high powered "dock lights"
 

I have seen many boats with "headlights" under the rub rail installed in the bow, but im not sure these would be powerful enough for running at 20+mph at night and be able to see any debris, small children or monsters with enough time to avoid collisions.

anyone have these installed? do they work well enough as a substitute for a spot light?

Recommendations?

DO NOT run with docking lights on. Other boat can not see nor read your nav lights.

On my Malibu I have dock lights and they are not bright enough in my opinion to be used safely at 20+ mph. I have tower lights that do light up the lake pretty well. I bought a spot light that plugs into my lighter in case of an emergency that really does the job. In California it is against the law to be traveling at that speed after dark. 5 mph it suppose to be your top speed.

thanks guys. I know it is illegal, but legal or not, i would rather hit a switch than pull out a spot light. I have a super air, and my storage is tight enough...finding a place to store a spotlight might be tough. I don't like forward facing tower lights because of the glare from the bow.

i use driving lights for cars (driving lights not fog lights, driving lights have a narrower consetrated long distance beam usually 55W)
on my 03 i just used one. HUGE help at night.

seen here on top of the tower.
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/8143/mounted1.jpg

Would you mind telling us where you use your boat so I know to stay the hell away from that body of water if you view it that way and are traveling 20+ mph at night on a boat.

jeez justin. you must keep your children in the water late.

thanks cory!

This link has the Malibu dock lights with a 55w Halogen light, maybe you could call them an ask them if an upgrade light bulb could be an option for you. Brighter higher wattage bulbs.

http://www.bakesonline.com/detail.aspx?ID=1364

our lake is 30mph after dark and we travel 20+ miles at night to resturants often. Whats wrong with that?

Paul same here we don't have any speed limit at all though. If you run at night without all the LED's on it really isn't that difficult to see, your eyes adjust really well. I could not imagine trying to run with a light on. I could see over driving it very easy.

Maybe he is on a small lake.

He have place HID's in the MC billet speaker cans and you can see them across the lake. This is the best option if you truly want to run the lights while running the lake. Around here it is illegal to run your boat with these except for docking.

It's illegal on every lake I believe, because it obscures your navigation lights and makes boating for others more difficult.

I believe this is true ^^ On our lake its as fast as you can go at night! and on 4th of July that are 10k boats moving. Better keep your head on a swivel!!

Illeagal here in Washington, Couple years ago a guy breaking the nighttime speed limit in a Supra hit a bayliner going 5mph and killed the driver of the Bayliner and mangled the other passengers in the bayliner. This is why you don't speed at night. Unless you can live with yourself after a fatal accident you might have been the cause of.

Thats where safe and prudent come into play. If there was no speed limit, then he obviously wasn't "speeding," he was just going too fast given the circumstances. I would never haul ass on a lake at night if I couldn't see well enough(ie no moon). People like that kill it for everyone.

A light in the wrong place can ofter make things worse by reflecting on the water or reflecting off the hull of the boat. Before you pick a final location I would test it before final mounting. I prefer to run at night without any lights including the dash but a low to the water position on a ski boat hides a lot of obstacles.

You have more visibility if you run without lights and let your eyes adjust as mentioned above. What I have done in the past if anything is flash your towers on here and there if you think you see something otherwise run in the dark.

thats my whole reason for trying to use the "headlights" aforementioned. i wan the source to be below the rub rail so it doesnt light up the bow of the boat, and my adjusted eyes can see logs, rocks, pets, children, and waterfalls better.

living on a lake for 7 years, I ran quite a bit with my lights on.....it saved me numerous times ( random debris in the water) and was great for docking at nite. Living on the water my main source of transportation was my boat on the weekeneds.

I used HID lights mounted up on the tower. I had the z-5 top to act as a shade so the light didnt' reflect off the bow. I had one spot beam and one flood beam.

Also look at LED lights. vision x has great light bars.

I don't run with my lights on but have used them multiple times while picking up a downed rider during late nite stealth missions.They are also good for flashing the lights to light up the navigation bouys on nights with no moon.I just swapped out the bulbs in my docking lights for LED'S .Each bulb has three 3 watt LED'S. Have not had a chance to try them yet but they are brighter than the 50 watt halogens.

Get ready knat attack when tower lights are on. Just an FYI

Where did you pick those up and how much? I want to upgrade my dock lights to LED as well, for the lower power consumption alone.

I did a thread on docking light LED conversion just scroll down the page it has a link.I bought them on E bay straight from China total cost was fifteen dollars

You might get 50-60 lumens per watt from a very good LED produced now. You can get about 30 lumens per watt with a good Halogen bulb. An HID bulb may give you between 30 and 120 lumens per watt but most of the higher efficiency ones are not colour outputs that are usually wanted for headlights.
LEDs are great, and getting better, but there is no 3 LED light that is even close to an a relatively low power HID or halogen bulb. LEDs do have some increased efficiency with regard to light transmission because the LED can be shaped to provide a specific beam with less concern for reflectors and lenses. But they are not yet at the point where they make a great headlight.

Aside from that, using headlights for driving on water is a bad decision for many reasons. For docking, you can get enough light out a a good LED system to work well.

China. NICE!! I would pay 3 times more if it was made in the USA.

Nice light upgrade though.

They were the only replacements i could find and are rated at 560 lumen per bulb.As far as led not putting out as much light as a halogen i would have to disagree.I have vision X tower lights and each one puts out as much light as two 50 watt halogens