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Lookin into LED's, need advice

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KHardenJ

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Alright guys help me out. I'm wanting some LED's to go on my new boat, need help on picking em though.
First off, I need to know my color choice...the water I fish is usually clear(10ft+ visibility) and then some stained/kinda clear(~6ft visibility). What color is gonna be best? The cool white? The warm white?
I've only fished over halos and they worked fine as far as color goes.

Next up is Wattage. Lookin to go with 50w from a vendor on here, but I was wondering of anyone has tried the 100w lights yet???? I'm guessing they would just throw out twice as much light as a 50w, but again I'm unsure.
These are gonna be run on a quiet 1200w genny, so power consumption is no problem. I'll be running 6 at most(for now) since my deck is only 4ft long and 7ft wide.

They will be mounted to a rail about knee high.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and pics are always great if you got em!!!
 
#2 · (Edited)
One of the first to make the jump to LED. Are (8)120 volt 50 watt cool white. I like cool white due to fact colors look like daylite. Logs are brown, lily pads are green,coke cans are red etc...true colors fish stand out good. Carp are gold and gar silver. Not all yellow tinted. This video was with them. We fish same kind of water basically clear to moderate dirty but not the 10 ft visability. http://bow.fishingcountry.com/forum...rums/showthread.php?22670-Bowfishing-Delmarva-Gar-2012-with-the-New-50watt-LEDS The 100's and 150 watt I have seen are just multiple 50 watt arrays mounted in a housing
 
#4 · (Edited)
garpwacker said:
One of the first to make the jump to LED. Are (8)120 volt 50 watt cool white. I like cool white due to fact colors look like daylite. Logs are brown, lily pads are green,coke cans are red etc...true colors fish stand out good. Carp are gold and gar silver. Not all yellow tinted. This video was with them. We fish same kind of water basically clear to moderate dirty but not the 10 ft visability. http://bow.fishingcountry.com/forum...rums/showthread.php?22670-Bowfishing-Delmarva-Gar-2012-with-the-New-50watt-LEDS The 100's and 150 watt I have seen are just multiple 50 watt arrays mounted in a housing
Click to expand...
One of the first?Didnt you just get em in May?

The first to Hit here were the 27 watts,KS Killer was the first followed by Jeffrm,and they got dogpiled how bad LEDS were.I am still running 27's and they suit my needs,in clear water,I can see deeper than I can shoot,they may not work for you?Why are you wanting LEDs and run a Genny?
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
I want to keep my small genny, it's very very quiet, and if I get LED's I still have the option of runnin silent if I want to.
Plus I don't have to deal with bulbs, my buddy has HPS and MH mixed and he keeps several spare bulbs at all times.

Plus I like the fact that LED's don't have to warm up, if I need to flash my lights real quick then I can.
 
#6 ·
KHardenJ said:
I want to keep my small genny, it's very very quiet, and if I get LED's I still have the option of runnin silent if I want to.
Plus I don't have to deal with bulbs, my buddy has HPS and MH mixed and he keeps several spare bulbs at all times.

Plus I like the fact that LED's don't have to warm up, if I need to flash my lights real quick then I can.
Click to expand...
:tu: get ya a converter too,and the sky is the limit to your time on the water.
 
#7 ·
kuger said:
One of the first?Didnt you just get em in May?

The first to Hit here were the 27 watts,KS Killer was the first followed by Jeffrm,and they got dogpiled how bad LEDS were.I am still running 27's and they suit my needs,in clear water,I can see deeper than I can shoot,they may not work for you?Why are you wanting LEDs and run a Genny?
Click to expand...
Kuger you are right, I'm not arguing with you I know when Jeffrm did the big 27 watt led order and took the plunge into "affordable" led's, and when others were running the 27 watters including the ******* aim low boat, local Joe "Timberspirit" had 2;7's on his boat with reviews and picks. I was looking at them and not convinced at the time and posted the side by side comparison of 50 watt vs 500 watt halo on 3/1 of this year when we got our 50 watt led's. I wasn't the first but was "one" of the first to rig a boat with the then new and affordable 50 watters and post up re;view or pictures of our lite set up. Actually Dan for the Bowfisher magazine and Capt. Jack with Night Ventures charters had the 50 watt Lektrons and was using their expensive ones for almost a year or more before the cheaper chinese ones came available and changed our decision to go with them. As far as running 120 volt and gennie, we run converters for troller so have gennie anyway, led's amp draw so low that freed up room for converters with gennie
 
#8 · (Edited)
kuger said:
One of the first?Didnt you just get em in May?

