Carver Owners Forum

Hello, I need to replace a cover on the lights that are down below in the salon on my newly acquired 2005 model 396. Does anybody know if just the cover is replaceable or do I need to purchase the whole assembly? If so any leads on where to buy them? Thanks

We replace the covers all the time. They are plastic and do crack occasionally. Give Bret a call at Carver or call your local dealer.

Also get rid of those 10 watt Halogen bulbs as the heat is what is killing the light assemblies. Look at Marinebeam.com for replacement LED inserts. The bi-pin lamp you use in your fixtures is called a G4 Bi-Pin. Dump them and be forever free of hassles with your lights. I just upgraded my 2001 406 which had 20 of these G4 Halogens with an insert that comes on RED at first then you can switch them to WHITE by toggling the on/off switch. The amount of current I use now to run these lights is very little and no heat. My master bath had 4 lights in it alone, Salon had 6. What a difference. There are cheaper priced LED out there but they are not CONSTANT CURRENT DESIGN as they use series resistors to control the current. Do not get fooled by cheaper products. I do not endorse any manufacture but state the one above as this is who I purchased from. John

Thank you, great idea. We just got the boat and are coming out of a Regal 3560 Cruiser. I have quite the wish list of things I would like to do.

+1 on calling Brett in the Parts dept. at Marquis/Carver Yachts for replacement salon light covers. 920-822-3214. Have your boat hull ID number handy and Brett should be able to take care of you. Agree on getting rid of those halogen bulbs in favor of LED's, as well.

I replaced all of mine with LEDs that I bought on ebay @ 10 for $10. In all but 4 of the fixtures they worked fine. In those four, all i had to do is switch the polarity of the wiring and voila! For the huge savings, I can switch a couple of wires around!!!

I want everyone to underestand there is a difference in LED design and you get what you pay for. There are two major designs on the market and one is a LED with a series resistor to control the current. The other is a Constant Current design that has electronic circuitry controlling the light output over the stated life span of the LED chip. The cheaper units come from China and the more expensive constant current units are USA made. Go to BoatUS and read this article about LEDs. http://www.boatus.com/magazine/2013/dec ... e-leds.asp. Also go to Marinebeam and read this article http://store.marinebeam.com/technicalinfo.html. Also at Marinebeam they have this video showing non constant current design when the voltage is increased to the LED. http://store.marinebeam.com/whyounetokna.html. Your wondering why I am posting a reply to the cheaper LED's, Well it is because I am a Electro/Mechanical Engineer who has been in the Semiconductor Industry for 36 years and I informed myself before I purchased. I have personal friends who purchased the China made units and I wanted to know why the big price swing. My take is purchase what you can afford but for my Carver I want the best.

MissWhit's wrote:Also get rid of those 10 watt Halogen bulbs as the heat is what is killing the light assemblies. Look at Marinebeam.com for replacement LED inserts. The bi-pin lamp you use in your fixtures is called a G4 Bi-Pin. Dump them and be forever free of hassles with your lights. I just upgraded my 2001 406 which had 20 of these G4 Halogens with an insert that comes on RED at first then you can switch them to WHITE by toggling the on/off switch. The amount of current I use now to run these lights is very little and no heat. My master bath had 4 lights in it alone, Salon had 6. What a difference. There are cheaper priced LED out there but they are not CONSTANT CURRENT DESIGN as they use series resistors to control the current. Do not get fooled by cheaper products. I do not endorse any manufacture but state the one above as this is who I purchased from. John

John,
Just to be clear. You used an LED insert and did not replace the whole fixture.

Thanks
Fraser

Yes, it was just an insert and not the whole lamp assembly. I have had these lights in for three months now and they are nice. My lights turn on initally RED but a flick of the on/off switch they go WHITE and I mean bright. The company I purchased from also have ones that come on BLUE and with a flick of the on/off switch go WHITE. I read somewhere that I am not suppose to link companies in this forum but read my previous writeup and you can contact them by phone. I had one light that operated weird and contacted the company and they sent me a new one without me having to send the defective one back. Oh, by the way, I also upgraded my NAVIGATIONAL bulbs also and I went from 85 watts of used power to 10 watts of used power. What a difference when in a cove at night. John

The wattage drop is impressive. We are just taking delivery of a 2001 350 Mariner this week and all the things you mentioned, cracking decor rings have happened to this boat. The dealer is replacing all of the decor rings but I will be retrofitting the lights with LED over the summer.

Thanks for your tips
Fraser
Georgian Bay, Ontario Canada
2001 350 Mariner twin 350 MAG MPI