enough to go all the way through the tube?

FSH 210 Sport said:

That’s dope!

What’s the supplied bolt long enough to go all the way through the tube?

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Thanks! I'm super happy with it. It's exactly what I wanted.

Good question, I'll add this info into the post. No, the bolt was not long enough. I grabbed some longer stainless bolts from Home Depot along with flat washers and nuts with nylon inserts (used nuts with nylon inserts in place of lock washers).

Tylenator said:

Thanks! I'm super happy with it. It's exactly what I wanted.

Good question, I'll add this info into the post. No, the bolt was not long enough. I grabbed some longer stainless bolts from Home Depot along with flat washers and nuts with nylon inserts (used nuts with nylon inserts in place of lock washers).

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Commonly referred to as nylock nuts.

Nice lights. I am looking to add some green LED strip lighting to the tubing on my t-top and I need some help with an idea for the switching.

I would like to replace my courtesy lights switch with one that would switch from "off" to "1-on" and run courtesy lights only then to "2-on" and run both courtesy lights and new t-top LED's concurrently.

Can I do this? What do I need?

Bubba7827 said:

Nice lights. I am looking to add some green LED strip lighting to the tubing on my t-top and I need some help with an idea for the switching.

I would like to replace my courtesy lights switch with one that would switch from "off" to "1-on" and run courtesy lights only then to "2-on" and run both courtesy lights and new t-top LED's concurrently.

Can I do this? What do I need?

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Yes, you can do this. Assuming your boat is set up like mine, that's exactly how our nav/anchor lights are wired. It's a 3 way rocker switch where "Up position" is anchor light only, "middle position" is no lights, and "bottom position" is anchor light and nav lights... though I might have it reversed where up is actually the combo position of the switch, but either way, that's not the point. The point is yes, you can do it.

You would need to get a 3 way rocker switch to replace your current courtesy light switch. Look at the connections on the back of your anchor/nav switch to gain an understanding of how its wired, and replicate that. The gist of it is, you would run your courtesy lights to both of the switch's "on" positions but only run the new t-top lights to one of the switch positions. It would look something like this (the schematic on the right).

Thanks for the help!

Bubba7827 said:

Thanks for the help!

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You're welcome. I'm no electrician by any means but let me know if you have any other questions.

Bubba7827 said:

Thanks for the help!

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Check out New Wire Marine for the rocker switch you need.