Oversized load at night

Sundancer

Well-Known Member
Jul 20, 2005
2,909
Prosser, WA
Boat Info
34 year old CLASSIC 300 DA, towed almost anywhere behind the Duramax Dually Crew Cab.
Engines
16 cyl, 700 cu. in./Alpha I's
I've never had to do this and I have all the right equipment, a set of amber/red lights to replace the orange flags at the widest point. I just can't get the magnetic bases to stick to the fiberglass! LOL!! They are great lights and I've extended the wiring for the 11 foot beam, but I can't think of a way to secure them to the side of the boat. I could duct tape them, but then I'd have an ugly mark that gets dirty quickly. I was trying to figure out some way to use the cleat to hold the light, but I'm just out of ideas. I figured someone has already done this and they can share their method! Pictures get extra bonus points!!
 
I've never towed at night so haven't had to worry about fastening the lights. I'd probably use the duct tape and get a bottle of rubbing alcohol to take off the residue from the tape.
 
When my 340 was delivered from Tennessee, permits were needed along with a special routing due to height. The permits only allowed daylight travel, no night travel.
 
I have a wide load permit for Florida. Your not allowed to tow a wide load after dark here.
 
Wide load towing after dark is something you will have to investigate.

But if you want to attach the lights, clamp a pair of large vice grips to the cleat. Use a piece of rubber hose to prevent gauging the cleat. Tape the handles so they don’t pop open. Attach the magnetic lights to the vice grips.
An extra piece of lightweight para chord can be used as safety line just in case.
 
Check your local regs, I know on my coast towing oversized after dark is a no no.
On the lights, can you zip tie them to the cleats? I use large zip ties and fasten a rotating beacon to the radar arch to help draw attention to the wide load.
 
It's allowed in Washington as long as you are under 12 feet wide (no pilot cars required) and under 14'6 in height. My only concern is getting stuck somewhere and having an alternate should I need to use it. This weekend, I can't tow after noon on Sunday or all day Monday. I can understand that in the Seattle area, but around here the traffic is not bad on Memorial Monday. I actually considered leaving at Midnight on Monday night, but we'll just pull out at 10:00 AM Sunday morning and head home. I live about 40 minutes from the launch and there is no traffic around here except during the Hanford rush hours. It's freeway the whole way and I'm familiar with the route.

I might play around with the zip ties to see if I can figure something out. I'm not sure the crescent wrench would work due to the angle of the wrench off the cleat. It would have to be vertical or horizontal to attach the light and provide amber forward/red backward orientation with the flat magnet as the base. Just thought someone may have gone down this path and could save me some time! Getting the lights on and be stable at 65 mph or so might be a challenge.

Thanks for your suggestions! I'm going to solder up the additional wire to stretch the distance between the lights and then I'll look into how I can hang them off the cleat, strap, rail, arch....something!!
 
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If you have guide poles, you could attach a length of pipe and a flat plate on top and just drop them into the guide poles. Where are you thinking of placing them? At the stern or at the widest point by the arch?
 
Scorpio, I don't have any guide poles and I have the orange flags on the back cleats. I think the widest part of the boat is at the mid ship cleat but I doubt anybody would measure and notice. You can see the orange flags from the front and rear. I'm thinking of either a bracket or maybe attaching them to the strap that goes over the back just ahead of the back cleat when it's on the trailer. I sort of fiddled around with them and never really did come up with a good way to do it. I might have to come up with bracket that hugs the cleat or hangs from it.
 
I can attest to the fact that where he wants to tow, there pretty much is no traffic.
It's country style interstate.
The law is ridiculous for this side of the state.
We missed you out there today Jim.
 
Yeah leaving at 10:00 AM on a Sunday morning halfway through the holiday weekend sucks! I should have just stayed until Midnight Monday night and THEN driven home!! I would have been home by 1:37 AM! It was nice to see you and your other half. Oh, and your wife too!!
 
UPDATE!!! I finally figured out a rather elegant solution and figured I'd share it just incase someone else may need to do this as well. I opened up the plastic housing that holds the wires and the magnet and removed the magnet so I could move the wires to one side. That allowed me to drill into the plastic housing. I used a smaller 29/64's inch drill bit and went through both sides. Then on the RED side, I drilled it out to 1/2 inch or slightly larger to allow the housing to slip onto the cleat. It's smaller at the front and larger at the back and it's a nice tight fit.
20180731_195850.jpg
20180731_195839.jpg
20180731_195832.jpg
It slides onto the front of my cleat perfectly! They are VERY solid and now I just need to use a small bungy to wrap around the base of the light and back to the BACK side of the cleat to hold it firmly in place!
 
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I'd probably use the duct tape and get a bottle of rubbing alcohol to take off the residue from the tape.

Or “GooGone” (actual, extremely effective product, in small bottle) or, even WD-40 with a rag or two and some elbow grease works great at removing adhesive residue.

Best o’ Success (& Safety First)!

Edit: LOL, I missed your last and solution — Way ... To ... Go!!!
 
UPDATE!!! I finally figured out a rather elegant solution and figured I'd share it just incase someone else may need to do this as well. I opened up the plastic housing the holds the wires and the magnet and removed the magnet so I could move the wires to one side. That allowed me to drill into the plastic housing. I used a smaller 29/64's inch drill bit and went through both sides. Then on the RED side, I drilled it out to 1/2 inch or slightly larger to allow the housing to slip onto the cleat. It's smaller at the front and larger at the back and it's a nice tight fit.View attachment 58475 View attachment 58476 View attachment 58477 It slides onto the front of my cleat perfectly! They are VERY solid and now I just need to use a small bungy to wrap around the base of the light and back to the BACK side of the cleat to hold it firmly in place!
Great idea Jim, I like it and my use it in the future, thanks for posting!
 
I realize this thread is old. Another alternative would be to buy a 12 foot 2x4, cut to length, attach the lights, and secure it to the swim platform. One could even use the cheap Harbor Freight lights for this.

MM
 
Monaco Mike, that is another great solution. That's probably as solid as anything else and it's just a matter of securing it to the swim step. That is simplistic and elegant as well! So much so that I didn't even think about it! LOL!! With a board, I could have put it up above the cleat but still out nice and wide.

As far as lights, I DID use the cheap harbor freight lights! LOL!! I did have to solder in about 4 feet if wire to allow the left and right light to stretch to each cleat and I had to add about 20 feet to main harness to allow it to reach the second 7 pin plug in the side of my truck bed. I figured that these will be rarely used, so they will just sit in the truck waiting for that emergency or rare time I need them!
 
Only problem with the board idea is what to do with that long board once the boat is launched. Where do you store it?
 

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