# Night fishing batteries



## Texas Prowler (Dec 28, 2015)

Anyone fish at night? Out so what battery do you use for lights or accessories?

Sent from the dust in front of you!


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## RiverBottomOutdoors (Dec 29, 2015)

I just run my stuff off of my cranking battery. I have 3 batteries in my boat...cranking and two for 24V trolling motor.


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## BigTerp (Dec 29, 2015)

I do the same as above. All of my lights, besides my driving lights, are led and hooked up to the cranking battery. Very little draw and little worry of running the cranking battery dead. My TM battery powers the TM, HID driving lights, sonar and secondary bilge pump. Everything else is on the cranking battery.

Jonah - how are you getting your pole ends and lines to glow like that?


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## RiverBottomOutdoors (Dec 29, 2015)

BigTerp said:


> Jonah - how are you getting your pole ends and lines to glow like that?



Blacklights

I have a Nucli-eye Atom UV mounted starboard and port on the outside of my transom with a switch on my panel. Keeps the light from washing into the boat. Also flo green line. I love being up river away from civilization with nothing on but the blacklights.


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## BigTerp (Dec 29, 2015)

Nice!!


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## Texas Prowler (Dec 29, 2015)

Yea man that's real nice! I guess my main concern is driving lights I've found these https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/marine-lights/4-and-one-half-round-18w-heavy-duty-high-powered-led-work-light/1222/#/tab/Specifications
They draw very little power and put out a good bit of lumens. I'm open to other suggestions. Thanks guys.

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## RiverBottomOutdoors (Dec 29, 2015)

I would just run the LEDs off of the 12V cranking battery. Does your motor have an alternator?


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## Texas Prowler (Dec 29, 2015)

The motor has a stator charging system that puts out 10 amps. Probably just enough to keep the battery changed to run the engine. Sounds like a good idea. 

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## BigTerp (Dec 29, 2015)

Texas Prowler said:


> Yea man that's real nice! I guess my main concern is driving lights I've found these https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/marine-lights/4-and-one-half-round-18w-heavy-duty-high-powered-led-work-light/1222/#/tab/Specifications
> They draw very little power and put out a good bit of lumens. I'm open to other suggestions. Thanks guys.
> 
> Sent from the dust in front of you!



If I did it over again I would probably go with an LED light bar for my driving lights. Compared to when I did my HID conversion, they have REALLY come down in price. Would be lower profile and less amp draw. But I really have no complaints with my HID's though. I have 4 mounted on my bow, 2 Euro beams (combo spot/flood) and 2 flood beams. I can run them independently in groups of 2. They put out 3200 lumens each at 3.5 amps per light. That's about 13,000 lumens at 14 amps. The nice thing having 4 individual lights is the adjustability of them. Depending on the load in my boat I can adjust them as necessary. I also aim them at our hunting spot to set decoys and flip them around when backing down the boat ramp to light the way. I've yet to run my group 27 battery dead yet running them. The most I've ran them in one outing is probably 2 hours or so.


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## Texas Prowler (Dec 29, 2015)

Wow those are bright. Thats kind of what I'm looking for. 

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## BigTerp (Dec 29, 2015)

Texas Prowler said:


> Wow those are bright. Thats kind of what I'm looking for.
> 
> Sent from the dust in front of you!



They are. I'm sure you can get LED's with just as many, if not more, lumens though. These are a more DIY approach, which i enjoy doing. LED's would be more plug and play. With these I bought halogen housings and converted them to HID by buying the ballasts and bulbs. I think I have about $150 wrapped up in everything including wiring and relays.


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## Texas Prowler (Dec 29, 2015)

DIY is my middle name I'm looking for bright lights that won't kill a group 27or 34 battery while out for a night maybe 4hrs of use[emoji6] 

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## BigTerp (Dec 29, 2015)

If you're interested, below is the forum post where I found the mod. I didn't have to do any of the cutting of the housing on the 4 that I did though. The ballast fit fine inside the light housing without issue. I don't remember the specifics of the kelvin rating of the bulbs I got or anything, but can dig up that info. if you want.

https://www.mudmotortalk.com/mmt_v2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12884


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## Texas Prowler (Dec 29, 2015)

Yea thanks! I'll check that out.

