Drilling Holes in Roll Over Bar for Lights

[Piston]

I've actually purchase some powerful rare earth magnets. I'm pretty sure they will be strong enough but once I get them on I'll post on here how they work out.

Funny, I was just going to post about magnets.

Let us know how they work out. I was going to use a magnet to mount a 15" LED light bar, but decided to just drill the holes and screw it in instead. I was going to use the magnet because it would be easy to spin the light around and face it towards the rear, rather than front, if I needed light back there. However, I decided against as I wanted a more permanent mount, and also, I don't worry about the holes in the ROPS. I ended up purchasing two of those Tuff lights (the round ones) and will mount them on my rear fenders, facing rear, and mount the light bar under the ROPS.

 

[pmsmechanic]

@ dragoneggs If you don't know what I mean take a flashlight at night and hold it above your eyes and look at how you can't see as many shadows. When the light is below your eyes it's easier to see objects or bumps etc. because you can now also see the shadow that the object makes. The point being that on my tractor at least there are enough holes at below eye level on the rops that you don't need to drill any. As far as branches rubbing the wires off I have broken both of my side flashers off because John Deere's light guard is basically useless. Now I suppose you can laugh about that but in the line of custom work that I do I regularly by hand push branches aside so that they aren't stabbing me etc. If I had the choice to drive around them I would. I suppose I should take a few pictures and post in summer so that you could see the situation. My ideal for auxiliary lights is to have them mounted lower and within the confines of the rops or somewhere where they won't be moved by branches etc.

 

[streamin]

I went one step further. I drilled a hole, inset a nut and welded it around the edge so I had a nice threaded hole to mount my lights. I don't buy into the "ruin" the integrity stuff. As for warranty? Just an excuse for the company not to be responsible. I think I have other things to worry about than dieing from a hole in my rops...

 

[lilranch2001]

I read some of these comments here with a bit of a grin. You see when I first bought my tractor the local dealer was taking them to a welding shop to get a non folding rops made into a folding one. That's right they would cut the rops and weld brackets onto it to enable it to fold. For those of you who want to argue that you destroy the certification of the rops save your breath because I agree with you. I don't for one minute believe that a good welder following John Deere's design on their folding rops destroys the integrity of the rops by making the modification. There's no magic steel here. It's just regular steel that's designed to do the job. The same goes for drilling holes in the rops. Drilling a hole to mount lights or bury wires will probably void the certification. But small holes drilled in the center to bury wires or mount lights will not destroy the integrity of the rops. Those of you who want to argue go ahead but first go look at your rops. I have a 4410 and there are all kinds of holes drilled into it. The top ones I assume to mount a canopy and middle ones for lights etc. I wouldn't drill at the bottom because that is where most of the stress is in a rollover situation even though John Deere drills holes there to mount the fenders.

I thought John Deere died many years ago......
:laughing:

 

[Piston]

I went one step further. I drilled a hole, inset a nut and welded it around the edge so I had a nice threaded hole to mount my lights. I don't buy into the "ruin" the integrity stuff. As for warranty? Just an excuse for the company not to be responsible. I think I have other things to worry about than dieing from a hole in my rops...

That's a good idea! Thanks.

 

[jenkinsph]

I went one step further. I drilled a hole, inset a nut and welded it around the edge so I had a nice threaded hole to mount my lights. I don't buy into the "ruin" the integrity stuff. As for warranty? Just an excuse for the company not to be responsible. I think I have other things to worry about than dieing from a hole in my rops...

Seems to me using a weld pad would be a good choice for your method. I don't have them right now but basically these were round discs with threads in the center to
fasten equipment down. Cheap easy fix.


Piston,
There are some weld pads made with swivel mountings which would work great for turning the lights around too.

Here is a link to some on Grainger's site. http://www.grainger.com/search/ecat...pad+female?sst=All&perPage=16&requestedPage=1

 

[Piston]

Thanks Steve, that's a good idea, I didn't know about "weld pads".

 

[techwrtr2]

Thanks Steve, that's a good idea, I didn't know about "weld pads".

I'd never heard the name either but they look pretty much like any permanently attached threaded hole stuck in sheet metal. McMaster-Carr calls them "weld nuts". McMaster-Carr

 

[chvfrk98]

Funny, I was just going to post about magnets.

Let us know how they work out. I was going to use a magnet to mount a 15" LED light bar, but decided to just drill the holes and screw it in instead. I was going to use the magnet because it would be easy to spin the light around and face it towards the rear, rather than front, if I needed light back there. However, I decided against as I wanted a more permanent mount, and also, I don't worry about the holes in the ROPS. I ended up purchasing two of those Tuff lights (the round ones) and will mount them on my rear fenders, facing rear, and mount the light bar under the ROPS.

That was my thought but with as string as these are we shall see about spinning them. I bought 4 work lights for the sides to have front and rear so u didn't have to spin them. It may be handy with the light bar on top of the rops.

 

[Piston]

The reason I went against it, is because I want to mount my gopro camera on my ROPS sometime to video backing through large saplings with my rotary cutter, and the strong magnet will interfere/wipe out the camera. Otherwise, I think it's an excellent idea.