Stern light height?

[maker of things]

Holy crap the light that came with my boat is tall! The thing has got to be all of 7 foot. I get that the idea was probably to make sure the light is visible if there is an angler on the rear deck. How tall are your white lights?

[Transom]

Trackers come with a long pole too. I found myself having to remove it to go under bridges and then install it on the other side of the bridge. That was a pain in the ass. I bought an adjustable length model. If I am fishing somewhere where I need to fit under a bridge I adjust it short. If I am fishing open water I keep it full length.

[Transom]

Added bonus that it now fits more places in the boat now.

[Skeeterbait]

I cut mine down. As long as it is visible 360 degrees it's good.

[Captian Morgan]

The higher the light is the less you lose your night vision.

[Deerchaser]

Should make them stronger could double as a anchor pole.

[Skeeterbait]

Or a flag pole.

[maker of things]

At 7' tall and if it was stronger, we could put a jib and sail on it and troll using wind power

[Trusty Rusty]

When I got my boat home and began loading my gear in it , I reached in the rod box and grabbed the stern light and pulled it out and didn't think it would ever quit coming out of the rod tube !

[PECo]

Your white stern light is supposed to be at least one meter above your green and red sidelights on the bow. Actually, the USCG regs say that the sidelights must be at least one meter below the stern light, but same difference.

[maker of things]

Skeeterbait, could you describe what you had to do to cut down your light? I can take 21" out of my light and remain 1 meter above my bow light.

[Deerchaser]

Telescoping led stern and led bow fit nicely.

[Deerchaser]

Pic got cut off. Both mounted to the under side rib with room to spare.

[Skeeterbait]

Skeeterbait, could you describe what you had to do to cut down your light? I can take 21" out of my light and remain 1 meter above my bow light.

From the sound of it I think I may have gotten a different light than some of you. Mine the light was secured to the tube with a small sheet metal screw. I removed the screw, used a tubing cutter and cut about 18 inches of tube loose and used tin slips to split it and remove it from around the wire. Then I poked the excess wire down in the remaining tube and reattached the light to the tube.

[maker of things]

The light that came with the Lund is over 72" long and the light housing and plug are both crimped. I can take 21" out of my pole and remain 1 meter taller than my bow light. Well if I screw it up i'm not any further behind than just going and buying a new light anyhow. I'll report back with results.

[Bassenstose]

Doesn't it have to be higher that all parts of the boat? If so, I wonder how many are higher that the power poles.

[Deerchaser]

My state is 3 feet above the bow light. My factory light is 56". I replaced it with a telescoping 26" to 48" for storage reasons.

[Deerchaser]

[maker of things]

the nice little handbook at west marine says coast guard requires 1 meter above the bow light and visible from all directions for __ distance (don't remember how far). The only way that light would be obstructed at 50" above the deck (cut down height approx) on my boat is if an angler was standing there. That is such an unlikely situation coupled with the fact that I would so rarely be in coast guard waters, after dark, with someone standing up, who would not also block the light at 72" off the deck that if I ever get cited I'm buying a ton of lottery tickets if I don't get hit by lightning on the way.

[maker of things]

So I did it. I drilled out the crimp holding the light at the top and marked the pole below where I was going to cut so that the light would maintain orientation. Per Skeeterbait, the tubing cutter made quick work of the pole, but he neglected to mention cutting round tubing with a tin snips is really not fun. Once I got through that I also shoved the extra wire down in. To reattach I used as 1/8 rivet to match the bow light. Now I can very easily slip the light in the outside rod tube in my locker where I wouldn't really be able to get a rod anyhow. I think it could fit under the seat too, but didn't try that.