Hello, Need some help with lights please.

[Bones]

Hello all, first time here, hope I postted in the proper spot.
I will be needing some front lights soon and and looking for some reccomendations/suggestions about them. Any ideas ?
Feel free to make any siggestions.
things I am looking for in lights
- see about 50 yards, little less , little more ok.
- would like to find some that throw a wide area of light.
- would like to use only one or two lights.

Thanx for any help

 

[RickNC]

Hi, Bones.

I had the same problem on my little Kubota. I rigged up a couple of cheap fog lights that I got from Harbor Freight (about $15.00 for 2) to a couple of cheap Harbor Freight magnets (about $8.00 each). I bought a cigarette lighter adapter from Walmart (the kind that has alligator clips that attach to your battery terminals). I can attach the lights where I need them on the ROPS to illuminate the desired area. I can move them around as desired. Then I can take them off when I don't need them any more.

Just a thought.

 

[Birdhunter1]

I would look at automotive foglights, they'll cast a fairly wide spread and they'll be in your 50 yard range. If you work inthick stuff, grass or brush, I would consider mounting them high so you can be above obstacles that could break them or obstruct the light shining out and if you mount them high you could aim them so that they are 50 yards or so in front and light up all the area to the end a little better. I would actually mount two sets if it were me, one for your outer range and one for up close illumination (10-20 yards). I work at night often and the more light the better, I hate finding a ditch or hole the hard way and if you are doing sit work it is sometimes hard to see where you last were.

 

[GregJ]

I mounted a couple of automotive driving lights pointing forward and one "tractor light" pointing backwards, to a piece of oak and used stainless hose clamps to mount them to the inside of my ROPS. There was a prewired circuit for lights on my Kubota B7500 under my seat, so I wired to it with some quick disconnects and a switch. They seem to work well.

Greg

 

[chim]

A pair of these for the front (mounted to "L" brackets on the FEL frame), and a single (mounted to the SMV bracket) in the rear work well for me. We have bugs that like to fly around lights, and the forward location helps keep them away from my head...................chim

EDIT TO ADD: I tried different light patterns available (flood, trapezoid and spot) and the flood works best for me.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Bones, it doesn't say where you looking to mount your lights or if you have a ROPS on your tractor to mount them to. But I mounted 4 PIAA brand fog lamps on my ROPS. 2 face forward, 2 rearward. I used "yellow" fog lamps because I did not want to attract bugs when mowing at night but I found that I use the lights more often in the winter for snowblowing than during the warm weather for mowing.

Because of some concern for voiding a warrenty by drilling into the ROPS, I decided to take a piece of 1.5" by 1.5" angle iron, about 20" long and I drilled the light mounts into the angle iron. The angle iron was epoxied onto the ROPS with a high shear strength, waterproof marine epoxy. The light bar has been in place for almost a year with no signs that it will break loose. The rated shear strength is 5000# and the epoxy only cost about $6 or $7.

The lights were run to a relay so the switches only absorb the power draw of the relay, each switch is fused. I used 2 100% waterproof (submersible) switches that also happen to exactly match the original equipment switches used by my New Holland and Ventrac tractors. I also chose lighted switches, but I don't really see that there was any advantage for that. I only use waterproof switches because the cost difference is minimal. The waterproof switches were about $8 each and I won't ever have to worry about them shorting out in a surprise rain storm or when washing the tractor.

The light bar is mounted to the back of the ROPS, the lights hang under the ROPS. I have a lot of low hanging branches, I wanted the lights protected so the lights actually sit just behind the leading edge of the ROPS and branches seem to get brushed aside, as of yet it works, the lights have not been knocked off by a branch.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Here is a picture of the switches I installed. There are 3 switches, the back switch is for the rear facing lights, the front switch is for the front facing lights. The center switch powers a 12 volt "cigarette" style outlet I installed.

 

[DocHeb]

Which model number are the PIAA lights?. Where did you get the switches?

 

[Bob_Skurka]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Which model number are the PIAA lights?. Where did you get the switches? )</font>


Chris, I have no idea what model number the PIAA lights are, they are 35 watt fog lamps, to be honest, I would buy something that had a wider beam spread if I was to do it again. I like the lights, but I'd like a wider beam spread, not enough to change the lights out, but if I was to buy them again, I'd buy a different model. I did choose PIAA on purpose, they are some of the best quality automotive lights on the market and I am confident they will hold up to years of use. The other brand I have a huge amount of respect for is HELLA.

As for the switches, I bought them from Go2Marine on line. Here is a link to Go2Marine. They also sell modular bracket pieces to mount the lights into for a factory installed look.
Go2Marine switches

 

[sandyc]

Just a word of caution.....make sure that any lights or other accessories don't excede the generator's capacity. After I added lights, defroster, heater and wipers to my bx2200 I found I had to upgrade to the high capacity alternator so I didn't kill my battery. That little puppy was an additional $150......