Shadow Caster Pontoon Boat install

The Family Pontoon boat (The Bennington) is getting some love. Stereo LED's & all! The Family love's the underwater light's and LED's on my boat and the keeps asking "when are you going to hook the pontoon boat up".

SO here we go! I had to tow the boat 2hr's to get home and then down to my Buddy's shop in Salinas 1:45 min's more, to do the Fab and Welding. It's hard to find a shop big enough to fit a boat this size in their shop. Most fab shop's don't have the ability to weld or want to move welding equipment out into a parking lot ect, So you got to find a place big enough where you can bring it in.

I had some Aluminum bar left over from the first light bar install seen here: http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=716011

We decided that we could build another bar and weld it directley to the pontoons them self.
We welded the bar about 1 -2 inches below the water line. Because the boat sits transom heavy there was no need to angle the lights into the water. I had taken some measurements last summer time when the boat was in the water to see where and how the lights would sit.

Im super happy with the Shadow casters on my boat they haven't missed a beat and seem just a bit brighter than most everything I have seen, But keep in mind most of the boats I have seen only have 2 high powerd transom lights where my boat has 3 so it may not have been a even comp. Be that as it may it was a easy choice to do the same thing with the Bennington.
here are some pic's in progress.

It's to late now, but be careful where you weld things on the pontoons. If you accidently back into something you have created a very week impact point on that pontoon. On our first Lake Powell solar pontoon that we made, I mounted the trolling motors in that location (one on each side), and then we later backed it into a dock. The tab that was welded (almost in the exact spot as yours) pierced the pontoon. The boat didn't sink, but it was a pain in the butt to drain the pontoon and have it fixed.

If anyone one else was to do this, I would suggest welding the tabs to the outside of the pontoon instead of at the rear. Just a suggestion.

Sam good points. The Arms that attach to the Light Bar are thin for this exact reason. We did some welding on the Splash fin at the front of the Pontoon boat and found out how thin the toons are. For that reason we made the Arms that attach to the bar pretty thin aluminum. The round disks that we welded to are much thicker then the sides. We have backed into a rock or dock and dented the back of the toons and had to do some welding/dent pulling on the toon itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5TesjFh5Tw

We have used dry ice, a heat gun, and a suction cup style dent puller to remove large dents from our pontoon boat.

Even if the bracket is thin, it still has a pretty good chance of being pushed into the toon in that spot unless you have reinforced the entire area with a "disk".

My dad is thinking about adding a compressed air fitting to the pontoons so he can inflate stuff without using the compressor. They spend about 4 months at Lake Powell a year and use the same 20 gallons of gas for most of the trip. Everything on it is solar. It was originally a 28' Playcraft Tritoon that sunk at Powell.

Grant
You have a problem. You should go talk to someone about your obsession with LEDs.
Just my jealously talking. I love it. Don't you have another project your supposed to be working on???


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Grant,
How many LED's per tube are you planning on? Will you just run the wires up the tube caps where you welded the brackets/mounts?

Grant,
Not to change subject but what do you use to clean your pontoons? Sweet light project for sure!

Mijack: Im gonna run 1 Shadow Caster SC10 per pontoon. The Light bars are 22 inches long.
So I will have plenty of room on each light bar.

Mstoked2: I used a product called "Man Power" Wilber and Pedro. LOL I had 2 of my guy's refinish the pontoons. Whe have the toons refinished every season. The boat sits in the water almost all year long and gets a pretty good water line mark in the toons.

Scratches
80 grit on the Deep scratches
120 grit to cover the 80 grit.

Then you use a 3M Red pad to blend everything together. Make sure when you do any sanding you follow the Grain in the metal. You can get a brighter finish if you follow the Red Pad by using a 3M Grey Pad.
Hope that helps

where da pix

Originally Posted by UNvisible

where da pix

x2

I got the Shadow Caster SC-10's in the Mail the other day. Here is what I got. 2 Shadow Caster lights. 1 Remote light controller, 1 hand held remote. All the Shadow Caster lights have a 3 wire hook up Red =Power Black=Ground Blue=Control. You don't need the remote module to use the lights it's a extra that you can choose to run or not run. The lights on my boat came with a blue wire at that time they didn't have the Remote set up but I can now add a remote to my lights to control the lights.

Here is the hand helt remote that will allow you to cycle threw the lights and diffrent modes from 150 feet away

I don't know why i didn't realize it before but these lights are polished Stainless Steel.

The lights come with 20 feet of wire per light

Im I geek but The wire that comes with the lights is sweet.

Its got a layer of plastic with 3 wound shields surrounding the wires.


Center of the bar

Instructions say when mounting to a metal hull add a layer of rubber or gasket to stop gavlnic corrosion
I used 3M trim tape



Installed

Did I read above that the toon sits in the water for the season? If so, does the lake have muskrats? They will eat those bare cables. May want to consider covering them with metal flex-loom.

Looking good though.

No muskrats?

Originally Posted by grant_west

No muskrats?

Yur lucky. Around here, those bass turds will sink an I/O by chewing through the bellows.

I don't get what the control wire does - are they RGB?

cant wait to see a night shot

Here is a short video of the Lights in Action,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oS3VGdQTdM

Thats awesome, looks really good. The video totally answered my question too, thanks!

Grant that looks sweet!! Now I'm definately going to have to order myself up a remote to cycle threw the light modes...

Originally Posted by ian_ashton

I don't get what the control wire does - are they RGB?

The control wire connects to the transmitter box. The transmitter box gets mounted in a secure area near your fuse panel. The red wire from the light goes to a fuse, black to a ground and the blue to the transmitter box. The transmitter box is kind of like the cable box hooked up to your TV. It actually controls the lights. You use the remote, (Key FOB), to program it.

G, did you shoot that video? If so you did a great job!

Tony yea I shot that video on the dock at Tulloch, I guess I'm not done with this install. I noticed that the light bars are at the perfect angle and is grabbing the water and at the right speed causing it to be shot up and under the swim deck. I don't know if this is causing any signifigant drag or wear and tear on the bar or lights so Im just going to add a small bolt on aluminum plate on the bottom of the light bar to redirect the water flow around the light no big deal.