Rub rail LED
 

I've seen this done a couple of times, does anyone know how this is done? I've seen some that are actually in the rub rail itself and some that seem like they are under it. I'd like to get this done but don't want the install to break me. Here are a couple examples.
Attachment 35622
Attachment 35623

Looks to me like the green LED is just run under the rub rail here
Attachment 35624

Nice duckface.

I've thought about doing this too. You could mount right to the underside of the rub rail. You then just have to pick a spot to run the wires back in the boat. I don't think it would be too difficult to do although I don't think it would work as well on my dark blue and black hull.

If that's the way that LED strip is mounted Under the real rub rail I only have one word GHETTO

That rank's right up their with Pasti dip towers & the same LED stip's mounted on the trailer rails. Sure you can mount the lights anywhere you like and take a pic and it might look great but my money is on "That's done ghetto and it wont be working for very long and will need to be done the right way" very soon. But it looks great on "Insta gram & face book " so that's all that matters these days anyways so carry on. BTW Palsti Dip is on Sale while supply's last geat as much as you can!

LOL LOL LOL

How would you suggest doing it then grant?

Btw, don't you have an LED strip mounted in every possible crevice on your boat? I think that's a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

I know Ultimate Boat Wraps in MN was installing those in the rub rail. It was a product that had the lights built into the rubber and you just replaced the rubber. Looked pretty slick. As for plasti-dip... guess i'm ghetto as my tower is plasti-dipped and it looks great. (or ghetto fabulous if you prefer grant)

Chase: if you see a parallel in the way that the LED strip is installed on the boat in the pictures and the way the LED lights are installed on my boat then I guess we can just and the conversation there. My rant as you was not about the amount of light nor its placement but was about the way in which it was installed ghetto is the word I used to describe it. simply gluing a light to the side of your boat does not make it correct. The LED strip lights are not designed nor can take the abuse of lights mounted in that location.

As far LED mounted rub rails I think they are cool as long as you don't see them when they are not in use. And don't get damaged with normal use of the boat. Like when tying to a Nother boat or dock. Some applications it's impossible to hide the lights. But when ever possible the lights should be either mounted a fixture or behind something so the lights are protected from any potential impact
There are a few companies out there selling LED rub rail Kits. Usually it's a side illumination fiber optic insert, or surface mount LEDs behind a frosted rub rail. That way at least the lights have the protection of the rub rail or are inserted into a crevice that shields them from impact.

I haven't looked at where the boat is from but it has Texas written all over it!

So this is not living in the Getto LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blare. You found some old photo's. Back then not many people had or were running LED's. The Red looking Neon light's were Cold Cathode. I guess the Pasti Dippers & LED stickers (people that just stick SMT strip's to the side of your boat and call it done are upset!!!)

BTW here is a video from a few years ago of my boat. How did you guy's get the Idea I was some how against over LED-ing your boat? You can see how "against" LED lights I am from this video ! LOL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB0ZibJck2Y

Can you find me a kit and put a link on here? A quick google search comes up empty. I want to do front to back all the way around.

Just busting your balls, I remembered from years ago how you put two tower mirrors with video screens in them but I didn't really think I could find the pic's. I'm just calling you because your getting cranky around here. It's like you don't like anything unless it a Prius, Golf cart, airplane, or expensive car. You got me completely confused me when you started hating on lifted trucks LOL. Its all in good fun though.

Here is a pic of the boat night Vs day. All of the light's are hidden or behind a frosted plexi fixture. For the most part you wouldn't know the boat is a floating disco come night.

Chase here's a company that does them, but it's nothing more than cutting out part of the rubrail and putting the strip lights behind it.

http://www.bluewaterled.com/catalogd...id=64&imgnum=1

Ok I just a quick Google search and found this LOL When guys on bass boats are out disco-ing Wakeboarder's.

I had a video from my buddy Kris that had a SAN with RGB rub rail kit let me see if I can track it down.

I thought there was another guy TomCat Designs that was selling a fiber Optic LED rub rail kit

Grant, does that meet your expectations? Lol

John: I had seen that and thought that was a real clean way of installing the Nav light's and the Purple or Black light fishing light's

Seems like a great way to get a ticket from the water cops. Your nav light is red on one side and green on the other for a reason.

I'll be the first to admit.. I've got LEDs. Did I pay a fortune to have them installed or come up with some crazy elaborate way of concealing them? No. Do I care if you did? No. Whatever makes you happy and gets the job done, more power to you. It just sucks to see someone, that others have taken great inspiration from, bash something that's not up to their code.

