Customizing headlights

[ninefinger]

It is a little hard to laugh when one sees something that works and think " why didn't I think of that?"

 

[gemini5362]

The first thought I had was "No matter where in the world you are you can always find Coca Cola.

actually you can not find Coca Cola in Saudi Arabia unless they have changed the laws since I lived there. You can find Dr. Pepper and Pepsi but not Coca Cola

 

[3RRL]

Mike, bravo ... excellent!
I just love that old school American ingenuity.
Rob-

 

[MJPetersen]

Rob, Now that you are living out at your ranch and a long ways from parts and supplies, you will find that there are lots of new ways to "make it work until the next time I go to town." The worst situation is when you just pull in the drive see the tractor sitting there and suddenly remember that you were going to pick up that 1/2 " bolt.

Coke is almost ubiquitous, but there are a few places that Pepsi wins out. For my purposes either would work.

I have been following the other LED thread and I am just dieing to try out the other bulbs (1156) that is in the discussion there. We will see.

Mike

 

[KubotaSam]

I am a little confused here. Where are you guys getting your bulbs? I would love to convert the bulbs on my B7100 to LED'S. Are they available at an auto parts store like NAPA? Who make them and what is the part number?

 

[MJPetersen]

Sam, Check out the other LED Headlights thread. There is a lot of discussion of specific bulbs and the where suggestions. There even are a couple of people that work for companies that make light assemblies with LED technology that reply there.

I used a 12 volt household bulb which I bought at a big building supply store. It is designed to take the place of a halogen spot. There are 2 sizes in this type of bulb: the MR16 is a completely sealed unit that is about 2 inches in diameter, and the MR11 (what I used) is about 1 3/8 inches in diameter.

However, on the other thread they introduced me to some new and brighter possibilities. The 1156 is a replacement for tail lights, turn, and stop lights. It has a bunch of configurations and one of the ones that I found has leds on the sides to take advantage of the reflector in the headlight assembly.

Mike

 

[RussMan]

I may have to get brave and try to improvise like you did MJPeterson.
I am courious, did you order the LEB bulbs (MR 11 or whatever was the number) online or did you find it locally?

I want to add lights so I will have to buy the light housing, and pull out the high-wattage bulbs. But that is still cheaper than $100/light for the LED lights for mounting on my ROPS.

 

[Lefty_Kubota]

thanks so much for posting.. Im going to do this same mod to mine this weekend now...

 

[MJPetersen]

I am curious, did you order the LED bulbs (MR 11 or whatever was the number) online or did you find it locally?

I was able to get the MR 11's at a big building supply store--Home Depot or Lowes in style. If you have the room a MR 16 is also 12 volt and a bit brighter. But for existing housings I believe the 1156 bulbs which have LED's on the sides to bounce light off the reflectors would be the best.

I want to add lights so I will have to buy the light housing, and pull out the high-wattage bulbs. But that is still cheaper than $100/light for the LED lights for mounting on my ROPS.

This is what I was thinking of doing, just make sure that your add on lights do not use sealed beams, but rather have a base of some sort. Then just do a google search for "1156 LED" and you will get plenty of places that you can buy them. I posted pictures above of what I found on the internet here in Poland, but I found similar things in the US too. The base for the 1156 is the same as for tail lights and stop lights on cars, therefore you could get a short pigtail form a junk car tail light and use that. If you used the two contact bulb for brake/tail light then you could even have a high/low beam. You will have to make sure that they are white for the floods and head lights.

Mike

 

[gemini5362]

I did a google search and here is the first one i came up with an MR16 50 watt 12 volt bulb is 7.50 per 5 pack

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