Lights

[Scottstc]

Buying my dad an international 2500a. It has no lights . Was wondering if I should go with leds or conventional not sure if the led’s will last?

 

[gstrom99]

Depends on if you care about "originality". Fenders missing? LED's for sure, if you really want to see.

 

[Scottstc]

Depends on if you care about "originality". Fenders missing? LED's for sure, if you really want to see.

Fenders are there, there was originally a housing under the fenders for lights. That is gone was thinking mounting pods that would sit on top of the

More concerned about functionality and durability than originality. Thinking about something like these.

 

[SteveS42240]

i would go with LED. Much brighter light, less amperage draws and less chance of failure.

 

[Scottstc]

i would go with LED. Much brighter light, less amperage draws and less chance of failure.

Was leaning that way just have zero experience with ho led handle rough conditions . My dad lives a ways away and don’t want any more issues than necessary.

 

[AirOpsMgr]

Fwiw, I haven't had good luck with a few NiLight products, had to return a light bar and a 6" pod light due to water intrusion / lens fogging up and couple strips of LEDs going out. Probably okay if not in wet conditions; I've been told by a few folks to make NiLights dependable, you have to add silicone to the seals because they're not as water resistant as they claim.

I've had good luck with Rigid pods and bars so far, one set a few years old and hit with pressure washers many times with no issues, but they're not cheap. IP68, pressure equalization vents, powder coated instead of painted, etc, so you pay for the higher quality.

Just added Rigid flood pods to my tractor and they blow away the factory work lights by a long shot.

I only mention the above since you said you were more worried about functionality & durability.

Don't get me wrong, I still have some NiLights mounted on other pieces of equipment that don't see rain, and they are a good value in that sense, but ya get what ya pay for.

 

[Scottstc]

Fwiw, I haven't had good luck with a few NiLight products, had to return a light bar and a 6" pod light due to water intrusion / lens fogging up and couple strips of LEDs going out. Probably okay if not in wet conditions; I've been told by a few folks to make NiLights dependable, you have to add silicone to the seals because they're not as water resistant as they claim.

I've had good luck with Rigid pods and bars so far, one set a few years old and hit with pressure washers many times with no issues, but they're not cheap. IP68, pressure equalization vents, powder coated instead of painted, etc, so you pay for the higher quality.

Just added Rigid flood pods to my tractor and they blow away the factory work lights by a long shot.

I only mention the above since you said you were more worried about functionality & durability.

Don't get me wrong, I still have some NiLights mounted on other pieces of equipment that don't see rain, and they are a good value in that sense, but ya get what ya pay for.

Thanks this is exactly the type of feedback I was hoping for don’t mind spending extra for quality, within reason, my old man is 83 so he’s not going to be working much in the rain.

 

[AirOpsMgr]

Thanks this is exactly the type of feedback I was hoping for don’t mind spending extra for quality, within reason, my old man is 83 so he’s not going to be working much in the rain.

I hear ya, and I too was tempted by the low cost of the NiLights ... And please don't take this as me poo-poo'ing on them, as I'm sure they're a good fit for some (and perhaps I was just unlucky and had some with bad QC), but in my experience, paying a bit more for better quality is well worth it to me so I don't have to chase issues or warranty replacements & re-do work.

As for the Rigid brand, guess you can call me a fan-boy, they just seem to work reliably for me. I've also had some good experience with AuxBeam that are slightly better than NiLight, but again, don't seem to be as good as Rigid.

This is a pic of the OEM cab lights I swapped out with some Rigid "side-shooter" pods, more expensive than the standard Rigid pods, but I like the extra side coverage they provide:

Beam test with new Rigid Side shooter on left and OEM work light with LED aftermarket bulb on right:

And then a Beam test with both OEM work lights swapped out with the Rigid flood Side shooters:

I don't use my headlights anymore as the new work lights are brighter, even in flood reflector configuration.

 

[dodge man]

LED’s have come down in cost. I have a pair I’ve been using for 10 years, they are still good.

 

[SteveS42240]

I got some yellow/red marker lights from Amazon for one of my Ford tractors. They were relatively inexpensive, $22 ea., and were pretty solid lights for the price. I am going to replace the headlights on both tractors with some 64w LED Truck/Tractor work light that appears to be much brighter than the original sealed beam lights, according to the stats on the product. As I wrote this I went back and looked at the post AirOpsMgr had about the Rigid flood lights. I am going to check them out as the pictures show they are VERY bright.

 

[chim]

I've posted pics and info before. Been using LED's since around 2012 and never any failures. Had four on the last tractor and eight on this one. All except for the two side-facing lights on this tractor, all were Maxxima MWL42 floods.

ADDED: Couple notes from previous posts -

Unless your name is Juha Kankkunen, anything other than floods make no sense on a tractor. LED's have the ability to blind someone standing at a distance in what appears (from the tractor seat) to be an unlit area because of the harsh bright light being produced.

Definition with LED lights is different from that of halogens. That's why there are two sets of forward-facing lights on the Kubota. The high cab-mounted lights work OK for general use and loader work, but when mowing it was difficult to see the cut/uncut line in the grass. A pair of lights mounted lower on the grille guard that rake across the grass work great. Before going LED, this was never an issue.

 

[AirOpsMgr]

I got some yellow/red marker lights from Amazon for one of my Ford tractors. They were relatively inexpensive, $22 ea., and were pretty solid lights for the price. I am going to replace the headlights on both tractors with some 64w LED Truck/Tractor work light that appears to be much brighter than the original sealed beam lights, according to the stats on the product. As I wrote this I went back and looked at the post AirOpsMgr had about the Rigid flood lights. I am going to check them out as the pictures show they are VERY bright.

Also keep in mind, if you just want to replace OEM halogen bulbs with upgraded LEDs using your current lamp housings, that too may be an option without shelling out big bucks for full LED pods.

When I got my Kioti DK5310SE, one of the first things I did was replace all the halogen headlights and work lights with plug-and-play LED bulbs from Auxito (belive mine were H5 and H7 bulbs) and that did help a good bit over the stock halogens as they produce a stronger and whiter light. I chose the Auxito brand as they worked wonders on my side-by-side and I did get pretty good results when using them on the tractor.

The reason I went the extra mile with upgraded LED pod lights is that the reflectors in the stock work lights were much more a "spot" pattern, so matter how good the LED bulb upgrade, I was limited to the stock reflector being spot Vs flood.

A word of warning though, be careful when you buy any pods that are listed as "combo" spot and flood patterns; I found out quickly that the AuxBeam pods that I bought for my tractor's side lights were much more spot than flood, as seen below:

AuxBeam "combo" spot and flood shown as my side lights:

I'm waiting on a set of Rigid Flood pods to arrive that will replace the above pictured AuxBeam combo lights to eliminate the spot hot-spot and be a more even flood all the way around the cab.