That said, I still have mad respect for Da Godfather of LEDs.

I've talked to local law enforcement here. I have LED's all over this boat as well as my last one. When I asked them about all the LED's and a possible ticket his reply was "well the object is to be seen at night right?" "You'll be fine".

Shawn ^^^ your right ^^^ but if you have ANY other light your asking for a ticket so if you have any party lights on at all your "cruzin for a bruzin" but I do agree 100% the rub rail says come get me more than anything. But if used when parked it's fine.

The whole Idea when installing or doing mod's to your boat is to try and do it in a way that add's enjoyment with out adding extra maintenance and wont impact or detract the way you use your boat. Simply sticking light's to the side of your boat is NOT thinking long term. Fine if your gonna just stick them to the of the boat for a 4th of July parade that install above wold work just fine. But throwing it out like "Bam" check out me new LED install DONE! That my friends is Ghetto. if you take offense to my honesty then I retract it and insert "That Looks great" or "Awesome Dude"

I don't ever run with my LED's on. It's just dangerous. There is no way you can see with them on.

That is not the view of CA water po-po's. If you show blue, red or green on the water while you are moving you will pay for it.

Haha I can dig that.

I agree with you though. Slapping something together only leads to redoing it in the future, as many of us can relate to.

TN water patrol are much more relaxed. It's been years since I have even had a routine check.

Florida water po po will not have that. They will pull you over quick.

It's been discussed many times b4 here and it's unanimous that any other lights becides Red&Green going forward and a rear white (anchor light) will get you a free saftey inspection, even if your parked. I'm guessing comercial ships are exempt but all others can't display what the water patrol calls "conflicting navigation lights" (been there done that) so if you want to meet the local law Enforcment please by all means drive around with your flashing lights this including underwater lights" I have been pulled over for them as well.

True story; we were on lake Shasta and all our boats had underwater lights. We were driving side by side at night lighting up the water real good. A boat from 1/2 across the lake comes over and (it's the cops) they say to us to turn off the lights because it's illegal and say it also attracts the drunks to the lights. I was so tempted to say "you drove all the way over here because of the lights So "how much have you had to drink"

I will tell you this....."G" is incapable of "half-a$$ing" anything. He will go $1000's of dollars and weeks out of his way to do it the right way. It's funny to watch - literally he can't make himself do it.

This disease he has is somewhat contagious.....now I am having a hard time half-a$$ing things but I can occasionally talk myself into it. lol

Hahaha They really will bug you for anything in Cali won't they? My town is small. We know 90% of the law enforcement in the area personally. They will take you to jail, but you have to really really mess up. Same with a ticket. I've been boating since 12 and have been stopped a few times, once had no registration, no fire extinguisher, and no throwable access able. He gave me a warning and told me to enjoy my day. No sobriety test or anything.

I've run boats for years on the same lake as chase with absolute zero hassle. No displayed registration, loud stereo, etc. when I was parked at our beach or rafter up and saw the water patrol or sheriff coming in, I'd blare the bad boys song on repeat until they left - with 6 rev8's. They thought it was funny.

Aside from that, the OP is looking for rub rail lighting and he doesn't want something half-fast. I'm installing them for him and trying to help find the right product. Any help for this is appreciated. Obviously law enforcement is different geographically, and that's irrelevant here.

i just got some led tower lights. Just now hearing its illegal. oops. guess ill see how the ole popo on the dirty d handles it. I saw liquid trends was doing lit up rub rails. looks bad ass but I would want like a transparent black rubrail to hide leds during day and still look good. Im not sure I like the idea of having a frosted rubrail but I guess it really depends on your boat color combo.

Heres the RGB rub rail we did. Not all rub rails work for the application we use, all though you can purchase a rub rail that works for this specific application. We did try sticking the RGB strip right below the rub rail but cosmetically it didn't look right to us (seeing every individual light), and it would be short lived as it would not hold up to the elements.

Where can I get this?

Yea, that is awesome and would replace my rub rail on my axis that scuffs when you look at it wrong. Post a link for us!

Here is the Video of the SUPER AIR with the Rub Rail call Dennis Meyers at 707 694 8972 for more info

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2END...ature=youtu.be

Grant. What do you use for connecting the rgb strips? The solderless connectors terrible, and it's really a PITA to solder the wire to the 4 connector tabs on the strip. I have been soldering them direct, but there HAS to be a better way.
How do you do it?

