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Thought I would post what I did to incorporate 288 total watts and around 20,000 lumen LED lights on my 2013 G23 tower. There are many good options for aftermarket lighting for our towers out there, but I was honestly disappointed with their output and setups. I wanted some high powered lights to mount on my tower to light up the lake at dusk and dark while surfing this summer. I bought 4 12" 24x3 watt LED lights to mount on my tower. I wanted them clean looking and to be controlled though my linc screen. Each light has an estimated 7200 lumen output @12.5V and draws about 6 amps. My G came equipped with the 4 Roswell tower speakers with the lights in them. I had already removed those speakers and replaced them with 4 Rev 10's. The electrical plug going to all the stock speakers had two wires that powered the speakers and then another two wires that powerd the LED lights in them. I cut the connectors off in order to install the Revs, but left the two wires for the lights exposed, knowing I was going to add lights in the future.
From there it was as easy as just connecting positives to positives and neg to neg for all the lights. On the Linc screen after I did this though, I got a circuit fault for the overhead lights and they shut right off within seconds. The amp draw (~24amps) was too much to go through the PDM switch. I knew this may happen, so I began thinking about putting in a relay setup using the wiring coming from the Linc as the trigger. In the 2013 Linc system, there is a blue wire with orange tracer that comes from the tower and runs into the PDM2. The wire is labeled "overhead lts". This is the positive wire for the lights that I cut and used for the relay. Using a SPDT 40 amp relay, I wired a fused 30 amp wire direct to the common post of the Perko switch and then to the 12V+ terminal of the relay, i connected a ground wire to the ground bus bar under the drivers helm and ran it to the neg terminal of the relay coil, I then used the blue with orange tracer wire that I cut for the switched 12V+ terminal on the relay, and lastly connected the other side of the blue with orange tracer wire that goes to the lights, to the positive side of the relay coil.
Basically wired it up light any other relay'd external light kit out there, but instead of using another external switch that I would have to mount somewhere, I used the linc "overhead lights" button to control it. Now, if I want tower lights on, i go into linc and select them and poof, I can light up the night.
From there it was as easy as just connecting positives to positives and neg to neg for all the lights. On the Linc screen after I did this though, I got a circuit fault for the overhead lights and they shut right off within seconds. The amp draw (~24amps) was too much to go through the PDM switch. I knew this may happen, so I began thinking about putting in a relay setup using the wiring coming from the Linc as the trigger. In the 2013 Linc system, there is a blue wire with orange tracer that comes from the tower and runs into the PDM2. The wire is labeled "overhead lts". This is the positive wire for the lights that I cut and used for the relay. Using a SPDT 40 amp relay, I wired a fused 30 amp wire direct to the common post of the Perko switch and then to the 12V+ terminal of the relay, i connected a ground wire to the ground bus bar under the drivers helm and ran it to the neg terminal of the relay coil, I then used the blue with orange tracer wire that I cut for the switched 12V+ terminal on the relay, and lastly connected the other side of the blue with orange tracer wire that goes to the lights, to the positive side of the relay coil.
Basically wired it up light any other relay'd external light kit out there, but instead of using another external switch that I would have to mount somewhere, I used the linc "overhead lights" button to control it. Now, if I want tower lights on, i go into linc and select them and poof, I can light up the night.
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