Powering Rope Lights

[DaSwede]

What do you use to power your rope lights (LED or other)? Do you just use an extra Vex-type battery or something bigger?

[Agronomist_at_IA]

What do you use to power your rope lights (LED or other)? Do you just use an extra Vex-type battery or something bigger?

I've got two rope lights, one on the front, and one on the middle pole in my Fish Trap Voyager. I just run them off of a battery I use for a vex or camera. It's suprising how long a battery that won't run a camera will run the rope lights.

[Nordern]

I use an extra Vex battery and it has more than enough juice for a few evenings of fishing. I picked one up last year w/ a charger at GM for just over $20.00.

[The_Diesel]

Right now I've got my trolling motor battery set up to run lights, a fan, and my cell phone/music player. The thing is heavy though, so over time I may find that the batteyr used for my summer portable fish finder (similar to a Vex battery) will work out better.

[mccullen]

Any 12 volt battery would do. The type of battery is a personal choice on how long you want it to last and usually that goes hand in hand with the weight or size of the battery. If you want it to run longer, that means you will have a bigger, heavier battery. I just use a vex battery. 12v 9ah

[Fishjet]

I use one of those all in one power packs. It has 2 banks of led lights, 2-12volt power outlets, and built in jumper cables in case the four wheeler wants to be cold blooded and needs a kick.

[DaSwede]

I've used both a trolling motor battery and an extra vex battery. The vex didn't seem to last as long as I thought it would. The trolling motor battery worked really well, but it's so darn heavy. My rope lights aren't LED, so they probably drain batteries faster.

[Da Biggin]

I am running three 10 watt 12 volt lights and a single rope light. As well as a 12 volt auxilary port. All together the system pulls about 3.3 amps and I've decided to go with a larger amp battery to give me ample amounts of runtime. I flipped the bill on a 33 amp battery that weighs in at about 20lbs. with that load at that amperage I will get just under 10 hours of continuous use at peak performance. I don't ever plan on being on the lake that long but in the event that I am I want to have plenty of power. For my longer trips I always pack the deep cycle as well and leave it in the car in the event I need a back up.

[Hardyboy]

In my porty i have 3 of the clam rope lights on my cross bars in the ceiling as well as 2 rectangular fixed led lights mounted 2 the tub behind your feet 2 light up the floor. I use a flasher battery to run them. Last year i was out and my locator battery died so i swapped out my battery for my lights to run the locator and hooked the "dead" battery to my lights and it powered my lights like a fresh battery and that "dead" battery lasted the rest of the trip for my lights. The lights have an incredibly low draw. On a side note the lights on the tub make it nice for tearing down in the dark as they light up a nice area when you open up the porty.

[mnmofro]

What did you use to mount the lights? Zip ties? Or do they just come with mounting hardware?

[Hardyboy]

What did you use to mount the lights? Zip ties? Or do they just come with mounting hardware?

I used heavy duty white zip ties for mine and trimmed them tight so i wouldnt have a sharp edge to poke the canvas.