New Search Light

Thinking of purchasing a search light and have been reviewing some on various websites. Seems the ss or aluminum units average about $1K and the plastic units are 1/2 the cost or less. I'd like to get opinions from folks who have plastic or have owned both. Does the plastic units hold up against UV and weather over time or will you be replacing them with a metal housing unit relatively quickly?

Jim, just throwing this out there, an alternative. When I was working on this for my boat, most of my friends said "the mounted ones are a pain, hard to move where you want, plus your boat is rocking, then the bulb goes out, yada yada."

There are many handheld ones with tons of power. Rechargeable. So you can take them anywhere, and also take along in your tender if you wish.

Like: https://www.amazon.com/Streamlight-...treamlight+1000+lumen+flashlight+rechargeable

JustBob
M/V Mahalo - Blog

I replaced our big stainless standard bulb search light about 5 years ago with the Stryker and mounted in front of the boat on the railing, it is so light that minimal base needed. It has held up extremely well with 2 trips to Alaska and lots of green water over it with no problems. Looks brand new and have only had to replace the batteries in the remotes 1 time. Put remotes at helm and flybridge and handheld remote when checking anchoring at night. Having it mounted in front of everything cuts down on any glare from the boat. The LED is so much brighter than before. Recommend with no hesitation. Went with the Stainless look [emoji102]
https://www.fisheriessupply.com/gol...-black-with-dash-mount-and-remote-controllers

If you do go with a mounted one, I would recommend going with one that has a small joystick type controller, rather than a pad with buttons. The latter is a real PIA.

I had two remote lights, both hi-buck jobs with wired remotes, both axial motors shot, both not worth fixing, look nice bit too $$ to maintain. Using big handhelds now. Kept inside, easy to charge and better control for less. Of course, not as attractive but infinately more practical.

+1 to Just Bob's comment about what a PITA mounted searchlights are. I have two on my boat and the only one I ever use is the handheld, rechargeable one on the upper helm. It's easy to pick it up and point it, just like you would if you were pointing your finger at something, and you don't have to take your eyes off whatever it is you're illuminating to look for the dash mounted searchlight controller.


The ones I buy are the 1 million cp lights, cost about $25 and last about 4-5 years before they won't take a charge any more.

I too like my hand-held for all the above reasons mentioned, but I am still contemplating replacing my fixed spot for when i drive from inside the pilot house.

We have a Guest Beamer, fixed mount, with remote control in the pilot house. We also have a hand held.

The hand held is very convenient, and you of course know exactly where you are pointing it. However it's hard to use from inside the pilot house while operating the boat because it reflects off the windows. The only way it works is if held directly against the glass so there is no reflection back, and that limits where you can aim it. Outside this isn't a problem. The other down side is that it's handheld, so takes a hand away from controlling the boat. I found this to be a real problem in many situations.

The Guest Beamer isn't nearly bright enough to be useful. I don't know how many candelas or lumins it is, but it's not enough. I have a lot of trouble just figuring out where the beam is pointing so I know which way to move it to illuminate the target of interest.

Doing it again, I would not get another Beamer. It's just not bright enough to be useful. I definitely would get the handheld. It's useful, though not is all situations.

I have two lights mounted in my bow which used aircraft landing lights, high amperage draw and hard to find at 12 volts so I bought two round spotlights with leds and converted them. They work much better so I plan to replace the giant incandescent seal beam roof mounted unit with the guts of an led unit the same way.

I had a mounted light on a previous boat. It was useless. Trying to drive the boat and aim the light was close to impossible unless the boat was stopped in calm water.

My current boat came with a handheld searchlight that plugs into a 12 volt outlet. I've used it once and it's pretty intuitive to use. Just point it at what you want to look at.

Contrary to what some folks seem to believe, boats aren't supposed to have headlights. When I operate at night, I rely on ambient light and slowing down. This works well for me. Using a spot or floodlight hurts your night vision and it can take as long as 30 minutes to get it back.

My choice of light is a portable, hand held for use in emergencies only.

If you are going to add a searchlight then location is critical. You want to locate it on the centerline high enough so that there is no backscatter when pointed down in all directions and amidships so that pitching has the least effect. I‘ve used handhelds most of my life but I finally broke down and added a proper light last year.

in open water I agree fixed spotlights can be borderline useful. A good handheld will be good for the quick spotting.