J; That's a great question. I solder directly to the SMT strip. Here is a video of how I do it Sorry its not a great video but it give you a Idea. All the stuff I have seen come in 5 Meter rolls and even that stuff had solder joints. If you did a 21 foot boat you would need like close to 47 feet of SMT RGB. Thats a bunch of solder joints IMO and then when you think about the are going to be exposed, and some what delicate. IMO the way to do it would be a Fiber Optic kit. The only down side would be that you would have to be very careful with the Rub Rail. The side admitting fiber optics were not designed to be used as a Bash Gard on a boat so if you hit the fiber optics hard enough it would create a "hot spot" this is where light cant flow threw the optics and creates a Bright spot in the run?


Here is the video of the RGB light's I soldered up for Jason's cup holders In retrospect I could have down a way better job doing a video but it was a last min thing and I thought something was better then nothing plus this video is 3 years old and this technique has been fool proof on hundreds of feet of RGB for me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E2C_gHopH4

That's exactly what I needed! That method is MUCH easier.
I've even having my girlfriend hold the wire to the contact while I solder it. And while it works, it's a major pita.
I didn't think to preload the contacts like that. Thanks man!

Yes when you add solder to the wire (called tinning the wire) it melts back the shield. Some shield colors melt back more then others. When the wires all have solder on them and you have trimed them all back even and you have added the "Igloo" to each contact point all you need to do is melt the igloo and introduce the tinned wire to the Pool of solder up to the shield and then remove the heat and your golden. the solder tip has to be very small. Myn is the smallest point tip. That way the tip is not heating up the contact next to it

For anyone looking to contact Dennis, he is working through our service deparment and California Marine Sports in Fairfield/Suisun and can be reached at (707)864-2500. He has been busy cranking out some great looking Exile and WetSounds installs the past few weeks along with LED kits in the boat and underwater.

Just give us a call and we can get an appointment set up or a quick quote over the phone.

California Marine Sports
(707) 864-4007

Some more pictures of that 210.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...0D75272778.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...C4ED2807E2.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...2A8DF4DD58.jpg

That Looks Awesome!

Steve tell us why didn't you just didn't stick some SMT strips down the side of the boat. You could have saved a bunch of time and MONEY!

I actually had/have nothing to do with that boat and the install, I just run the Pro Shop for CMS and figured I'd post those up so people could see some more angles/colors of it.

I think that looks awesome.

Anyone find where to get a frosted rub rail that will allow the LEDs behind them to shine through yet not just look like a bunch of individual LEDs.... I will be doing this with RGB LEDs in 5m rolls and soldering them together directly on the strips.

I called around. I don't see anywhere that sells them and the green one posted on here they are keeping secret. Supposedly going to try and produce it.

Chase: what boat do you have? The SAN has the Perfect rub rail for this application.
So if you happen to have a Nautique the uses the Rubber rub rail your in luck. If you can lets see a pic of your stock rub rail

Hey Grant, post a link to the rub rail you are referring to. i have a SAN and am very interested...

Superbrightleds has a couple of different frosted lense channeled housings. Not sure if these would would but look through the pages on this link, this is the closest I am able to find.
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/housings/page/1/

What happens if the rubrail actually hits something? Does it mess up the lights?

The lights will/should be behind a lense. And these led strips are pretty durable so I wouldn't think it would be too much of a problem.

I just went down and took these pics to give you a Idea. On Natiques with the Rubber Rub Rail the center section comes out

The round rubber insert simply pullys out and you can see where the SMT strip could mount.

Then you could source some clear rubber tubeing and frost ( sand blast) it I know they make and sell (side illumination fiber optics) in the same diamater that would replace the stock rubber insert. It looks like from the pic above that the kit has the LEDs in the clear tube itself. Depending on how "handy" you are this dosent seem like rocket science.

Here is a pic of the roll of rub rail insert from my Orignal stock rub rail. ( I replaced my Orignal rub rail with a new one) but it gives you a idea of the size of the tubeing you would use.

One of those frosted led housings would fit perfectly for you grant. Get to it!

Then post your trials and tribulations so I can get to it

Here is the insert I was talking about.

Like I haven't done enough of these types of DIY projects around here and documented my results :)
How about this Why don't "YOU get after it" so that I can sit back and post a reply like
"Post a link to the part #"

Yea that sounds like a great Idea!!!!!

LOL LOL

Like I haven't done enough of these types of DIY projects around here and documented my results :) dude "I'm in the W/W DYI hall of Shame"
How about this Why don't "YOU get after it" so that I can sit back and post a reply like
"Post a link to the part #"

Yea that sounds like a great Idea!!!!!

