To Canopy or not? Metal or plastic?

[Bird]

I cannot say for absolutely sure, but I think it would be a safe bet to say the Perry Co. canopy is made for them by the Wells Ag Co. The Perry Co. is located in Waco and the Wells Ag Co. is located on the I-35 service road in Elm Mott, just a few miles north of Waco. I had my Waco Kubota dealer install the Wells Ag Co. steel canopy on my B2710 when I bought it in 1999, and at that time, they figured $295 for the canopy and I've never seen a better one.

 

[pacerron]

Great place to hang some lights that see beyond the FEL bucket.
I've had a diamond plate aluminum one on one tractor for 20 years, and another on a 3 year old tractor. The latter is thinner gauge aluminum than the first but isn't everything... The diamond plate keeps it rigid.
No dents, no rust, and mounts very easily to the ROPS with some U-bolts. The frame is steel square tubing and the lights and mirror I mounted out front don't shake.
You still need to be careful in the sun. I have a 2.5 inch scar on one cheek to prove it. In the late afternoon the sun can be hot and bright and lower than the canopy. Wear a wide brim straw hat as well and some sunscreen if you have fair skin.

 

[IronHog]

Great place to hang some lights that see beyond the FEL bucket.
I've had a diamond plate aluminum one on one tractor for 20 years, and another on a 3 year old tractor. The latter is thinner gauge aluminum than the first but isn't everything... The diamond plate keeps it rigid.
No dents, no rust, and mounts very easily to the ROPS with some U-bolts. The frame is steel square tubing and the lights and mirror I mounted out front don't shake.
You still need to be careful in the sun. I have a 2.5 inch scar on one cheek to prove it. In the late afternoon the sun can be hot and bright and lower than the canopy. Wear a wide brim straw hat as well and some sunscreen if you have fair skin.

What lights you running?

 

[Bird]

Great place to hang some lights that see beyond the FEL bucket.

On the frame of my canopy I put a trapezoidal light to the front aimed a bit past the headlight range, and a flood light on the rear. Of course I also had a toggle switch to control them in the frame just above my head on the right, and I had a rear view mirror (later replaced the round one in the picture with a larger rectangular one), and I had two tiltmeters; one for side to side and one for front to rear.

 

[pacerron]

What lights you running?

Same as Bird's picture right below your message. They were cheap, about $12each but super bright. I made a switch box with a relay for the switch and fuse to control them and mounted it on the side of the ROPS. A bit of overkill for that much wattage, but that's how I do things so I don't have to repeat therm later. The big advantage of having lights up front versus on or under the ROPS as many do, is that the light is not blasting back at you from the mirror as they do on the ROPs mount and the pupils of your eyes are adjusted to the darkness ahead rather than the brightness of your cowl and dash. Think of driving your car at night with all the interior lights being halogen and on if you mount the lights back on the ROPS instead of up front on the canopy. You have to cock the mirror so you can't see what is going on behind you to keep from being blinded, or at least seriously agitated for having the light coming from behind your head.

 

[IronHog]

Same as Bird's picture right below your message. They were cheap, about $12each but super bright. I made a switch box with a relay for the switch and fuse to control them and mounted it on the side of the ROPS. A bit of overkill for that much wattage, but that's how I do things so I don't have to repeat therm later. The big advantage of having lights up front versus on or under the ROPS as many do, is that the light is not blasting back at you from the mirror as they do on the ROPs mount and the pupils of your eyes are adjusted to the darkness ahead rather than the brightness of your cowl and dash. Think of driving your car at night with all the interior lights being halogen and on if you mount the lights back on the ROPS instead of up front on the canopy. You have to cock the mirror so you can't see what is going on behind you to keep from being blinded, or at least seriously agitated for having the light coming from behind your head.

Nice setup.


Purchase at an autoparts store?


Been thinking about the BXpanded kit...... pricy, but high end lights and plug n play.

 

[pacerron]

Nice setup.
Purchase at an autoparts store?
Been thinking about the BXpanded kit...... pricy, but high end lights and plug n play.

Yes, either O'Reilly or Autozone, can't remember for sure. They probably all have similar ones. These have built in swivel mount brackets. I just took the two outside nuts off that bolt the roof plate onto the frame tubing up there, slipped the bracket over the bolt threads and put the nut back on. I had a little project box with aluminum cover, probably from radio shak. I probably had the toggle switch, relay, and fuse holder in my junk. So that made it easy to get the hot from a 40 amp rear power outlet ckt. already on the tractor instead of having to fish wire clear to the very front where the battery is located. The power outlet ckt. had a true ground wire back to the battery too so I didn't need to worry about a frame ground.
You can never have too many lights in a field operation at night.
These lights are so cheap, if I smack a low tree limb and bust one it will be cheap to replace.

 

[MotorSeven]

No light up there for me...I'd rip em off on the first cutting. Too many border trees with low branches(hence the demise of the original plastic canopy) and a loose nut behind the wheel.

 

[Coyote machine]

Now that we're talking lights on my thread about canopys, MIE also has a light setup the mounts directly to the rollbar with its own bar to hold the lights.
I do agree that now I will want to remount the various lights I had on my rollbar to the front and back of the canopy frame for all the reasons already mentioned by various posters above this post.

I would say by the similarity that chances are the Perry canopy is made by Wells Ag. Co. as you said, Bird. Perry is into a lot of things that aren't related to tractors so it would make sense that they might just choose to distribute Wells product, which benefits both companies.

 

[pacerron]

Now that we're talking lights on my thread about canopys, MIE also has a light setup the mounts directly to the rollbar with its own bar to hold the lights.
I do agree that now I will want to remount the various lights I had on my rollbar to the front and back of the canopy frame for all the reasons already mentioned by various posters above this post.

I would say by the similarity that chances are the Perry canopy is made by Wells Ag. Co. as you said, Bird. Perry is into a lot of things that aren't related to tractors so it would make sense that they might just choose to distribute Wells product, which benefits both companies.

There's a lot of ways to do sun shading. Old tractors had an umbrella.
There was a guy, I think on TBN, that made a simple wood rectangular frame and stapled canvas on it, another guy used plywood.
Function is basically the same.
I like the way some are bent on the edges to provide more rigidity as well as being a rain gutter. You can still get pretty wet in a blowing rain trying to get back to the barn if you don't keep your eye on the clouds sometimes.