Buying Advice Tractors and LED's?

Tractorable · Mar 7, 2018

So what do you guys think? Is it time for manufacturers to start building tractors with LED's? Seems like it's the way industry is moving. They're pretty much standard now on all cars, trucks, and in our homes. Brighter, clearer light, less energy consumption, and longer life. What's not to like?

I paid over $7k fo my John Deere X590 lawn mower and it still has old school incandescent headlights and tail lights that aren't even lights, just reflectors. Lame. Time for tractors to have LED's I say.

Thoughts?

Wolfy · Mar 7, 2018

I would have to agree with you.

Old Red · Mar 7, 2018

Yeah, I suspect it is a cost or quality issue. Even though LEDs are super super cheap......unless you get the quality ones....you know the quality ones that are worth putting under warranty and what not.

Ffterman · Mar 7, 2018

I agree. I know some LED headlights come with fans built in to them. I wonder if that’s why they won’t put them in tractors yet with dust flying around everywhere? I installed a pair on my low beams and they are a lot brighter. I’ll order the high beams if they hold up to the dirty environment.

Old Red · Mar 7, 2018

I have a set I just installed on my grasshopper lawn mower with fans and another set on my little Bx with fans...the Grand L Cab work lights I installed some in the factory housing that are fanless but have this long braided material that does something for cooling.

mljenkins · Mar 7, 2018

I think it’s ignorant for the price you pay on the higher end equipment like the Kubota Grand L and JD R series that LEDs are not standard. I think JD may have had an upgrade to them but Kubota did not.

Agree even lawn mowers and such should have them. They add a lot of safety and we all work late anymore if we have a day job.

prichard · Mar 7, 2018

Look at it this way. If they change to LED they're likely to use a smaller alternator. Seems quite a few tractors have a pretty small alternator as is. At least now we can change to LED and gain capacity.

dragoneggs · Mar 7, 2018

This actually really surprises me. Why Kubota, Deere and the like... are not all over LEDs? A great marketing/selling point in my mind.

newbury · Mar 7, 2018

Tractorable said:
So what do you guys think? Is it time for manufacturers to start building tractors with LED's? Seems like it's the way industry is moving. They're pretty much standard now on all cars, trucks, and in our homes. Brighter, clearer light, less energy consumption, and longer life. What's not to like?

I paid over $7k fo my John Deere X590 lawn mower and it still has old school incandescent headlights and tail lights that aren't even lights, just reflectors. Lame. Time for tractors to have LED's I say.

Thoughts?

Coming from Vermont I could see keeping the "hot" bulbs to ensure the snow melts.

4570Man · Mar 7, 2018

Tractor lights that didn't suck regardless of the type would be nice. Rear facing lights that didn't suck would be nice. I've got a LED bar on the back of my truck and its very nice. I was pleasantly surprised the first time I flipped the light switch on the Kubota CTL it's got forward and rear facing lights bright enough to actually see what I'm doing.

YLee Kioti · Mar 8, 2018

newbury said:
Coming from Vermont I could see keeping the "hot" bulbs to ensure the snow melts.

You bring up a good point. A few yeas back (? i think) some cities had issues with traffic lights freezing over and not functioning because they went to leds. The incandescent bulbs used to provide heat and were never an issue. Now they had to install heaters. Much like we do inside switch-gear to keep arc chutes dry in our 13.8 / 4160 breakers.
So this may fall under the your mileage may vary category.
Hey we even got snow down here in the Shiner area what's up with that?
You guys need to keep it up there with yah'll!

mcfarmall · Mar 8, 2018

If tractors came with LED's from the factory then we couldn't have as much fun pimping them out with some sweet aftermarket light bars and such!

JerryK · Mar 8, 2018

mcfarmall said:
If tractors came with LED's from the factory then we couldn't have as much fun pimping them out with some sweet aftermarket light bars and such!

I strongly second that.......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Old Red · Mar 8, 2018

New grasshopper mowers come with LED lights......my Boss Snow Plow comes with LED lights but they have little heaters on the lenses.

dragoneggs · Mar 8, 2018

Old Red said:
New grasshopper mowers come with LED lights......my Boss Snow Plow comes with LED lights but they have little heaters on the lenses.

I believe my Kubota Z turn has optional LED lights but the kit was almost $200. And I don't mow at night! If I ever get the urge I will pimp out my mower like I did with my BX. Besides the light placement on the Z turn is very low and in front of my feet.

Jstpssng · Mar 8, 2018

4570Man said:
Tractor lights that didn't suck regardless of the type would be nice. Rear facing lights that didn't suck would be nice. I've got a LED bar on the back of my truck and its very nice. I was pleasantly surprised the first time I flipped the light switch on the Kubota CTL it's got forward and rear facing lights bright enough to actually see what I'm doing.

I would be happy to have them mounted someplace which isn't susceptible to damage, yet completely useless if you are using the loader- especially since about the only thing I do after dark is plow snow.

Raylefarms22 · Mar 8, 2018

Last year on the McCormick, we put a 12inch led lightbar in between the two lights on the back of the cab. Helps a lot. Eventually I want to replace the rear factory cab lights with LED cube lights. The cubes would work better for mowing hay at night, but for the bush hogging and discing I've done using it, I love it.

Old Red · Mar 8, 2018

Raylefarms22 said:
Last year on the McCormick, we put a 12inch led lightbar in between the two lights on the back of the cab. Helps a lot. Eventually I want to replace the rear factory cab lights with LED cube lights. The cubes would work better for mowing hay at night, but for the bush hogging and discing I've done using it, I love it. View attachment 543165 View attachment 543165 View attachment 543165

Oh, hey...you don't have to get the cube lights to replace the factor work lights. I actually opened the factory work lights on my Kubota and placed aftermarket LED bulbs that blaze the night in the housing.....Pretty neat setup. The Kubota factory housings for their cab tractors on the newer grands have a curve to them and are visually appealing....my old M6800 were just ugly squares and rectangles and a cube or circle led light would have been better.....so I worked pretty hard at maintaining the factory work lights on my Grand L....very satisfied with the power and looks.

PILOON · Mar 8, 2018

My CUT is now all LED equipped, a light bar up front under roof overhang, 2 rear floods** for snow blowing, a strip* of flashing yellow LED's under rear roof overhang and I will replace the 'dome light' as soon as it gets warmer.
I even re wired the roof flashing beacon and dumped the sealed beams and motor.
To get LEDs to flash I use standard flasher and add a 10 watt 10 ohm resistor to load up the flasher thing and trick it to work.

Oh, and I blow snow and the LEDs get warm enough that they operate just fine, never have iced over.

*used 3M double sticky tape to adhere the strip.

** mounted the floods on 3" magnets so I can position as I want with advantage that no holes were needed.

dog13 · Mar 9, 2018

Factory LEDs sure would be nice. I had a chance to try and do some work via headlights on my RX6620 this past weekend and they were like two little flashlights shining directly at the back of the grapple :confused3: A light bar is definitely in my future!