When shopping for marine lights, you may come across trim tab lights. They are commonly found on fishing boats, cruisers, yachts, sailboats and recreational watercraft. To learn more about trim tab lights and how they work, keep reading.
What Are Trim Tab Lights?
Trim tab lights are external lights mounted to a boat’s trim tabs. Trim tabs, of course, are adjustable, hinge-like flaps found on the rear of a boat’s hull. As the name suggests, they are used to control the trim, which is the angle at which the boat cuts through the water. Trim tab lights are specialized lights that are affixed to a boat’s trim tabs.
Benefits of Trim Tab Lights
Why should you use trim tab lights exactly? For starters, they make it easy to identify trim settings. Trim tab lights will move in sync with the trim tabs on which they are mounted. When you adjust your boat’s trim, the direction in which the lights point will change. If you move the trim tabs up, for instance, the lights will point up. If you move the trim tabs down, the lights will point down.
You can install trim tab lights without drilling into or otherwise damaging your boat’s hull. They aren’t mounted on the hull itself. Rather, trim tab lights are mounted on the trim tabs.
Another benefit of trim tab lights is improved visibility. You can use them to illuminate the water around your boat when swimming or fishing at night. Like the trim tabs on which they are mounted, they typically stay underwater. As a result, trim tab lights provide excellent illumination for nighttime water activities like swimming and fishing.
Choosing Trim Tab Lights
You should consider the wattage when choosing trim tab lights. This represents how much electricity a given light consumes. A 9W trim tab light, for example, consumes 9 watts of electricity.
There are single and dual trim tab lights. Single trim tab lights consist of a single light-emitting fixture, whereas dual trim tab lights feature two light-emitting fixtures. The latter typically costs more, but they provide more combined illumination than single trim tab lights.
Something else to consider when choosing trim tab lights is the color. Not all trim tab lights produce white light; you can find them in other colors, such as blue.
Don’t forget to check for waterproof ratings when choosing trim tab lights. Since they are used underwater, they need to be able to withstand submersion without failing. Fortunately, most trim tab lights have a reputable waterproof rating, such as IP67.