LED LIghts added to B2650

[Porchfan]

Added a couple TS LED work lights Navigator 4 in. Round Heavy-Duty LED Utility Light | TractorSupply to the ROPS on my B2650. I fabricated a steel bracket / clamp for the lights so no drilling into the ROPS was required. The spacing between the center of the bolt holes was exactly 1.75 inches. When you use a 1/4 screw, that aligns the inside difference to 1.5 inches which is the thickness of that side of the rops. I clamped it together with six 1/4-20 four inch screws. I then routed the wire down the rops to the cigarette lighter near the arm rest. I'll probably either put the wires inside the ROPS square tubing or run it through conduit when I'm done. Here's a short Youtube video of the mods I made. Check it out...

 

[Porchfan]

Here are a few pics of the install before I made the video..View attachment 435158View attachment 435159View attachment 435160View attachment 435161View attachment 435162.... I'll post a night video later tonight if I run down to into the swamp and to the River tonight

 

[Porchfan]

The work pretty good. Here's my trek I made at dusk tonight.

 

[gonegreen]

Nice work! I'm looking for something to add to my ROPS to help with winter time snow blowing. Also thinking about a light bar too....

 

[BarnieTrk]

Hi Porchfan,

Those lights look nice & toss a nice light in the woods!

You mentioned you're thinking of maybe using some external conduit for the wires. Would the conduit interfere with folding the ROPS down?

If you run the wiring inside the ROPS via drilling holes in your ROPS and run the wires inside the square tubing.... I suspect that would involve at least one or two 3/8" hole at the top and another at the bottom of the upright ......are you at all concerned about weakening the ROPS protection capabilities?

BarnieTrk

 

[Threepoint]

Nice work and video, Porchfan! Have you thought about adding a wheelspinner to that steering wheel? You can make that drive to the woods one-handed. CountyLine Deluxe Wheel Spinner - For Life Out Here I finally got around to putting one on all three of my machines, and now wouldn't be without them.

 

[TMGT]

Really like the 2650 and the light addition.
if you decide to add the spinner, look at the dealer also, really liked the quality of the Kubota one and it was only a few bucks more.

 

[Jim Timber]

Not to diminish your work Porchfan, but here's a video of my Amazon $11 27W lights in blackness.

4 front, 2 rear, sides are 18W as is the middle utility in the back.

I'd also suggest running the wire inside the ROPS.

 

[BarnieTrk]

I'd also suggest running the wire inside the ROPS.

Hi Jim,

Did you have to drill holes in your ROPS structure to run the wires inside it?
If so, are you at all concerned that you may have weakened it by drilling holes in it?

BarnieTrk

 

[Jim Timber]

My ROPS is 2x3x.250 tubing. I put one .250" and one .375" hole in the inside of the 3" dimension for wiring, and two .250 threaded holes in the center of the 2" dimension for mounting the light bar. I'm not concerned at all about weakening the structure. There's two .375" holes on the top back of the 2" dimension from the factory at a similar distance from the radius to where my additional holes are.

You can poke a lot of holes in tubing and not diminish it's strength to any degree. It's more about how much material you remove and how close to the corners you remove it. Lots of paranoia around here about the ROPS that's unfounded.

 

[Porchfan]

There is one hole already at the top of the rops. I think I might be able to squeeze the wires through that. At the end of the square tubing down near the transmission, the tubing is open so the wires can easily be run out there and then into a FLEXABLE wire conduit. If I cannot get the wires through that single hole at the top, I don't think another 1/4" hole will hurt the integrity of the Rops.

 

[Porchfan]

Not to diminish your work Porchfan, but here's a video of my Amazon $11 27W lights in blackness.

4 front, 2 rear, sides are 18W as is the middle utility in the back.

I'd also suggest running the wire inside the ROPS.

Very cool. The lights I bought were LEDs. Much more expensive than incandescent ones. Are your $11 lights LEDS? LEDs should last forever as long as I don't hit them on a tree or worse by rolling the tractor.

 

[s219]

Actually, LEDs are down to about $12 too! I bought some for my boat and got two for $22. A couple years ago I paid $120 each for the LEDs on my Kubota, which is nuts. Prices have really come down.

The crazy thing is that I see many sellers still offering the LEDs for big bucks, but they are the same Chinese knockoffs you can buy elsewhere for $12. So buyer beware with these lights.

 

[varmint]

Yep! I just ordered some 18W LED lights for side lights, and discovered the same seller offering them for $9 delivered to $150 delivered, but the more costly version was 2nd day shipping vs. 3-4 day shipping. Go figure. Same lights, according to the descriptions. I look for Cree LEDs, but you gotta wonder if they really are?

 

[Jim Timber]

Mine are all LED's. The only incandescents are the factory rear aux light and the headlights. Whole installation was around $100. Money well spent IMO.

 

[Jim Timber]

The ones on the fenders are speaker boxes. Yes. I have a couple more I'll be adding for storage on the tractor. I have a couple on my logging winch for storage as well.

 

[s219]

Yep! I just ordered some 18W LED lights for side lights, and discovered the same seller offering them for $9 delivered to $150 delivered, but the more costly version was 2nd day shipping vs. 3-4 day shipping. Go figure. Same lights, according to the descriptions. I look for Cree LEDs, but you gotta wonder if they really are?

I wonder that as well. Cree is tossed around a lot, but there is no way to verify short of tearing the light apart and looking at the LED element. I suppose even that could be faked.

 

[Cumbres]

I wonder that as well. Cree is tossed around a lot, but there is no way to verify short of tearing the light apart and looking at the LED element. I suppose even that could be faked.

Shopping at Walmart in Colorado reveals that they have a nice selection of LED's for $20-25 a pair. These are narrow linear lights not round or square.

 

[Jim Timber]

You can try the wally lights and return them if they don't meet your needs.

Amazon has free returns too. Just saying...