I have aux lighting questions

[aeblank]

reduce the risk of bird strikes - - neither of which are significant risks while driving a tractor I guess.

Thank goodness!

 

[wolfpack2]

I have had a swallow fly into the side glass of the cab while mowing. So I guess bird strikes can happen on a tractor. Poor thing must have miss judged the wind or something. They will often swarm around me eating all the bugs I am kicking up. Quite a lot of fun to watch. You just have to be careful to not loose track of where you are going. Adds a whole new meaning to distracted driving.

As for LED lights. I have 8 27 watt units (4 flood, 4 spot) that I am in the process of building brackets for. The OEM 35 watt halogen units that came on my 4520 are worthless. They light up maybe 10 ft. I am constantly struggling for better vision when plowing snow. Each LED light is brighter than the stock units and I should have plenty of light when I'm done.

 

[BoylermanCT]

I have had a swallow fly into the side glass of the cab while mowing. So I guess bird strikes can happen on a tractor. Poor thing must have miss judged the wind or something. They will often swarm around me eating all the bugs I am kicking up. Quite a lot of fun to watch. You just have to be careful to not loose track of where you are going. Adds a whole new meaning to distracted driving.

As for LED lights. I have 8 27 watt units (4 flood, 4 spot) that I am in the process of building brackets for. The OEM 35 watt halogen units that came on my 4520 are worthless. They light up maybe 10 ft. I am constantly struggling for better vision when plowing snow. Each LED light is brighter than the stock units and I should have plenty of light when I'm done.

With that much light, you'll need to get a permit from the FAA or planes will use you tractor as a navigation beacon! :laughing:

 

[Threepoint]

[snip]
As for LED lights. I have 8 27 watt units (4 flood, 4 spot) that I am in the process of building brackets for. The OEM 35 watt halogen units that came on my 4520 are worthless. They light up maybe 10 ft. I am constantly struggling for better vision when plowing snow. Each LED light is brighter than the stock units and I should have plenty of light when I'm done.

This is an interesting approach, reducing the wattage per fixture, but doubling the fixtures and mixing LED spots with floods. Total amperage draw of all eight will be only slightly greater than my four retrofitted 45w rectangular LED floods, which work fine replacing the four stock 35w halogens on my NX4510HST cab without modifying or adding to the two stock circuits (for front floods and rear floods). I'm especially curious where you'll be mounting/aiming all those fixtures, and whether the floods will be switched independently from the spots. Look forward to hearing how it goes, and seeing pics when you have time.

BoylermanCT jests about air traffic, but I do wonder if it might create a problem for passing traffic if you'll be pushing snow at night alongside a public road, e.g., at driveway entrances. :scratchchin: I've been thinking about that myself, and will likely shut some of the lights down right near the road when there is passing traffic.

 

[bumperm]

Good points, Threepoint.

I have cab roof mounted amber light bars front and rear for snow anti-collision. That doesn't do a thing for visibility for me though. Problem with high mounted lights such as my cab mounted LED floods, is that when there's falling snow the back glare is worse, much worse, than driving a car in snow with high beams on.

Better would be to mount lights low on the front. Since I have a front mounted snowblower, I'm thinking of doing just that with a couple of floods on the blower itself - - also not so likely to blind other drivers.

bumper

 

[wolfpack2]

This is an interesting approach, reducing the wattage per fixture, but doubling the fixtures and mixing LED spots with floods. Total amperage draw of all eight will be only slightly greater than my four retrofitted 45w rectangular LED floods, which work fine replacing the four stock 35w halogens on my NX4510HST cab without modifying or adding to the two stock circuits (for front floods and rear floods). I'm especially curious where you'll be mounting/aiming all those fixtures, and whether the floods will be switched independently from the spots. Look forward to hearing how it goes, and seeing pics when you have time.

BoylermanCT jests about air traffic, but I do wonder if it might create a problem for passing traffic if you'll be pushing snow at night alongside a public road, e.g., at driveway entrances. :scratchchin: I've been thinking about that myself, and will likely shut some of the lights down right near the road when there is passing traffic.

My current plans are for 2 lights at each corner, one spot and one flood with the spots to be aimed about 50-100 ft forward or reward of the tractor and the floods being aimed to fill in around the tractor. They claim to be a 60 deg spread on the floods, so I hope to be able to get better illumination to the sides as well. I share your concern with oncoming traffic and hope to mitigate that by being aiming them low enough as to not blind people. I will be using the stock wiring for the cab work lights, so I can shut them down and just use the stock headlamps when traffic approaches if necessary.