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View Full Version : DIY Tower Anchor Light



chrisk
11-07-2011, 02:42 PM
So when I bought my Aerial tower 2 years ago they accidentally sent me an Attwood LED anchor light. The light clipped in to some of their other towers bought mine wasn't compatible with mine. I just had it sitting in a box for the last year and half but then I got bored and had an idea.

I modified the light slightly using a lathe so that it would fit down inside a piece of pipe that I had laying around from an old child's basketball hoop. I had a friend's grandpa weld a steel plate inside of the pipe and drill and tap a 1/4" thread through that plate. We used a hole saw and grinder to cut the proper radius into the bottom of the pipe and we epoxied the light to the top of the pipe.

On the tower, we drilled down through the top of the tower all the way through to the bottom. Then using a progressive bit drilled out about a 3/4 - 1" hole in the top so I could use needle nose pliers to grab the existing extra wires I had laying in the tower. Wired the light up, put a piece of rubber on the bottom of the pipe and bolted it to the tower. Cut the rubber around the edges with a razor to make it nice and clean and I was done.

No more messing around with the standard anchor light pole in the back of the boat, just have to pull the existing switch.

http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/zz345/chriskuecker/44fb2d7d.jpg

http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/zz345/chriskuecker/b2fcc260.jpg

http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/zz345/chriskuecker/118455a4.jpg

http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/zz345/chriskuecker/308962d0.jpg

sybrmike
11-08-2011, 01:33 PM
Very nice mod. Guess you can't do any more of those show ski 360's around the boat anymore.

chrisk
11-08-2011, 02:44 PM
Ha, yeah the Sunsport doesn't quite have the acceleration for that.

Jetlink
11-09-2011, 12:22 AM
Ha, yeah the Sunsport doesn't quite have the acceleration for that.

Pretty sure that can be fixed...haha!

wotan2525
11-09-2011, 01:01 AM
Ha, yeah the Sunsport doesn't quite have the acceleration for that.

Wrong! I can do it with my saltare. ;)

chrisk
11-09-2011, 01:20 PM
That 454 must be pushin hard then lol, my girlfriend and her family were on a National Champion show ski team and they don't seem to think it's possible

ruby23m
11-14-2011, 12:09 AM
That looks great. When I bought my Aerial tower 2 years ago, they had not integrated the anchor light on top of the tow point yet, I was about 2 months too early on my purchase I guess. That mod looks great, I have been trying to figure out a way to do the same, now I have instructions!

chrisk
11-14-2011, 04:07 PM
Yeah I had ordered too early for my model of tower as well, they just sent it to me on accident, got lucky. The trickiest part about the mod is getting the plate welded inside of the pipe relatively level and then making sure your drilled and tapped hole is drilled PERFECTLY level so the thing sits straight up and down on the tower