How To Put Cab / Flasher Lights ON Designated Switch

[JasonMac]

see, I don't see why John Deere would think driving with your work lights on is such a big deal? I can understand not driving with your rear work lights on.... but All Backhoes are meant to be safe to drive on the roads.... John Deere/ Case/ Cat/ Ford New Holland/ they have no headlights anymore on the front grill... All the lights are up on the Cab... and yes even John Deere has them up on the Cab and the flashers work in unison with the lights.... I just don't get it....

I wonder what the New John Deere Backhoe Light Switches look like... I'm sure it's all independent....

[Karl2]

Originally Posted by JasonMac

see, I don't see why John Deere would think driving with your work lights on is such a big deal? I can understand not driving with your rear work lights on.... but All Backhoes are meant to be safe to drive on the roads.... John Deere/ Case/ Cat/ Ford New Holland/ they have no headlights anymore on the front grill... All the lights are up on the Cab... and yes even John Deere has them up on the Cab and the flashers work in unison with the lights.... I just don't get it...

JD commercial utility tractors still have the headlights in front of the hood, what's mounted on the cab are front and rear work lights ("jacks") and hazards. Red taillights -which look like VW Beetle taillights- are mounted on the rear mudguards. Because work lights are mounted very high and aimed at a slight downward angle they blind other drivers on the road, that's the main reason why it's not legal to use them on many if not most public roads. That's good placement if the tractor is used to mow grass but with a loader in front the hood-mounted headlights are not that useful unless the bucket is kept very low or very high, less than ideal when driving on a road.

IMHO for all tractors with factory loaders (especially 4000 series which are seldom used as mowers) JD should position headlights on the front of the rear wheel fender like they are on many other brands and larger JD models, and have hi-beam/lo-beam settings for road travel. This would not only improve "roadability" but would improve work lighting as well. Like others have mentioned these are expensive tools and should have better designed lights.

[JasonMac]

Sorry, I meant most of your Loader/Backhoes don't have grill lights anymore... they have cab lights and they are road legal.... with flashers too that work in unison...

Example...

The last Case Backhoe to come out with Grill Lights was the Case 580B.
Then the Case 580C came out with lights just above the loader masts located on the Cab.

Then from the 580D on only came with headlights located up on the Cab instead of the Grill.

Case 580D,E,K,L,M's all have cab lights and are street legal.. although some have the optional 4 headlights 2 work, 2 road, and 4 rear work lights...

[Karl2]

Originally Posted by JasonMac

Sorry, I meant most of your Loader/Backhoes don't have grill lights anymore... they have cab lights and they are road legal.... with flashers too that work in unison...

Example...

The last Case Backhoe to come out with Grill Lights was the Case 580B.
Then the Case 580C came out with lights just above the loader masts located on the Cab.

Then from the 580D on only came with headlights located up on the Cab instead of the Grill.

Case 580D,E,K,L,M's all have cab lights and are street legal.. although some have the optional 4 headlights 2 work, 2 road, and 4 rear work lights...

Sorry, I didn't mean to say that all cab mounted lights are not road legal, only that those on JD CUT's aren't. I think it's because even the larger Deere CUT's use a front end style that was originally designed with smaller tractors in mind, like those that use a blade or front blower instead of a loader.

[jgrreed]

Originally Posted by Spudland_Dave

If there is enough interest in this, I can work with some suppliers I've tracked down to get an OEM switch to match the rest of the dash & console switches... Only Problem is I would have to meet some minimum order quantity, etc..
The sky is the limit...what I was thinking would be a black switch with the Hazard triangle printed on it with a red LED indicator light built into it.

Dave, I'm in too. I've been thinking about that for a while, but had no idea where to get them from. I'd be in for 2 or 3 at least. Front lights, rear lights, and (I'm not kidding here) maybe a heated seat.....

Lemme know if you have enough takers, and what the minimums are.

Thanks,

-Jer.

[Karl2]

Originally Posted by jgrreed

and (I'm not kidding here) maybe a heated seat.....

Wouldn't mind that either, I park the tractor outdoors -cab too high for garage door- and on cold days (we're talking Maine cold here, think Siberia) I freeze my butt for 20 mins until cab gets warm and comfy. I was told that eating beans the day before can also help with cold seat issues but I don't care much for beans.

[kennyd]

Excuse my ignorance here-just typing outloud...

But why mess with the factory headlight switch at all? Why not just power the worklights from a new switch or two mounted in one of the switch-blanks in the right hand console? Seems to me that would give the control you guys are looking for, and rocker switches are available from JD that even have the headlight symbol on them.

[Spudland_Dave]

Originally Posted by kennyd

Excuse my ignorance here-just typing outloud...

I Cant speak for the rest of the guys...BUT, my big thing is keeping it "Factory"...meaning I dont want to cut/splice/reroute/or otherwise permanently change the factory harness. So I was looking for a way to do it using a "Factory-esque" setup... the setup nmu98 has going fits that bill...a person could go back to "exact factory" in about 5 minutes...

Originally Posted by jgrreed

Lemme know if you have enough takers, and what the minimums are.

Minimum run would be 100 switches...by run I mean if we want some imprinting on the switch, they have a 50 page document with "standard designs" with pretty much every logo from the Playboy Bunny to heated seat designs (all are the international symbols for their function)...
Minimum for an "in stock" switch is $75.00 per order...In stock switches are switches without any printing...blank switches. Sky is the limit really, we can get LED illumination to show when the switch is active, etc...

[Ramairfreak98ss]

Thats awesome! i just got mine yesterday and was asking the dealer if i can get the flashers to always work with all of the lights too, since we will be using it for commercial snow removal sometimes, it would be nice, to add that to the rotating hella beacon light.

[jgrreed]

Originally Posted by Spudland_Dave

Minimum run would be 100 switches...by run I mean if we want some imprinting on the switch, they have a 50 page document with "standard designs" with pretty much every logo from the Playboy Bunny to heated seat designs (all are the international symbols for their function)...
Minimum for an "in stock" switch is $75.00 per order...In stock switches are switches without any printing...blank switches. Sky is the limit really, we can get LED illumination to show when the switch is active, etc...

An LED Playboy Bunny on my JD??!!! I'll take it!!

100 will be tough to get, but maybe we could order some blanks and have a printer make us some white transfers, or maybe a stencil would work??. I'll take one that reads "Ejection Seat", and another that reads "Missile Lock".

-Jer.