In confined waters if able to use it and not bother other traffic, I find it very useful in ICW stretches where your night vision is toast anyway from other sources of light.

You almost always see tugs using them when pushing narrow stretches of ICW, bridges, and picking up navaids....can be too bad of an idea.

I leave mine pointed at whatever angle is best, then slightly change heading as needed to keep the beam on target.

Great responses. I hadn't thought of it but arming myself with a fixed and handheld light seems like a great solution to deal with all possible situations. Still a little unsure of the plastic vs. steel casing on the fixed unit. Is twice the cost for the ss or aluminum casings worth it for extreme salt and UV environments.

My boat is 8 years old and has a plastic housed mounted searchlight on the PH roof. It has held up very well.

I have found the searchlight useful about 3 times in the two years I’ve owned the boat. I think a rechargeable hand held is more useful PROVIDED that you can keep it charged up. I have an old hand held that works well. A newer LED hand held would probably work even better.

I have only a handheld, so I can comment only on that. Mine has been easy to use and handy when anchoring after dark, to scan the area surrounding the location I think I want to anchor in. For this purpose the ability to scan 360° is necessary.

On the rescue boat, a night tow requires a spotlight shone on the tow, so as to alert the helm, should the towline be too slack or tight, the tow oscillating from port to Starboard, or any other problems with the tow. For that purpose a handheld is far better than a fixed light.

....another consideration: Depending on the size of your boat, a bow mounted light of the same brightness will reach 20 feet or so further ahead of the boat than a handheld.

However, if I was going with a handheld, I'd get something like this for a little over $200.

https://www.batteryjunction.com/fenix-tk75-rechargeable-led-flashlight.html

kwestby said:

I replaced our big stainless standard bulb search light about 5 years ago with the Stryker and mounted in front of the boat on the railing, it is so light that minimal base needed. It has held up extremely well with 2 trips to Alaska and lots of green water over it with no problems. Looks brand new and have only had to replace the batteries in the remotes 1 time. Put remotes at helm and flybridge and handheld remote when checking anchoring at night. Having it mounted in front of everything cuts down on any glare from the boat. The LED is so much brighter than before. Recommend with no hesitation. Went with the Stainless look [emoji102]
https://www.fisheriessupply.com/gol...-black-with-dash-mount-and-remote-controllers

Click to expand...

Kwestby,

Is there an LED option? The specs show it's halogen, like most mounted spot lights. Seems to be very few LED ones out there.

I'm in the handheld camp... for the most part. However, my mounted ACR RCL-100D works fine and is easy to operate without looking at the controls, but not a fast as a handheld.

The issue I have is finding a REALLY POWERFULL handheld. Regardless of all the lumens and candle power they advertise, seems like my mounted one it more powerful. It's really hard to figure out what the specs of candlepower or lumens really mean. However, is one is rated stronger than another of the same manufacturer, it probably is.

JustBob said:

Jim, just throwing this out there, an alternative. When I was working on this for my boat, most of my friends said "the mounted ones are a pain, hard to move where you want, plus your boat is rocking, then the bulb goes out, yada yada."

There are many handheld ones with tons of power. Rechargeable. So you can take them anywhere, and also take along in your tender if you wish.

Like: https://www.amazon.com/Streamlight-...treamlight+1000+lumen+flashlight+rechargeable

JustBob
M/V Mahalo - Blog

Click to expand...

Bob,

I've got the little brother of this one and love it, but it's not for long range. Perhaps I'll get one like you have. The thing that I love (and insist on) is the ability to turn it on and off instantly, without cycling thru a bunch of useless settings, flashing and such... especially for quickly locating a marker, which my little one is great for, not so bright to totally blind me, but can find an unlit marker about 500 feet away, which is enough.

Any good quality light will state that their specifications comply with ANSI FL-1 standards and presented in a chart that looks like:

I have a 12v handheld, but the last time I used it was probably at least 10 years ago.
I guess it's time to test it to see if it still works.

dhays said:

I think a rechargeable hand held is more useful PROVIDED that you can keep it charged up.

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I've given up on rechargeable for things that are only used sporadically. They never seem to be charged when needed.

I've got a handheld spot with disposable (ok, recyclable) batteries. New batteries go into it every year and I keep a spare set of fresh batteries on board.

