I bought the 5050 LED light strips from ebay.

I am currently powering the lights from my starter battery. I am going to change this as it drains the battery too much after the lights have been on for a few hours. I have a jumper battery I bring with me each time but I still don't like the drain on the starter battery.

I initially had planned to power them from my two trolling batteries but Motorguide states not to hook anything but the trolling motor on the trolling batteries.

So I am going to buy a 3rd battery just for the lights, which means I must also buy another battery charger. Plus I have to hope I can fit three batteries under the console. If not I am going to need to rerun my light wiring to wherever I find space for another battery. :sigh

I ran the light strip on the edge of the metal molding on the edge of the deck. The LED 3m glue strip held the lights without any problem for me, although other members have reported problems with the 3m glue strip. I did make sure the aluminum strip was clean before I applied the LED strip to it.

Since I mounted them on the aluminum strip I did not see any way to tack them on. I did not want to drill holes in that strip so I had to find another way.

I went to Office Depot and found some metal spring paper clips that come 10 clips to the pack. I placed one clip on each end of the LED strip and then place three clips along the strip to help keep the light strip in place in the glue strip loosens.

I then ran the LED wires along the other wiring under the deck.

I will need to remember to check the strips each time before I leave dock to ensure none have become loose. Let me know if you find a better way to secure them.

These 5 meter strips draw six amps current each when in use so you need to buy a 7.5 amp glass fuse and fuse holder for each one of them. Wire the fuse holder into the power (red) wire between the light strip and your power source in case the LED strip shorts out at some time.

Also I made a mistake in not ordering a 3rd strip to install along the rear deck. I have now ordered one but this means I must again bring the boat home to install that strip when it arrives.

Thx for all the info. I'll check it all out and see what I can do. No big hurry here since boat is on straps with no water to play.

Makes it easy to work on but it's a bummer that you can't fish now.

These LED strips will definitely run down your starting battery if you anchor with them on for a few hours. So I don't recommend wiring them into your starting battery.

I checked and I don't have room under the console for a third battery. So I must locate the third battery and charger in the stern area, near the motor. Which means I must pull the pontoon out of the water and reroute all the wiring as I now have it wired into the console.

It seems as if all my learning is from my mistakes.

Those look great! Can you post a link or pm me where you got them?

my 2 cents worth. If you want to use your troling motor batteries. Just keep the same load on each battery. example: if you have two light strips put one on each battery, four lights put two on each battery. I would try this before I bought and another battery and rerouted my wiring. if you need the trowling motor and it does not have enough power after using the lights, then buy another battery and reroute your wiring

Gene

Good suggestion. I will try this to see how it impacts the trolling motor. I will hook each side of lights up to one trolling motor battery and check to see how long it takes them to deplete the two batteries.

My trolling motor batteries are deep cycle so they should hold up longer than the starting motor battery.

Adding a 3rd battery off the rear of the pontoon would have been a real pain, not to include the expense of another battery plus battery charger.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Green-Waterproof...=item5d3a1a5ac3

They are $14.95 per strip, which includes shipping.

I bought two strips, which is what you see. I should have bought three strips and placed one across the stern of the pontoon as well as down the sites.

The 3rd strip could be cut into two pieces, one for the front and one for the stern.