Magnetic Trailer Lights

[Leapy]

After a couple of years of working with dodgy, low quality plastic lighting boards I'm thinking of permanently attaching a galvanised steel lighting board to the back of my trailer - complete with permanently attached warning triangles and number plate - and simply removing the light units before the back end of the trailer goes swimming. In addition, i then only have to store the light units in the car and not the big, filthy lighting board.

Anyone any experience of magnetic trailer lights? There's not that many different types for sale and the only forum that mentions problems with them is in the context of "I think my mates, neighbours, uncles, friends, brother had some of those but I think I heard off their au pair, perhaps, maybe, possibly...that they fell off: I could be wrong though".

So, any views?

[martini]

There is another option that may suit you, a couple of pics of my trailer here

[Leapy]

Originally Posted by martini

There is another option that may suit you...

...which is to have two mini lighting boards? Hmmm...interesting (Now goes to garage to inspect his trailer)

Still needs removable lights though...

[martini]

I used submersible led's on mine so they don't need to come off:
link
They're mounted to a stainless plate that's attached to a box section that retracts/extends into the main frame of the trailer. They extend just past the O/B's as per the law when on the road and retract back to the trailer out of the way when launching/recovering. Note the wing bolt on the side of the trailer for locking into the desired position

[Leapy]

Even more interesting...

Presumably, you've had no reliability problems? I spoke to the supplier...whilst it's sold as 'waterproof' and advertised as 'submersible', it's not IP rated. The manufacturer is Australian, so..."No worries mate. Be ok. Only a bit of water. Pass me another tinny".

Can't quite see from your photos...what do you use for number plate illumination?

[martini]

number plate illumination is "by others"
A seperate lamp could be utilised for the number plate, I did buy one but decided not to bother fitting it.

The lamps are made up from a panel of lots of small leds, I don't know if water has got in there but some of the leds have stopped working/intermittent after 2 years. I'll replace them when they get too bad but at £30 I'd rather replace every few years than have to mess about with trailer boards etc.

Don't forget if you use removable lamps you can't fix your cables to the trailer, you need to run them through the boat then remove the whole lot for launching, more grief...

[Jeff]

Submersibles

Top set from Australia before you could get any over here. Lower set LED's after reading this post

http://rib.net/forum/showthread.php?t=33591
Got them here as one of their local distributers

http://shop.aeswakefield.com/led-sto...amps-173-c.asp
Part Numbers
200BARLPM2 E
8M 4 WIRE CABLE SET

I wired the upper o/s bulb set so that the brake light circuit can be switched to the fog lamp when needed via the switch on the front distribution box. The filament lamps prevent any problems with car bulb-failure circuitry but you can get round this with additional kit ( resistors I think). All the cabling runs through the trailer frame, the rear connection into the LEDs is waterprrof where it connects to the extension cable and all terminate in a box mounted on the winch post> I did originally mount the light brackets to the end of the trailer trombone extenders but cahnged them for a more rigid mount. Not technically legal as they are about 200mm to far inboard but .... I know Martini's fabrication skills are streets better than mine
I have had no trouble and the LED's are really bright
Now no trailer board to remove, store or runover
Jeff

[Leapy]

Originally Posted by martini

number plate illumination is "by others"

Thought so

Originally Posted by martini

Don't forget if you use removable lamps you can't fix your cables to the trailer, you need to run them through the boat then remove the whole lot for launching, more grief...

After much unreliability and bad language, first prize here is robustness, second prize convenience: I'd be happy pulling off magnetic lights, together with the cable, and stuffing into a bag if I can avoid the dreaded 5ft dirty plastic board and bungy cords. Don't have too much trouble with the cable...I've developed a routine of running the cable along the trailer frame and secured with re-usable cable ties captive to the frame. So, with magnetic lights...pull the two lights off, unclip three or so cable ties, unplug from the car, stuff it all in a Sainsburys bag. Job done.

But I'm still looking at submersible LED's as you've sown the seed

[Leapy]

Originally Posted by Jeff

http://shop.aeswakefield.com/led-sto...amps-173-c.asp
Part Numbers
200BARLPM2 E
8M 4 WIRE CABLE SET

These are the ones I've talked to a supplier about Look good apart from no number plate illumination. They don't do submersible stand alone number plate illumination

Anyone know if/how LED trailer lights affect the trailer light sensing circuitry on a Range Rover Sport? I understand there are work-arounds involving resistors but I've rejected that at the moment on the grounds of my criterion number 1 = reliability.

[martini]

Launching a 28' 3.5t boat is a pain in the a**. Launching any size boat off a trailer has the potential to get your day off to a very bad start. My philosophy has been to treat it like a military exercise, drilled to perfection. I've also analysed every aspect of the operation and modded the trailer to suit my boat/trailer/tow vehicle/slipway combo. It's something that deserves a lot of attention to the details to make succesful. Plus there's a fair amount of satisfaction to be had from launching in a fraction of the time of the 14' Fletcher owner that's next to you

Once I got it all sussed out I then did the sensible thing and got myself a marina berth

Edit: I've got a RR Vogue, it comes up with a fault on the dash when I plug the lights in but they still work