Access to cabin light bulbs?

[matts997]

Recently bought a '96 H280 and need to replace a bulb in one of the overhead cabin lights. Tried turning the lens and housing and looked for a notch or something to pry off the lens, but to no avail. How do you take lens or housing off to gain access to the bulb? Thought it better to ask before I do something stupid with a screwdriver.

Thanks, Matt

 

[Sailgunner]

Are they flush mounted lights about 3" dia? If so you pry the plastic outer ring off with a knife. It will pop right off. Make sure not to force it or you could crack the plastic. The lense comes off with the ring so don't drop it,

 

[matts997]

Yes, the 3" lights. Thanks for the tip, will save me the hassle of breaking something.

matt

 

[pateco]

Are they flush mounted lights about 3" dia? If so you pry the plastic outer ring off with a knife. It will pop right off. Make sure not to force it or you could crack the plastic. The lense comes off with the ring so don't drop it,

Mine look like the one in the top left of this picture(not my boat). Are those the ones you are describing? I need to change the bulbs, but cannot figure out how to open without breaking? Broke one already. Need to figure out the trick so I don't break any more.

 

[matts997]

I do have one light like yours under the raised galley shelf that you typically find on H280s. Haven't tried to remove that one yet--but it looks like a generic light that I've seen at West Marine??

My cabin ceiling and bulkhead lights are different than yours, ~ 3" round, shaped like a hockey puck. I was able to pull one off with rubber gloves (to get traction). Took a lot of effort. But I can't the get the others off this way and some are recessed so using a knife to pry then off isn't possible. So, like you, I'm still looking for any suggestion for a method or tool.....

Matt

 

[jeffclown]

Mine look something like Pateco's lights. The lens cover (center portion) rotates about 45 degrees to turn on/off. To remove the lens cover on mine, I push IN/UP on the lens and it rotates an additional 15 degrees counter clockwise from what it normally would. The lens then comes out. There are 3 tabs and one is larger - it only goes back together in one position. If yours are like mine, maybe that helps. Good luck.

 

[pateco]

Mine look something like Pateco's lights. The lens cover (center portion) rotates about 45 degrees to turn on/off. To remove the lens cover on mine, I push IN/UP on the lens and it rotates an additional 15 degrees counter clockwise from what it normally would. The lens then comes out. There are 3 tabs and one is larger - it only goes back together in one position. If yours are like mine, maybe that helps. Good luck.

Jeff,

Thanks, I will give that a try. The one over the nav station is already broken. I want to change them all to LED, and the bulbs are cheap and available, but I don't want to break my fixtures during the swap. The budget only goes so far, LOL.

 

[matts997]

I finally found a tool that easily removes the lens for the H280 recessed cabin lights. I've attached images of both the light and the tool.

Good idea to replace the conventional bulbs with LEDS--I'll be doing the same.

Matt






n lights

 

[Tata duende]

Just a Heads-up, I stumbled across a very cheap source of LEDs. Go to the Walmart website and search for LED auto bulbs, a very large selection will pop up; you can put your order in through Walmart and it is transferred to a company called Tasharina which ships direct to you with no tax or shipping. I have replaced almost all the incandescent festoon type bulbs in my 280 with LEDs, (some red) for an avg cost of about $2.00/bulb. I used the 41mm festoon base for all of them; the 39mm probably do OK in the cabin but the bow & stern lights need the 41's. I used the ones with the flat plate and the little diodes all facing one direction, figured they would throw all the light out towards the lens, but there is a large selection to choose from. I still have to get up the mast for the anchor light and the best I could figure is that is a 31mm and I got the type with the diodes mounted 360 degrees, but not been up the mast yet.

 

[matts997]

Thanks for the tip about Walmart bulbs. My stern bulb has burned out and I need a replacement--and these are very difficult to find. Question: the bulb that burned out is 43 mm. Did you mean 43 instead of 41 mm or did you simply bend the contacts to make a 41 mm bulb work?

Matt

 

[Tata duende]

Matt, I used the 41mm in both the stern & bow lights; same size worked fine in the interior cabin lights. I guess you could tweak the contacts just a tad if they were a little loose; I was out after dark on Sat and everything came on just fine.
Brian