I can work in the dark now!

[hutchman]

With days getting short, I had to do something to claw back some working time!

I followed in the footsteps of dragoneggs excellent LED install on his ROPS:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/299015-led-light-install-but-look-2.html

... but I didn't use any high speed space age materials like he did ... I went old school and fabed up some brackets that clamp to the ROPS:

Raw:


I did use the same Tuff LED lights that he used from the same Amazon link:
Amazon.com: TUFF LED LIGHTS 4 Inch Square 27watt LED Work Lamp Light 155 Lumen, Off Road, Atv, Utv, Polaris Ranger (pack of 4 ): Automotive

The lumen specs are kind of weird ... some say 1500, 1950, 2150 etc. for the same product depending on where you look. Here's why:

"How bright are our lights?

Each light has itç—´ own measurement of lumens which is a term used to describe the intensity of a light or its ç”°andle power. While this term once had an association to a real world measurement, similar to å¡—orse power, itç—´ a defined unit of measurement now but has no relation to a real world quantity. Each product page has these specs listed for your reference. But sometimes itç—´ hard to picture what 1,000 lumens would look like in comparison to 10,000 lumens. For an average 60W home light bulb you get around 600 to 900 lumens. Enough light to read a book even if the light source is several feet away but home light bulbs are designed for light disbursement. Our LED lights are designed to maximize light output. Therefore, our 1,000 lumen spot lights will shine at least 80 meters into the night. LED lighting allows us to design products that can maximize light output while preserving the inherent power saving qualities of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)."

FAQ - Tuff LED Lights


After painting (out of focus - sorry):


Lights installed on ROPs:


There are a ton of these switches on Amazon that are back lit in different LED colors and are etched with various graphics and text. I found some that said "front lights" and "rear lights". When the switch is on, the bottom and top LED's are on and illuminate the text or graphics. Here's a shot of my dash lit up with the LED's off so just the text is illuminated in blue LED (which looks white in the photo):
View attachment 485392

Example of the kind of switches with text/graphics you can find:
Amazon.com: MICTUNING Momentary LASER Rocker Switch WINCH IN/OUT, On-Off-On, 2 Amp 12V LED Light, 7pin, BLUE: Automotive

One challenge was the dash of my tractor is curved .... no flat spots to put the switches! So I used the flat spots on the plastic around the tilt steering. I needed to adjust my tilt steering lock (wasn't holding wheel where I wanted it very well - which was fun) anyway so it was a win win!

Here's a shot of the switches installed (in daylight):


The results ... here is a shot of the original tractor lights on High Beam only (the before shot):
View attachment 485393

... and now with just the front LED's turned on and the High Beams turned off (the after shot):
View attachment 485394

The LEDs light up all around the tractor too! This was a very helpful mod! Hope it helps inspire you to do something similar if you need to "extend" your working hours!

 

[1stDeuce]

Nice work! I'm going to have to do something similar, as it's getting dark early, and I have work to get done... I replaced the non-functional headlights in my tractor with some 3x5" LED units. They work OK for the sake of having lights, but are more of a spot light than a work light... Plus they shine through two box-holes in the loader frame, which doesn't help. Time for some work lights on the ROPS.

Just curious, does having the lights behind you, and facing forward make for any glare or nasty shadows while you're operating? I had planned to build a canopy, and put them one the front of the canopy, but if they're fine on the ROPS, I might skip the canopy for now...

 

[hutchman]

Nice work! I'm going to have to do something similar, as it's getting dark early, and I have work to get done... I replaced the non-functional headlights in my tractor with some 3x5" LED units. They work OK for the sake of having lights, but are more of a spot light than a work light... Plus they shine through two box-holes in the loader frame, which doesn't help. Time for some work lights on the ROPS.

Just curious, does having the lights behind you, and facing forward make for any glare or nasty shadows while you're operating? I had planned to build a canopy, and put them one the front of the canopy, but if they're fine on the ROPS, I might skip the canopy for now...

I have plans to do a canopy too (and a cab at some point) so that's one reason I made metal brackets for the ROPs as I figure those can get reused for the canopy down the road. I was worried I'd bang my head on the lights (which is why I curved the corners) and also being blinded getting on the tractor. Turns out the lights are high enough and out of the way that I won't bang my head on them unless I'm doing something crazy and as long as you don't look directly at the lights while getting on the tractor it doesn't blind you. It's kind of surreal as it lights up the cabin workspace area. You're lit up and so is the tractor. If you drop something off the side ... no problem seeing it. I was blown away by the difference it made and wondered why it took me so long to get around to doing it.

No real shadows that I've noticed so far ... everything is lit up pretty well. I guess if I focused them down where the beam hit the tractor it might glare of shiny tractor surfaces but I have them adjusted to light up just in front of the tractor for doing loader work (or bush hogging so I don't run over something).

These lights are perfect for work lights. I'll be doing some backhoe work with them soon (hopefully) and will maybe post more pictures.

 

[dragoneggs]

Looking good Hutch! Nice to have bright LED's eh? Also good looking switches. :thumbsup:

One thing about the placement of my switches is that I can accidentally turn them on if I am twisting around to dork with the BH without swiveling the seat. Not a big deal since I wired into the ignition switch so as long as the key is off I'm okay. I do like being able to turn the lights on for a bit, by turning the key on and not having to start up the engine though.

 

[hutchman]

Makes other work easier too ... lighting up the night while moving equipment around:

View attachment 485495

 

[dragoneggs]

Makes other work easier too ... lighting up the night while moving equipment around:

View attachment 485495

Nice pic! ... it is indeed amazing how much more an LED setup will light up the night, not to mention (well I guess I'm mentioning it)... less power consumption.