"Which" lights for ROPS

[Anonymous Poster]

\"Which\" lights for ROPS

Like many folk have already done and more are bound to join in, I'm interested in adding lights to my ROPS to assist when using the FEL at night...perhaps when the white fluffy stuff needs to be moved around. My question is, "What lights to buy and where?" There are the obvious choices in the automotive stores for either fog or driving lights, but for some reason, I'm not sure these are the right choices.

Thanks in advance for your comments and advise!

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: \"Which\" lights for ROPS

HI,

TSC [tractor supply co] has both trapizoid and flood lights in their catalog...don't know if you have a TSC nearby though.

I am in the same boat as you and will probably pick up some lights from TSC. I don't think the driving lights for autos would be the best, and I don't care for the yellow fog lights either.

Bill in Pgh, PA

 

[JJT]

Re: \"Which\" lights for ROPS

I run 2 trapeziods facing forward, 2 yellow fog lights and a spot light facing rear. The yellow fog lights are great in the snow.

 

[hwp]

Re:

Like the others, I use "tractor" lights available at TSC and most farm equipment dealers. I'm not sure that these are very different than other lights but it feels right. I have two 4" x 6" lights for the front and two 3" x 5" lights for the back. You can see the front ones mounted at the top of the cab.

 

[MikePA]

Re:

I installed two of these KC HiLites backup/flood lights that face the rear.

 

[GregJ]

Re: \"Which\" lights for ROPS

I bought the cheapest 55 watt driving lights Walmart had to offer. I also bought the cheapest tractor flood light (55 watt) they had. I mounted them on a scrap piece of oak and fastened them to my ROPS with stainless gates clamps. I routed the wire inside flexible conduit and tie wrapped it to the ROPS. I really didn't want to invest a lot in something that could easily be damaged. I am very pleased with the amount of light they throw. I use my tractor now to light up areas where I am working at night now. I live in the Northwest where snow is nothing more than a dream for us this year, but I know with the reflection that the white stuff puts up, these lights will be more than adequate.

Greg

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: \"Which\" lights for ROPS

I went with a couple from www.delcity.net - I usually get my wiring supplies from them.

I got their 6" diameter rubber mounted tractor lights for about $10 each.

 

[BigDave]

Re:

Mike,

I visited the KC site, and now I have questions for you. Do you know what patterns the Daylighter or the flood light have. The website shows what drivng, long range, & fog light patterns look like, but I could not find what the other patterns looked like. Also, from your experience, did you find you need the projection capability of the driving lights, or would have flood lights worked for pointing forward?

 

[MikePA]

Re:

<font color=blue>Do you know what patterns the Daylighter or the flood light have. The website shows what drivng, long range, & fog light patterns look like, but I could not find what the other patterns looked like. </font color=blue>
Dave, I'm not sure about the pattern for the flood lights. The two I have mounted facing the rear work well in illuminating the 3ph area for mounting equipment. When I am done doing that I move them up slightly to shine a bit further back to illuminate where I am going when traveling in reverse, e.g., plowing snow with the rear blade.

<font color=blue>Also, from your experience, did you find you need the projection capability of the driving lights, or would have flood lights worked for pointing forward? </font color=blue>
I went with the driving lights because of the need for them to illuminate the area in front of the FEL, which is 20' to 25' from where the lights are mounted. It has worked well. If I had a choice, I would have mounted flood lights much closer to the front of the tractor, but there was no place to do that. My concern with using flood lights instead of driving lights would be they'd illuminate the area directly in front of them, i.e., the tractor, and never reach the area in front of the FEL. Also, with the driving lights being adjustable (the floods are too), I can just reach up and move them to the best postion.

I considered mounting flood lights somewhere on the FEL/FEL frame, but that would have meant developing a disconnect system. I even bought waterproof disconnects, like the kind they use for trailer wiring. But I decided not to do this, primarily because the lights sitting anywhere on the FEL or FEL frame would have been prone to being snared by tree branches. So I went with driving lights on the ROPS.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re:

I haven't used KC light before but I have delt with Hella and PIAA lights. Typically driving,long range and fog lights have patterns that are: driving- fairly long range with some illumination toward the side of the road, long range- also called pencil beam has a shaft of of light with very little light filtering to the sides and fog has a wide flat pattern that is ment to stay low to the ground and flair out to the sides rapidly. On my GMC suburban I use both the pencil beam and the european driving pattern both 100watt bulbs reflective distance for the pencil beam is 25000ft and the driving is 18000ft. Don't really need that on a tractor...Fog lamps put out a flat pattern are just that a flat pattern only a couple of feet high and thats it. the flood lamps from TSC or others put out a square type pattern. So think of it this way if you shine the different patterns on a wall pencil beam give you a big dot,driving gives a ovalish, fog a flatish line and the flood light up the whole wall, the wattage of the light just lets you read the fine print of something with the vehicle parked farther away. Maybe over simplified but... it works.
In a nut shell flood type or second choice fog. The size of some of the new fog lights make them a nice compromise.

another .02

Tony