BX23 ROPS work lights

[Volfandt]

Greetings.
Discovered one evening that the stock headlites on the BX23 were just about useless w/a loaded FEL. Not to mention I had no lighting at all should I ever feel the need to do any digging or rear implement tote'n/working at night so faced with these delimna's I was faced with no other choice than to drill some more holes in my practically new BX23!

I decided to go with a couple 35watt specials from Northern to keep the load down on the dynamo and they seem to do a fairly good job of lighten it up too!
I mounted them so I can easily spin them around for rear facing light. Theres no height problem as the ROPS is more than tall enough so they're somewhat protected too.

The ROPS was very easy to fish the wire through and theres already a small hole at the base where the ROPS attaches to the frame so I took the liberty to widen it out a hair more. Since I was only adding approx 6 more amps to the lighting circuit I decided to use a pass-through splice and added the new circuit to the existing lighting circuit which means the single switch controls 'em all. I guessing the switch should handle at the least 15 amps (more than likely 20) so the aditional load should be no problem. I did put a separate fuse in line with the rears for isolation purposes.

I toyed with painting them orange but thought they'd stand out to much. Black is alright but I may try the Kubota gray.

Volfandt

 

[Volfandt]

Another pic.

 

[Volfandt]

Another pic.

 

[Volfandt]

The last 'un. Lighten it up.

 

[DUMBDOG]

Nice job on the lights. Think that anyone that has had a loaded bucket discovered that the headlights do not do a lot of good.

 

[Junkman]

Out of the thousands of people that own BX tractors, you are the first one that I know of that actually drilled into the ROPS, thus voiding the warranty on that part of the tractor forever. You are one brave man!!! Nice instalation though...... Junk..... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Did I mention that your actions have relieved Kubota Corporation of any responsible for any injury that you or any future owner/user might incur as a result any ROPS failure forever into the future???????

 

[Volfandt]

Hummm, thanks for the enlightenment, I think /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
One out of thousands huh?, Kewel! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I guess if'n I didn't see the 1st paragraph then I couldn't possibly miss the BOLD one..... /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

I seriously doubt 2 5/16's holes will weaken the ROPS so I still feel quite safe to operate it and if'n I do happen to resell this BX23 in the future then I'll be sure to point out that they're buying the tractor AS IS! No warranty implied /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Volfandt

 

[Scrounger]

When you want them to poit at the hoe, do you just turn them manually or do you have them on some sort of swivel.

 

[drcollie]

No worries, I drilled and installled two forward and one rear facing aux. lights on my BX22 ROPS over 2 years ago, relay switched n' all. The SAFETY from actually having the lights (IMHO) far outweighs some ultra-remote chance of the ROPS folding up in the unlikely event of rolling the tractor.

-Duane C>

 

[Volfandt]

I just manually spin them.
I put a large flat washer between the bracket & ROPS to act as a sort of swivel base then applied locktite to the nut, bolt & lockwasher. I then tightened it all down to where it was fairly tight but could spin the lights around without spinning the nut/bolt assembly.

I left enough slack in the wireing to allow the lights to spin both fore & aft without binding and I wrapped them in split-loom tubing for looks & protection.

I decided to run the wire all the way to the dash to connect to the headlight switch and I routed & ty-wrapped the wire to the existing fore & aft wireing harness.

There is a OEM connection just under the seat on the BX's thats "hot" when the switch is on. This can be used but you'd have to either mount a separate on/off switch or live with the lights being on everytime the switch is in the run position.

Volfandt