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## Capt1972 (Dec 29, 2015)

Texas Prowler said:


> Yea man that's real nice! I guess my main concern is driving lights I've found these https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/marine-lights/4-and-one-half-round-18w-heavy-duty-high-powered-led-work-light/1222/#/tab/Specifications
> They draw very little power and put out a good bit of lumens. I'm open to other suggestions. Thanks guys.
> 
> Sent from the dust in front of you!






https://www.amazon.com/TMH-Power-Li..._UL160_SR160,160_&refRID=0CQ02WEXAKX24BKJKSPR


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## Texas Prowler (Dec 29, 2015)

Capt1972 said:


> Texas Prowler said:
> 
> 
> > Yea man that's real nice! I guess my main concern is driving lights I've found these https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/marine-lights/4-and-one-half-round-18w-heavy-duty-high-powered-led-work-light/1222/#/tab/Specifications
> ...


This has some great reviews with pictures. It seems to really put out some serious light. 

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## BigTerp (Dec 30, 2015)

Texas Prowler said:


> Capt1972 said:
> 
> 
> > Texas Prowler said:
> ...



That looks like a great deal!! You can never go wrong with Amazon reviews either.


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## Texas Prowler (Dec 30, 2015)

Yea it does sound like a good deal. I'll put those on my list.

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## Capt1972 (Jan 1, 2016)

Texas Prowler said:


> Yea it does sound like a good deal. I'll put those on my list.
> 
> Sent from the dust in front of you!


got one on my truck, its amazing! less than 5 amps if I remember right.


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## Texas Prowler (Jan 12, 2016)

That's really impressive! Bright and energy efficient. Sounds like the way to go.

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## BigTerp (Jan 13, 2016)

I've been having a bit of trouble with two of my HID's. Thinking it's either the ballast or ignitor causing problems. Was about to purchase 2 new ballasts and then remembered the discussion in this thread. For just a little more than I would have paid for 2 new ballasts I ordered this LED light bar from Amazon. Pretty impressed so far, especially for $36.99. Used it this past weekend heading to a hunting spot, but the fog on the river was too thick to make any light useful. Was easy for me to wire up since all I did was remove the two questionable HID's and using the same mounting holes and plugs, hooked up the light bar. It pulls 10.5 amps. I also re-mounted the other two HID's further starboard and port to give me even more lighting. By my calculations I'm getting close to 20,000 lumens. I'll try and get some better pictures and a more thorough review this weekend when I'll have my boat back out chasing ducks.







Light bar only


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## Texas Prowler (Jan 13, 2016)

Thanks! 

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## Scott85 (Jan 16, 2016)

BigTerp said:


> I've been having a bit of trouble with two of my HID's. Thinking it's either the ballast or ignitor causing problems. Was about to purchase 2 new ballasts and then remembered the discussion in this thread. For just a little more than I would have paid for 2 new ballasts I ordered this LED light bar from Amazon. Pretty impressed so far, especially for $36.99. Used it this past weekend heading to a hunting spot, but the fog on the river was too thick to make any light useful. Was easy for me to wire up since all I did was remove the two questionable HID's and using the same mounting holes and plugs, hooked up the light bar. It pulls 10.5 amps. I also re-mounted the other two HID's further starboard and port to give me even more lighting. By my calculations I'm getting close to 20,000 lumens. I'll try and get some better pictures and a more thorough review this weekend when I'll have my boat back out chasing ducks.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
Thanks for the post, I just ordered that same light because of it. What gauge wire did you use? Did you put an inline fuse and if so what size did you use?


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## BigTerp (Jan 19, 2016)

I used the old connections for one of my HID's to plug into. It is a Deutsch type connector. When I ran my HID's I used 14 AWG wire, IIRC. I already had 2 30 amp relays for my HID's, 2 lights wired to one relay. So the LED is now connected to one of those relays. If you go with an inline fuse, 15-20 amps should be plenty. The light draws 10.5 amps.

Was out hunting this past Saturday, but the fog was again super thick. Any type of light would have been useless.


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## Scott85 (Jan 19, 2016)

BigTerp said:


> I used the old connections for one of my HID's to plug into. It is a Deutsch type connector. When I ran my HID's I used 14 AWG wire, IIRC. I already had 2 30 amp relays for my HID's, 2 lights wired to one relay. So the LED is now connected to one of those relays. If you go with an inline fuse, 15-20 amps should be plenty. The light draws 10.5 amps.
> 
> Was out hunting this past Saturday, but the fog was again super thick. Any type of light would have been useless.


Thanks, I might be able to get wired in time for my last hunt. 


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