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I have a 2004 170 Montauk with the trailer that came with it. The trailer says Boston Whaler but I don't know what the OEM brand is. Karavan?
After 11 years in the salt I've replaced various things and it's in good shape EXCEPT the electrical is pretty well shot, stem to stern. The trailer has the usual red combo lights in the back (running/turn sigs/brake) and two sets of yellow side marker lights. One set at the wheel wells (widest part) and one set near the tongue (not sure what function these latter ones perform).
Is there a kit which would give me the whole shooting match as submersible LEDs plus all the wiring, connectors etc?
I have electrical experience and can certainly put it together from parts, but if someone makes the whole kit, that would help a lot.
The only brand of trailer lights I would ever use, and have used for 25 years now, is DRY LAUNCH, made by Sierra Products out in CA. They are not LED's, but they last and last and last, with no need to disconnect the plugs before launching, etc. They are COMPLETELY waterproof, and truly ingenious in design. As most know, I use Continental Trailers, manufactured in Miami, and with most of their trailers seeing salt water use, they have used the Dry Launch family of lilghts for 30 years, and still do. They are made in both round and rectangular style, depending on what your trailer requires.
See my personal webiste for trailer photos showing these lights. You can buy them here for reasonable pricing:
I don't think they come in a complete "all trailer" kit, so you have to buy the components individually. Eastern Marine also sells the split wires trailer wiriing harnesses.
Be sure to use only SS mounting bolts, lock washers and nuts. The side marker lights can be spliced into the main braown wire on each side using the plastic snap clips, BUT BE SURE TO TOTALLY COAT THEM IN THE BLACK LIQUID RUBBER WIRE SEAL. That will make this splice last indefinitely.
In my years of totally trouble free experience with Dry Launch trailer lighting, other than an occassional bulb burn out, there are two things I had to improve upon. For the center light bar in the back, I added a separate ground wire from fixture to trailer frame. For the tail lights, I substitute SS 1/4" carriage bolts for the zinc ones they furnish in the fixture, a simple replacement. I discovered this from my 1989 Continental 25 Outrage trailer, where after 15 years the bolts corroded so badly from the salt that I had to replace the fixture, and only because of the rusted fasteners. The fixture still worked perfectly.
I use the 701 tail lights, the 203 stud mount fender mounted amber lights, and the 202 stud mount side frame marker lights.
Since the rear lights are immersed virtually every time the boat is launched or retrieved you may want to consider pole mounted lights at the rear. Pole mounted lights are never immersed and last longer. The foregoing assumes your trailer has guide poles or that you are willing to add them.
On my Royal trailer for the Montauk 17 I finally replaced the lights with Dry Launch as per Finnegan and no more problems.
For the Load Rite trailer for the Outrage 17, I mounted the lights on custom fabricated rear roller brackets with dedicated ground wires. See my trailer project album.
Thanks for the advice so far. One thing that I noticed is that the "all inclusive" kits usually don't include salt-waterproof connectors. If you want to do that part right you need to use adhesive-lined butt splice coonectors (or equivalent). So this job really needs to be done custom from quality components to be done right.
I have installed many different brands of LED boat trailer lights and the ones I like best actually come from Harbor Freight Tools. The quality is as good or better than other brands from West Marine, Menards, Farm and Fleet, Etc.and the price cannot be beat. it comes as a kit with both rear lights, the main wiring harness and I believe 2 out of the 4 yellow side marker led lights you will need. The problem is that the 2 yellow side marker LED lights supplied are rarely the same style or design as what is on the trailer and usually means modifying the side marker mounting holes in the trailer. What I do, rather, is to use the rear lights and harness and then look up the side marker led replacement lights online and source them separatly. I have also done away with the side marker lights all together on smaller trailers and used only the rest of the kit as the marker lights, while attractive, are not required by law as the tailights are.
