Nate, When I got my old 14-ft V hull from a buddy, he had rigged up a combination light & retaining bar. It worked very well until I decked the boat over. He had created it our of cheep surplus stuff, assembled well enough to hold up for years. It was much less painful to use than having the “low” trailer mounted lights.
I’m including this detailed description not for you to make a direct copy, but to stimulate your grey matter. He used a 2x4 since it was being using to keep the boat on the trailer. A chain with a screen door spring on it hung down off each side to a hook. These hooks went to mating eyes on the trailer. To attach, you set the bar across the transom and stretch the hook down to the eye on the first side (roughly 2”), the bar would lift slightly on the other end due to the first spring tension. It snapped back in place with the second hook. In the approximately 10 years it was run this way it never unhooked thanks to the significant spring pressure. And unlike tie down straps, the vertical loaded wood never damaged the boat. The lights were attached to the 2x4 with 4 - 90 degree framing supports spaced to line up with the light fasteners. This took some trimming and hole drilling but worked great. The license plate mounts on top of the bar next to the tail light for illumination. Dave (my buddy) had dug up a real license holder that would work in that position but I’m sure you can dig up some longer right angle supports that would work if you can’t find one.
The wiring while not pretty, was done very well. The lights did not have ground wires and relied on the mounting screws to ground the light. Since 2x4s don’t conduct electricity very well he added ground wires by drilling a small hole through the back of the light and running his ground wire in. He soldered it to the internal strip that holds the light socket. The penetration was sealed with liquid solder around the wire. The light wires were run along the bar to a central point where they entered a garden hose for the long run to the plug. Dave used two conduit loop attachments to firmly attach the hose to the bar, preventing any load transfer to the light wiring. During handling, this is a stressed area and having the hose act as flexible conduit was a great idea. In operation, the plug end of the hose attached to the bow of the boat with a tie and a lighter flexible 4-wire pigtail continued the last few feet to the terminal plug. This pigtail was taped heavily, for both chafe protection and to keep the separate ground wire attached.
I have since switched to using lights on the roller guides due to their ease. That said I still have occasional light failures as well as breakage when the boat gets hung in the current and crushes them. At $5 to $6 a pop and 10 minutes time to replace a light this isn’t that big a deal to me.
Scott
