Trailer Updates
Submersible lights
One of the things I have been meaning to do for ages is put some submersible lights on my boat trailer. Having seen them in use on some of my friends boats I had already made the decision to put them on, but the hassle of fitting and making some brackets for them have meant that I kept putting it off. Then at the end of last season I kept having trouble with my light board, even though it was an LED one! For no discernible reason occasionally one of the lights would stop working, usually first thing in the morning when I was itching to go out! The third time it happened as I was scrambling around on my hands and knees in the cold morning air I had an epiphany and I decided to bite the bullet and order some submersible ones and all the auxiliary kit that that entailed with the intention of fitting them in the summer when it was warmer.
The kit I got was part of the G2 system which is from LED Autolamps. It is basically a push fit waterproof cabling for your trailer which terminates in two waterproof LED light sets.
There are three cables that you need; the first is the cable with the 5 pin plug on it to connect to your vehicle:
This then plugs into what is called a “goose neck cable”, which connects the first cable from the car to the first light set:
The third cable is a light to light connecter which – as the name suggests – connects both lights units together.
The cables come with a silicone type gel inside them and a the connectors have a water tight lock on them and you basically push them together to form a watertight seal, to make sure it was doubly water tight I put some heat shrink tubing over it as well.
One of the light unit I purchased came with a number plate light, the connectors for this attach to the back of the light unit to power it.
With all the parts for the lights and cables in hand, I then had to fit them to the trailer. In order to fit them on to the trailer I made a couple of brackets with some 3mm aluminium sheet and some 40mm square section to mount them on to. I then fixed the required lights and reflectors on these before fixing them to the trailer using U-bolts.
The brackets with the lights fitted were secured at the back of the trailer and slightly to the side so the boat can come off and on easily without clipping them so no more need to keep disconnecting a light board every time I wish to launch.
I have since launched a couple of times with the set up and have had no issues, what did surprise me was how quickly I could launch with this set up. Now I know it takes very little time to unhook a trailer board, but it’s a pain in the bum and it’s something I don’t miss doing one little bit.
