Quick question on interior boat lighting.

[JamesM56alum]

Just out of morbid curiosity i want some opinion's i'm installing some amber lights under the seat's of my boat to high light the floors to see what i'm doing while moving around. Now the light's that i am going to be using are marker light's for trucks, single wire with a internal ground that grounds once you bolt the light down. Now i want to know if it is safe to use that kind of light if i run a wire from the bolt hole to the battery and use the bolt as a union to tie the ground wire and the ground on the light together.

mainly what i'm worried about is creating a neg charge in the boat and shocking the piss outta my self when i go to turn on the lights.

 

[crazymanme2]

Don't want to ground to the boat.Run a seperate wire for ground. [-X

 

[JamesM56alum]

That's what i was talking about bro, but i need a way to connect the ground on the light to the battery because the light doesnt have a wire ground it's a housing ground, the base of the light is the ground, but i want to know if i run awire from the mounting screw and pin it between the mounting plate and the base can i do that with out grounding to the boat.

 

[Bob Landry]

It will be very difficult to keep the ground isolated from the boat. Just use lights that are intended for what you want to do

 

[crazymanme2]

if i run awire from the mounting screw and pin it between the mounting plate and the base can i do that with out grounding to the boat.

I would say that would work =D>

 

[user 7806]

How about if you mounted the lights on a piece of cutting board and grounded the the light to a wire under the mounting screw. This should elminate the light using the boat as a ground. Just a thought...

 

[JamesM56alum]

Well i decided to take some what my idea and some what gramp's idea, i mounted it under the wooden deck on the front and i haven't quite decided what i'm going to do for the rear since the mid deck is already bolted into place and the damn thing is only about 3 inches off the bottom of the boat i'v got no room to work so what i'm considering mounting it to the face of the brace for the rear deck and spray painting the top of the light to keep it from blinding me when i look down and it will direct the light down toward's the floor.

i'll post picture's tomorrow after noon once i'm done with it for the tinboat.net approval

 

[oukast]

Don't want to ground to the boat.Run a seperate wire for ground. [-X

Why is that? For some reason I thought my ground buss under the console was grounded to the hull.

 

[JamesM56alum]

Grounding out has a bad affect on some metal's alum being one of them, causes pitting and corrosion.

 

[bigwave]

Hey James save yourself some grief, look at wally world and get ya some of the led's in the house stuff. they only take a couple of aa battery and you just throw them away when they get beat up and used. I have seen them as cheap as 5 bucks and you would not have to worry about any wires. I even saw some pink ones for your wife and kids.......

 

[shallowminedid]

just get marine rope lighting, or i got led strip lights that surround the entire boat.. maybe theirs pics here if u can see them
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3242701423150&set=a.3049176105138.191181.1135280794&type=3&theater