some things to think about....
when doing loader work at night, i like good solid bright light. right were the edege of bucket will be, and little more in front of the bucket. that way i can see a couple feet in front of the bucket fairly good, and what i just got myself in trouble with.
the problem with lights point so low to the ground for loader work. is you barely have any light further in front of you.
say you load a bail of hay, or you got your bucket of dirt, and you have bucket curled back and setting low to the ground, but ya need to raise it up some so you do not hit anything over a few bumps. and BAM all your lights get block.
with above, i have been really tempted to add 4 lights total to top of ford 555c. (it is a cabbed tractor) so i could have 2 lights pointing down right near edge of bucket, and then flip another switch, so i could turn on 2 more lights that set higher and point father forward. so i can actually see 50 to 100 feet in front of me.
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rear working lights....
3pt hitch. *gggrrr* lets leave it at a gggrrr. having a single focused light i can shine down on the arms and top link. for both backing up to attach to something or to unhook. and i want the light low near the ground, so when i bend over, my fat rear, does not block the light. and darken everything.
for backhoe work, i do like 2 upper rear lights, one on each side, backhoe can only reach so far. so having them high and pointed for most part downwards, does a pretty good job for bright light in small area.
if i have something else on back of tractor, bush hog, trailer, or something else, most upper rear work lights i have seen, air fairly easy to just grab a hold of and twist the lights to shin further back away from tractor. with descent results.
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you need to be careful on power consumption, if you have a basic tractor with or without ROPS (roll over protection system), your altenator may be a lower sized model version. vs FOPS (falling over protection system) or cabbed tractors FOPS and CAB tractors bought new, most likely have the larger version of the alternator. and already have extra lights.
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generic DIP switches for 12V 15amp. can be had and multi hardware stores, for the cheap plastic fenders and dash boards. you might want to see if you can find a large "THIN" washer. to help hold the dip switches in place, so there is less chance of snagging the switch and causing plastic to crack.
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as much as it can be nice to have space in fuse box or pre-wired harness already to go for you. sometimes prefer to have lights wired right to the battery, with a 15 amp inline fuse. so i do not need to get in tractor and turn the key to accessories on. granted, going this way, may mean you accidentally hit a switch and run the battery dead. but there been times just having a quick flip of a switch and having switch say on rear of tractor near 3pt hitch has been a lot easier.
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i would stay away from mounting lights directly onto plastic. and would prefer some sort of clamp, or pipe clamp, or like to firmly hold a light to piece of metal. plastic and vibrations = a washer or a nut just slowly eating away the plastic to the point plastic cracks or what ever it was just fell off.
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no large help on watts of lights. or type of lights. when looking for replacement lights for ford 555c, i just went to a couple local stores, and looked at boxes of what they had, and various boxes showed different light patterns from focused long range light, to a wide spread out light. and distance and area each light covered. and then took a few measurements for mounting on tractor, and were i wanted the light to be.
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placement of lights, higher the better. but as everyone else has noted. do not stick them clear out away from the tractor. i try my best to avoid trees but dang nab it of all. i still have to go under low limbs that brush the to top of the cab. or side of the cab. no real way around it. having them moved in towards center of tractor a little bit helps to protect them.
you can get some lights that have wire grills over them. that may protect the light cover from a tree limb smacking the light directly. but if the light got snagged up on a tree limb, most likely you would rip the entire light right off your tractor. most lights i have seen are pretty cheaply made plastic, and the little pieces of metal brackets, that allow you to adjust were the light points. are not all that strong. so if something going to give. it will most likely be the light hanging up in the tree after it was tore off your tractor.
