Winter is coming, time to make sure the lights work

[botamike]

With the shorter days and winter conditions arriving now or soon to where you live, now is the time to make sure all the lights work, or upgrade your lighting on your tractors. While I do my snow work on an open cab garden tractor, I still run a rear facing flood light and an amber strobe on the left fender. This pic is of my 316 JD that is now retired. I just picked up a 318 that is in the second pic, she will get the rear flood light and a different strobe. I picked up a battery powered John Deere amber strobe on ebay that runs on 2 D batteries and is magnetic mount so no extra holes in the fender. Its actualy brighter than the strobe that is in that picture. I also upgraded my headlight bulbs from standard 1156's to a high output xenon charged version. In time I plan to put halogen bulbs, like whats used in an emergency light bar, in the front head lights, 27wt on the sides and 35wt in the middle light. A friend did this a year ago with no melting or issues with the plastic lense. I will get a pic of my whole snow removal set up tomorrow, she is up on jack stands to get her chains installed. I run the ags during the summer and turfs and chains in the winter. Mike

[frank_f15]

my fenders are plastic on my B2400 but suppose it would mont to the Rops, any idea how long the batteries will last with the strobe and where on ebay did you find it?

[JDeerekid]

Why do you switch the tires if you are going to run chains anyway? What is the benefit of the turfs with chains vs the ags with chains?

Good idea to make sure the lights are working and adding some safety lights. I have ordered some extra flashing lights to mount on the side of my tractor and added a strobe light to the roof of my tractor. Also thought about adding flasher units to my head and tail lights.

Cant wait for snow. Suppose to get a little monday but not enough to do anything. Still to warm.

[smfcpacfp]

It is funny that you mention this. I gave my tractor a good cleaning inside and out and checked all of the lights to make sure that they are working before I took off my FEL and put on the snow blower:

[botamike]

There are a couple of places on the net that sell the battery powered strobes, I will hunt it up and post the link, they also offer the same light set up, but with LED's instead of a xenon strobe. The Energizer batterys are 2 years old that are in there, and still working. So they do last a long time. I have seen them mounted to the top of the ROPS before when I was working as a mechanic at the local Kubota dealership. They are nice as you can take them off when not needed and dont require any extra wiring. I just got lucky and found this on on ebay with the JD decal on it. Mike

[botamike]

Lumastrobe Warning Lights, emergency warning lights, strobe lights, warning light, flashers and portable lighting. They have both the LED and the xenon strobe lights like I have. Mike

[PaulChristenson]