The first to Hit here were the 27 watts,KS Killer was the first followed by Jeffrm,and they got dogpiled how bad LEDS were.I am still running 27's and they suit my needs,in clear water,I can see deeper than I can shoot,they may not work for you?Why are you wanting LEDs and run a Genny?
Click to expand...
Kuger you are right, I'm not arguing with you I know when Jeffrm did the big 27 watt led order and took the plunge into "affordable" led's, and when others were running the 27 watters including the ******* aim low boat, local Joe "Timberspirit" had 27's on his boat with reviews and picks. I was looking at them and not convinced at the time and posted the side by side comparison of 50 watt vs 500 watt halo on 3/1 of this year when we got our 50 watt led's. I wasn't the first but was "one" of the first to rig a boat with the then new and affordable 50 watters and post up review or pictures of our lite set up. Actually Dan for the Bowfisher magazine and Capt. Jack with Night Ventures charters had the 50 watt Lektrons and was using their expensive ones for almost a year or more before the cheaper chinese ones came available and changed our decision to go with them. As far as running 120 volt and gennie, we run converters for troller so have gennie anyway, led's amp draw so low that freed up room for converters with gennie
 
#9 ·
garpwacker said:
Kuger you are right, I'm not arguing with you I know when Jeffrm did the big 27 watt led order and took the plunge into "affordable" led's, and when others were running the 27 watters including the ******* aim low boat, local Joe "Timberspirit" had 27's on his boat with reviews and picks. I was looking at them and not convinced at the time and posted the side by side comparison of 50 watt vs 500 watt halo on 3/1 of this year when we got our 50 watt led's. I wasn't the first but was "one" of the first to rig a boat with the then new and affordable 50 watters and post up review or pictures of our lite set up. Actually Dan for the Bowfisher magazine and Capt. Jack with Night Ventures charters had the 50 watt Lektrons and was using their expensive ones for almost a year or more before the cheaper chinese ones came available and changed our decision to go with them. As far as running 120 volt and gennie, we run converters for troller so have gennie anyway, led's amp draw so low that freed up room for converters with gennie
Click to expand...
:tu:
 
#11 ·
KHardenJ said:
So seems like the best thing to do is get 12v LED's, and then get a converter and batteries.
Run everything silent if I need/want to, then start the genny when the batteries get low.
Click to expand...
Thats what I do,and cant imagine doing it any other way.That 5 hours of silence is golden!!!!
 
Discussion starter · #13 ·
Well my boat is 20ft long, and with the genny at the back you can barely hear it running, at 56dB it's quiet.
Even under load it's quiet.
Looks like I gotta spend some more money lol need a couple batteries now.

Anybody know how many deep cycle batteries I'll need, or what amp hour rating I need?? 6 50w LED's is what I'll run. Probably no more than 3hrs silent.
 
#16 ·
KHardenJ said:
Well my boat is 20ft long, and with the genny at the back you can barely hear it running, at 56dB it's quiet.
Even under load it's quiet.
Looks like I gotta spend some more money lol need a couple batteries now.

Anybody know how many deep cycle batteries I'll need, or what amp hour rating I need?? 6 50w LED's is what I'll run. Probably no more than 3hrs silent.
Click to expand...
Not good with the amp hour thing, but when I had asked before I remember I was told to run 1 Deep cycle battery per 6 LED's (27 watts), so you will prolly need to run 2 Deep cycles hooked up in parelell. Old Bald Guy has a chart on one of his posts that I referred to multiple times. Good luck! :tu:
 
#18 ·
CamoCarpKiller said:
Not good with the amp hour thing, but when I had asked before I remember I was told to run 1 Deep cycle battery per 6 LED's (27 watts), so you will prolly need to run 2 Deep cycles hooked up in parelell. Old Bald Guy has a chart on one of his posts that I referred to multiple times. Good luck! :tu:
Click to expand...
no this is not true, take advice from people who have leds and still run them. it depends on what battery and amp/hour that battery has. mine is 160 amp/min and i run 12 27s and 16 horse electric start fan 5+ hours on one battery.

learn something camocarpkiller- here is how you can calculate what battery you need:

The lights pull around 1.8 amps each and you can drain your battery by at least 80% without compromising output or damaging your battery. So the formula to compute your available light time would be Battery rated Amp Hours X 80% divided by number of lights per battery X 1.8 amps
Using the 125 amp hour WalMart battery and your 10 lights.............. (125 X .80) / (10 X 1.8) = 5.56 hours
 
Discussion starter · #19 ·
But I should be perfectly fine running one 55amp converter, and one battery. Thinkin about just running 4 lights for now, to make sure I like them.
So 4 50w LED's and my 55lb thrust minn kota.
Plus a starting battery for my 90hp merc.
 
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