2 problems.......

[Bassboy1645]

On my fishing rig i have 2 problems which are of no concern to me during actual fishing outings but only during tournaments. First off my motor is bogging down. Im thinking carbs.... but that is going to the shop today and it will be fixed soon......the other problem is my night navigation lights. ( White stern light and red green bow lights i think thats what these are called.) The problem is they are really dim!!!! My baterry is good the lights are good. I run 18 guage wire with a 20 amp fuse. Is the choice of wire/fuse the problem or is it somthing else? grounds maybe??? They are legal now but its about a 3/4 mile visibiltiy compared to the 2 mile they are rated for. Thanks for your help!!!

[Fishin4Life]

Not sure if this happened with your lights, but it did on mine. Actually happened to my trailer and also my boat lights. The connections got all corroded up from being splased/suhmerged so many times that they would still work but were so dim you could hardly see them. I took them all apart and filed the connections down a bit so they were nice and shinny again. Maybe this is what happened to yours. My best guess...

[musky hunter]

With regard to the lights: a law of physics, volts = current x amps. At the load, the lights, you are probably not getting 12 volts as you would expect, but maybe 7 or 8 when the lights are on. Why? Unexpected resistance in the circuit. This is most easily measured with a volt meter. But if you don't have one or are not electrically inclined, look for corrosion on connections, corroded wires under the insulation, a burned contact in your switch, or a bad battery connection. It can also be a combination of all of these plus more. There are many ways to trouble shoot the cause, isolating certain parts of the circuit and measuring the resistance with an ohmeter, etc. Hope this points you in the right direction.