Hotspotoutdoors

If I really want to pack light I have a hard time beating candles. they're small, waterproof when stored and they throw a nice amount of light. plus it sets the mood if you have your better half with- haha.

as soon as I can find a lighting system that works better that my coleman lantern I will but it. Until then, I will stick with what i use now.

Agreed, there are so many options out there now for lighting a portable. So much better than even a couple years ago. L E D lights, I love you.

Since I started using the Luminator style lights last winter I will never use a lantern again. In fact I sold it in my wife's rummage sale last summer. I'm adding about 20-30 feet of wire onto one of those lights for my Tip Ups, and use one in the Portable. It's really easy to add different connectors or splice in more wire to this light.
You can use the same battery as your Vexilar is on, but I carry a spare battery just for the lights.
Works slicker 'n snot on a hot door knob.

nice mod dtro......regarding the fan/light combo....coleman has a tent fan/light combo that I picked up 2-3 years ago and used for a season or 2 but the downfalls were that I didn't get enough light for my liking and the darn thing went through batteries like crazy..... I also have had a dome light wired into my portable with wire running to alligator clips to attach to spare vex battery and that has worked slick for 5 years now.....the new thing that I really like though is the flexible LED light to attach to the vexilar. that way you can point it down the hole to watch a bobber or rod tip or point it in any direction and it can light up a good area...plus when you are setting up or taking down in the dark you always have light without having to wait for a lantern to cool off when all you want to do is head off the lake!!

Great idea. I bet one of those LED book lights would work awesome. Just clip it to the flasher or whatever for a little more direct lighting when needed.

These Christmas lights basically give you enough light to see well enough to tie a knot or remove hooks from a fish. Probably not bright enough to read a book, but maybe. What is nice is that the light is spread evenly across the entire house.

I have alot of strings of old lights if you want then Darren otherwise I'm going to throw them out.

12V LED's?

I am going to try those out dtro be kida cool running a string outside my Northlander. That way I will bee seen and have a bit lumanance for hole hopping around the tent.

Now thats a great idea, never thought about lights outside. Would also be beneficial for packing up in the dark.
I agree that vexilar flexible LED does works very nice for pointing at bobber hole. I'm sure you could mount it on other flashers. 2 thumbs up!!!

All regular 110.

Too much work for me to use, I would rather just purchase ones made for the job for about the same dollars.

These new string LED lights are very nice and the Luminater lights are awesome.

Yeah, these are 6V LED's that I used, not your average 110 filament Christmas lights. I wouldn't use those either.

I looked at those iluminators a little closer, they might be the hot ticket. What gauge wire is on them? anyone know?

All I know is that they have a commercial grade wire I believe. The owner of the company is a member on FM and I am sure he will chime in.

Magicstix, the wire on the Luminator lights is 24 gauge.
Please let me know if you have other questions. Matt.

Xmas lights are easily adaptable for use as porty lighting. I found some battery powered L E D s for $7 at a home improvement store over the weekend. Set them up in a half hour and they work great.

I bought a Black-n-Decker rechargeable LED trouble light for my pro-scout. It can also be ran from a 12v. has 2 levels of brightness has lasted 5 hours. I bought a second just work when a electrical cords can't reach. Also work great as an extra for in the boat. Ran about $25 @ wally world but I can use it for several projects.

I bought the illumintor lights too- love them, very bright! I already customized them. I put them in a piece of 1.5" pvc pipe, and drilled holes just big enough for light to stick through. Now its bullet proof and portable!

I picked up a LED rope light with the alligator clips and run that off an extra flasher battery. Puts off pretty good light and it appears to be pretty durable so far. I think it was around 10-15 bucks at the end of last winter at the sports store in the St Cloud mall. Zip tied to pole and done. I think the string lights might be a little brighter but I'd like to check them out too. Maybe run them on another pole to compare?

I have become a big fan of the tent lights or UFO lights. They are really light and easy to carry around but with bigger shacks and two guys they dont give out a whole lot of light. More often than not though I use a head lamp anyways then you can always have enough light when you need it and it points where you say. What you want comes down to how much light you prefer LEDs sure have made some great and cheap lights though

Nice thread, dtro, I am going to give this a shake. I have used old auto bulb assemblies in the past though they draw more power. I usually use the lantern and a headlight but am interested to compare the output. Are there different size LED bulbs in terms of output??

Hope it didn't already get mentioned but whats the approx run time with the AA batteries?

I noticed most everybody is using spare small Vexilar type 12V batteries for power. Here is something you may want to consider. I bought one of those Black & Decker Power Packs for a power source. It has a built in light which works good for setting up or tearing down in the dark and it has a 12 volt power outlet. I don't bother with 12 volt DC applications for lights and other accessories. I just use a 100 Watt Power Converter plugged into the power outlet and I convert the DC power to AC and then I can run standard AC accessories. For light I just use a clamp light and one of those low wattage florescent bulbs - you can perform surgery inside my portable. Here is a pic of the Power Pack - costs about $40 or so but if the car won't start because of a dead battery you now have backup jump starting available if needed. This is a good alternative to the small 12V batteries - Like Tim the Tool Man says - More Power is always better.

I would say the AA last about 4-5 hours Cooter...the trick is making sure those things dont turn on during transport so I keep mine in a large folgers coffee container with a cloth around it and it never turns on

Thank you!