I have several tactical EagleTac (Now known as Eagtac) lights and love them. A guy I know has the largest selection in the US and is the US distributor for many of the better brand lights. No affiliation other than I've had lunch with him on a few occasions. Always knows what the newest / best trends are, if you want to know what's coming out and when. Talk to Tod at Illumination Gear.

His website is http://www.illuminationgear.com

PS: My favorite pocket light is a TX25C2 light (old, worn but still quite functional) and has rechargeable 18650 batteries and multiple modes, as well as double click strobe.

I am surprised and disappointed someone hasn't start making add on red lens for the spot lights. They would be less offensive on the night vision.
Yes, it might reduce the amount of light but, at least you can use it at night.

stubones99 said:

I have several tactical EagleTac (Now known as Eagtac) lights and love them. A guy I know has the largest selection in the US and is the US distributor for many of the better brand lights. No affiliation other than I've had lunch with him on a few occasions. Always knows what the newest / best trends are, if you want to know what's coming out and when. Talk to Tod at Illumination Gear.

His website is http://www.illuminationgear.com

PS: My favorite pocket light is a TX25C2 light (old, worn but still quite functional) and has rechargeable 18650 batteries and multiple modes, as well as double click strobe.

Click to expand...

Great site, Stubones! Thanks for the link and the recommendation.

I'm also a big fan of the LED handheld torches, especially if one has a helm door or is operating from a flybridge. A buddy who's a bit of a techno-geek working the CalTrans in solar and LED tech built me a custom flashlight from a Maglight. It's got a high quality glass convex lens, super-hi output LED (dangerously bright!), heat sink, rechargeable batteries, 3-setting switch and a charging port in the size of a 2 D-cell Maglight.

The brightness and focus is incredible but the most impressive is the very low light scatter across the bow. When I operate the light, it does not illuminate the foredeck enough to affect my night vision. I don't know if there are performance specs that address this light scatter, but it's something to consider when choosing a light.

For boats, tech lights are not the best thing since they sink quite rapidly. They make a funny spiral light show in the water as they go deeper...

I found that the hollow center of a pool float noodle is about the right diameter of the barrel of the flashlight and will float the light and keep it from happening again.

One thing to know about long throw lights, is that they have to have deep reflectors. The more shallow the reflector is, the wider the beam will be. Those the coke bottle lens are the exception, and moving the focal point lets you change the beam width.

I thought I had a nice maglight one time, and was quite surprised by a tiny light Tod had that was tighter beam and many times brighter. I gave up modding lights and follow his suggestions... He has some that have 2400 lumen output from a single LED chip.

My boat has an old Guest remote controlled mounted spotlight. The PO left the batteries in the remote control for way too long because the insides turned to battery mush. So the light is just pointed forward and down with a power switch to turn it on if necessary.
At Walmart for about $30 is a Black and Decker floating rechargeable handheld. You can quickly point it anywhere you need it, not just the forward half of the boat.

OldDan1943 said:

I am surprised and disappointed someone hasn't start making add on red lens for the spot lights. They would be less offensive on the night vision.
Yes, it might reduce the amount of light but, at least you can use it at night.

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Someone does. I don't know who but they are available.

Someone left a really nice rechargeable LED handheld light at my marina. It had a red snap on lens cover. I asked the dockmaster whose it was and he said he didn't know but was going to keep it until the owner came looking for it.

If you can't find one in the typical marine retailers, perhaps a sporting store like Bass Pro would have one.

A "red lens" is the wrong way to go, since a filter will cut out the light that you don't want, leaving less light to see what you want to see.

A better way to go is to get an LED with the color light you want to use (some have multi-color LEDs), so you're more efficient, making only the wavelength of light you want to use. That way, your batteries will last longer and you don't have the heat buildup and wasted light of a colored filter.

Like I said earlier, talk to Tod at http://www.IlluminationGear.com If it is available, he knows about it and probably has it in stock.

stubones99 said:

A "red lens" is the wrong way to go, since a filter will cut out the light that you don't want, leaving less light to see what you want to see..

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Yes, it will cut back on the amount of light but, I was thinking of retrofitting existing permanently mounted search lights.
It will also preserve your night vision and that of an approaching vessel.
Let's face it, most of the time, the light is used to search of the channel markers and to attract the attention of oncoming vessels.

What I want is a red/white manually positioned spot light. The ability to reach up and manually position the light. I had a search light like that on my N46 and I miss it. Alas, it did not have the red/white option.
I could manually position it before I turned it on.