I need a shirt that says " I posted all my DIY projects on W/W and all I got was this crummy shirt"

LOL LOL

I have an 07 wakesettrr

I wonder if you could take my rub rail out, then put the LED behind it with a spacer of some kind or somehow make the gap in the middle just a little wider. Put the rail back in and just have it shine through? Attachment 35691

The Natique rub rail is Ideal for this application. Because the LEDs can sit in the channel and cover up the screws that shoe box you boat together. The Nautique style rub rail also offers protection for lights itself Would switching out your rub rail to a Nautique style be a deal breaker?

The rub rail kit itself is around $500

IMO yes, I'd like to keep the SS rubrail. I just wonder if you could put the LED's behind the SS and have a bigger gap between the top and bottom of the SS where it has rubber around it. As more of an accent light rather than an LED rubrail.

chase Ok PM we can get going on it.

wouldn't the million screws that hold the rubrail on the Malibu have to pass through any led light strip that you mounted behind it? I'm not sure how you would make it work.

^ exactamundo^

It's going to work :) I'll post pics of my results.

Just an idea that I used on my motorcycle. Instead of factory turn signals I use two strips of yellow LEDs. Seeing the individual LEDs was kinda ugly so I took VHT taillight tint spray to blacken it out. The individual LEDs are no longer visible until you turn them on. The same idea could be used on the rub rail. Maybe use some sand paper to "frost" the waterproofing with some taillight tint to help conceal the strip.

Are you all gonna make all the rub rail LED's on one side of the boat green and the other side red???

Nope mine will be all blue. It's only fitting Attachment 35817

Got youre grills out to you today..........

DennisLiquidTrends Northbay just finished up another RGB Rubrail on a Malibu VLX. We took it out behind the California Marine Sports for some on the water photos. I wish we would have grabbed some video as well but I'll see what we have laying around from testing/building.

Sorry in advance for some of the pictures, it has been a while since I've shot with a DSLR let alone at night doing stuff like this. Enjoy and feel free to ask any questions.

Launching off the dock and trying to get the settings dialed.
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...ite%20dock.jpg

Floating in downtown Suisun City
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...r%20purple.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...ght%20blue.jpg

Red
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...ight%20red.jpg


The biggest feature on this install is the NAV mode with the lights. Using different sections and controllers we were able to create 4 zones and make the LEDS do more than just change color and dance to the music.
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...ight%20NAV.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...NAV%20side.jpg


Here are a few videos shot from an iPhone showing the colors changing.

Lights Dancing

NAV Test 01

https://igcdn-photos-h-a.akamaihd.ne...32020070_n.jpg

^^^^sick work as always Dennis!!!!!

^^^^^ That is the way to do it my friend^^^^ Nice job. I like the way if you didnt know that the lights were installed you would pass right by it as if was factory.
my only criticism is that it looks to good. I have Never seen Nav light's so big and unmistakeable. There is no doubt what direction or orientation that boat is going, I love it. You should put together a rub rail kit to sell.

They are already ahead of ya on that ;)

Thanks for the compliments guys, Dennis mostly lurks through here and I end up posting everything for him. This was a fun build and if you look at the boat with the lights off the rub rail does look stock for the most part.

The Nav mode turned out better than we expected and had a nice learning curve to it but everything met and exceeded the customers expectations while giving us some new ideas for the future.

Cant say much on pre made kits but if anyone is looking to get these done feel free to message us!

Great job guys. I've had a few customers ask me about this and we are looking forward to tackling one of these. Install looks really clean and stealthy.

That's how to do a rub rail led setup RIGHT.
NICE

I am trying to chase down the rub rail that was used for this install. Anyone know if the last one on this page is correct? http://www.barbourrubrails.com/Key_W...l_rub-rail.htm

The Last one on that page "in your link" is the one I would use.

Also Tacco Marine Sells rub rails
http://tacomarine.com/cat--Flexible-...ex_insert.html

Let us know what you come up with. The Factory Natique rubrail looks like it would work no problem

What did you plan on using for the frosted Round insert?

I printed out the rub rail catalog of the barbour rub rail (last one on link above) as they say it prints actual size. It concerns me a little that it didn't fit perfectly but if those rubber legs are able to flex i really prefer it due to the little chamber in there that would house the led strip perfectly.
I plan to use translucent HDPE similar to this with a 5/8 OD.
http://www.amazon.com/White-High-Den.../dp/B003TJ9Y8I

My concern with using a taco or other rub rail is without that little chamber for the led strip, if you actually did have a hit on the rub rail it could crush the leds and ruin the strip.