Kubota conversion LED lamp bulbs

[daugen]

Like many others I installed a roof light bar on my cab, a combo spot/fog on mine and some additional work lights in the rear.
100% LED but just enough draw to throw me over the fuse limit for the front and rear optional light package.
I took one 35W halogen bulb out of the circuit front and rear and all was well. No more blown fuses.
But I felt a better solution was replacing the four oem halogen bulbs with LED conversion bulbs.
These are not the headlights; they are on another circuit and I'm in no hurry to replace them, already have plenty of light.

What I got in from Amazon, which sure had a nice spec, is waaaay bigger than stock. Kinda doubt it's going to fit in the oem
plastic housings. So, rather belatedly, instead of my guessing at this again, has anyone already done this and can you advise as to
which H3 LED conversion bulbs fit?

Seriously cool bulbs though. These are fogs, wanted diffuse pattern around tractor. Bar uptop is 4500 lumens, hard to look at.
Actually all these high power lights are hard to look at, even in daylight. So I don't need high power to replace the stock halogens, but I do want at least as
much light, but with much less power drain. Someone must have figured this out already... Kubota dealer parts mgr said he'd get back to me.
that sure never happened.
Thanks Drew

 

[mike69440]

Like many others I installed a roof light bar on my cab, a combo spot/fog on mine and some additional work lights in the rear.
100% LED but just enough draw to throw me over the fuse limit for the front and rear optional light package.
I took one 35W halogen bulb out of the circuit front and rear and all was well. No more blown fuses.
But I felt a better solution was replacing the four oem halogen bulbs with LED conversion bulbs.
These are not the headlights; they are on another circuit and I'm in no hurry to replace them, already have plenty of light.

What I got in from Amazon, which sure had a nice spec, is waaaay bigger than stock. Kinda doubt it's going to fit in the oem
plastic housings. So, rather belatedly, instead of my guessing at this again, has anyone already done this and can you advise as to
which H3 LED conversion bulbs fit?

Seriously cool bulbs though. These are fogs, wanted diffuse pattern around tractor. Bar uptop is 4500 lumens, hard to look at.

Thanks Drew

So I'm not quite understanding completely what the last two photos are showing. The black plastic part with the reflector, did that come with the bulbs or is part of the headlight assembly?
Did you try to fit bulb in the housing? Exact what lights are you trying to replace? More photo's would help.

 

[daugen]

Mike, the black plastic is only the container it came in, size is shown best in first photo.
H3 bulbs have a standardized mount; it's after the mount that is the issue.
I am trying to replace the bulbs in the optional lighting package that adds two extra lights in front and two in the rear.
No, not yet to try, was pretty sure that big bulb would not fit under the plastic case. Seems to be designed to replace standard headlight bulb, not a smaller cased auxiliary light.

I'll take another pic today.

 

[KyleH]

Was thinking of converting the work lights on my L45 over to LED bulbs as well, but have the same concern about the H3 LED bulb being too big to fit the housing. Given the low cost of complete LED work lights, think it is going to be better to replace the whole light assemblies.

Only reason I was considering doing the conversion is when you turn on all the lights the alternator can't keep up if at a lower rpm, manual suggests only using the work lights if over a certain rpm, forget what now, but you can see everything dim when you put it at idle.

If you do find a bulb that fits and works well be sure to post the results.

 

[daugen]

sure will, eyeballed the light, pretty sure it's too big. Didn't have time to work on it today

 

[Fallon]

I'd swap the whole unit on work lights if you are going LED. The 9 LED square or round work lights have the whole back of the unit as a big aluminum heatsink to keep the LEDs cool. A bulb doesn't have a huge heatsink like that. So either the LEDs are going to fry themselves or the bulb is a lot lower power.

Heat is the enemy of semiconductors & it will kill them quickly without adequate cooling.

 

[daugen]

I'd swap the whole unit on work lights if you are going LED. The 9 LED square or round work lights have the whole back of the unit as a big aluminum heatsink to keep the LEDs cool. A bulb doesn't have a huge heatsink like that. So either the LEDs are going to fry themselves or the bulb is a lot lower power.

Heat is the enemy of semiconductors & it will kill them quickly without adequate cooling.

thanks. I was going to swap them but we figured out how to run them all at once. Clearly that draws too much halogen juice plus LED load. So....just make them all LED. I believe they make different wattages of the conversion bulb I received and the parameter that needs to be reduced is length; width is irrelevant and mounting base identical. I ordered the 80W bulbs, going to compare specs with 30W LED conversion bulbs and see how much shorter they are.

Yes, simplest way was just pull off the old ones and replace. New ones so much brighter you have tons of light.
But if I can put low amp draw bulbs in those oem housings, should be a happy ending.

 

[aczlan]

Actually all these high power lights are hard to look at, even in daylight. So I don't need high power to replace the stock halogens, but I do want at least asmuch light, but with much less power drain. Someone must have figured this out already... Kubota dealer parts mgr said he'd get back to me.
that sure never happened.

I would also replace the whole housing. We have some of these on the L3830: Amazon.com: TMH 27w Square Shape 6 Degree LED Work Light Flood Beam Spot Lamp Off-road, 4wd, 4x4, Utv, Sand Rail, Atv, Suv, Motorbike, Motorcycle, Bike, Dirt Bike, Bus, Trailer, Truck, Train, Mining Truck, Excavator, Bulldozer, Crane, Road Roller, Fork Lift, Fire Engine, Police & Rescue Vehicle, Military Vehicle, Camping, Courtyard Lamp, Fishing, Boat, Yacht, Road Lamp, Street Light, Fog Lamp, Day Light: Automotive

I have been very happy with them.

Aaron Z

 

[daugen]

due to the holidays I got pretty distracted but finally got time to work on these lights yesterday.
A complete bust.
the new bulbs have zero chance of fitting in there, the oem Kubota lamps are sealed/glued together in the front, can only insert bulb from
rear through small hole (big enough for a small halogen bulb...) while replacement bulb diameter was way too big.
Back to the drawing board. First, bulb has to fit through hole, for sure, second it can't be too long to hit plastic case.
At least I know I'm looking for something much much smaller now.

And until then, by removing two of the four oem halogen bulbs, one front and rear, everything else works fine, the new LEDs and the old remaining two halogens.
So at least I have plenty of light until I find the right bulb. Hard to believe someone isn't marketing LED replacements; they do for everything else, flashlights, etc.

 

[aczlan]

So at least I have plenty of light until I find the right bulb. Hard to believe someone isn't marketing LED replacements; they do for everything else, flashlights, etc.

The problem is that to make enough light with an LED you need to dissipate heat and that takes surface area which you don't have room for in the hole that a halogen came out of.
Thats why you generally just replace the whole fixture with and LED one.

Aaron Z