Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest?

[FlyFishn]

All,
I need to add lights to my tractor - Kubota LX2620, ROPS. My intent is to get 360deg of lighting so I can see well around be when I'm working. The OEM headlights are blocked by the loader and loads so they don't help much, but they do offer good lighting when they are able to shine through.

Thoughts?

My intent is to have many lights wired in sets - front, rear, sides - so I can turn them on and off as needed/as work conditions require.

 

[anomad]

I have had these in my shopping cart for a while now, but haven't pulled the trigger. I have experienced excellent customer service from super bright leds. But interested to see what other folks have to say. I have to stay in a fairly small size to fit the factory mounts on my cab.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/off-road-led-work-light-led-driving-light-6-rectangle-17w-1-300-lumens+packamt-2-pack+beam-60

I replaced two of the forward facing incandescent lights already with some SBL's I already had and the difference was dramatic. I have their fog lights and a light bar on my pickup. I used to make my own ridiculous bicycle lights with their components when I was commuting by bicycle. That was fun.

 

[Sportsman762]

I had a friend who put 360 lighting on his Kubota L60 series. The side and rear lights were mounted low on the rops using a common mounting bracket. The front light was under the top of the rops, so the rops had to be up to use it. The biggest issue he had was getting 180° illumination off of the side lights. Using a pair of lights for the side would have provided a true 360° illumination but he has a 15° dark spot at 5 and 7 o'clock.

I prefer to have a nice bright front and rear light, with a lower output light down low near the floorboards facing out 30° or so lets you see bottom of bucket and what your turning your front wheel into. A high illumination light will blind you off of snow, rain puddles, or back of bucket. A mid lumen side light facing 90° off of the side of the tractor mounted slightly above the fender. High mounted high lumen rear mounted light aimed high, with a low lumen light mounted about toplink height pointed down. A high lumen light pointed down could blind you off the implements or ground.

Everyone wants the highest lumen light possible, but I find that it is very easy to blind yourself with high lumen lights and actually reduce your vision. This is why I light high lumen lights front and back so I can see where I am going, and what I did. Lower lumen lights to fill in and for close in illumination. Using high lumen lights for close in illumination kills your night vision reducing what you can see in every direction.

 

[Windblown]

I spent a grand total of about $40.00 for 3 Amazon work lights, wiring, & switch. Are they good? Sure, work lights just need decent lumens and a wide spread since you're not trying to see something 300 yards away as you approach it at 80mph. I tucked them under the roll bar to keep them out of harms way and mounted the switch into a corner of one of my utility boxes.

Awesome difference being able to actually see all around the tractor and the cab work area at night!

 

[RayIN]

All,
I need to add lights to my tractor - Kubota LX2620, ROPS. My intent is to get 360deg of lighting so I can see well around be when I'm working. The OEM headlights are blocked by the loader and loads so they don't help much, but they do offer good lighting when they are able to shine through.

Thoughts?

My intent is to have many lights wired in sets - front, rear, sides - so I can turn them on and off as needed/as work conditions require.

I use flood lights, never spot lights. Amazon has a good selection of LED flood lights, mine are 2" high x 5" wide.

 

[rontaki]

Any consideration of head-mounted light?
Also consider the color-temperature and CRI - color rendition index. A high CRI 80+ would help render colors better. The color temperature is personal preference, although extremely high/cold (bluish) or too low/warm (yellow) are probably not good for task lighting.
I haven't looked at specs of the type of lights you need for this task. When I bought some "forever" LED flashlights, I choose a warmer, higher CRI LED at the expense of a higher lumen count, as the richer light spectrum was better for my eyes. Some prefer the bluer light. There's probably not much choice for what you're looking for at a reasonable price, though.

 

[rontaki]

Yellow light is best for seeing in fog, it does not flare back at you as much as blue light does.

 

[FlyFishn]

To add to the question - the lights in the following link are what I have on our old tractor - 12 of them. 2x front, 2x rear, and 4x on each side spanning the 180deg around each side.

LED lights

Below is the result of those. I'd like to improve on this on the new tractor.

 

[RjCorazza]

I used 55w NiLites on my tractor 10 years ago, and they have worked great. They're a combination flood / spot, 55w each, and I used (2) front and (2) rear.
In hindsight, I think the smaller 36w lights would have been adequate though.

 

[Windblown]

To add to the question - the lights in the following link are what I have on our old tractor - 12 of them. 2x front, 2x rear, and 4x on each side spanning the 180deg around each side.

LED lights

Below is the result of those. I'd like to improve on this on the new tractor.

View attachment 4867958

That wasn't enough light for tractor work at night? Are you worried about the enemy penetrating the perimeter undetected?

Seriously though, having trouble wrapping my head around what you find lacking in that photo. It's absolutely possible to get too bright especially at close range so if you want to light up the night further out then a more narrow beam pattern is needed that reaches out further without increasing the brightness near you. Rather than a work/flood style light you may need to look at lights with flood/spot reflectors to reach out further without over powering the near range.

 

[chim]

Photos often fail to accurately depict actual conditions, but your current setup doesn't look much different from mine.

Lighting Revisited

Past Problems: * ROPS mounted work lights attracted bugs in warm weather and probably because I wear glasses, provided glare year-round. This was true with halogens and LED's. * LED's mounted on the ROPS and cab roof made it difficult to see where the cut / uncut grass met. I'm guessing it has...

www.orangetractortalks.com

 

[FlyFishn]

The combination flood/spot housings do equally poor at both. Id like more uniform forward and rearward projection - like the OEM headlights on the new tractor, but up in the clear where they are unobstructed to get around the loader. Same goes for rear work like the brush hog. I mow a lot in reverse.

If you look at the sides of the old tractor in the picture you can see where the spots are hitting. Id rather not have that there, and instead fill in the "flood" more intensely (to a point) and even the light spread.

 

[Duds13]

I just added a 12" NiLight to the rear of my JD Gator. Inexpensive and the build quality seems pretty solid. The harness that came with it is well done, and came with a toggle switch for the dash

Amazon

 

[dodge man]

I have a led floods on mine. One facing forward and one back. I’m not sure why you want to cover everything in light. With my setup there is probably a lot of darker areas but still enough light to see everything. I think you’ll be happier with more of a flood pattern.

 

[D&D]

The combination flood/spot housings do equally poor at both. Id like more uniform forward and rearward projection - like the OEM headlights on the new tractor, but up in the clear where they are unobstructed to get around the loader. Same goes for rear work like the brush hog. I mow a lot in reverse.

If you look at the sides of the old tractor in the picture you can see where the spots are hitting. Id rather not have that there, and instead fill in the "flood" more intensely (to a point) and even the light spread.

A pair of these (One front, one back)

21.6 Inch 200W 24000LM Spot Flood Osram P8-5W Chips LED Light Bar -

Shop rigid Nilight 21.6 Inch 200W LED Light Bar. Features a trusted ultra-bright, high-intensity, stable light output. Improves driving safety with a clearer, wider, and further visual area. And lifespan extends over 50,000 hours. Combining 10°super spotlight in the middle and 90°flood light on...

www.nilight.com

Plus these

6.5 Inch 60W Side Shooter Quadruple Row Spot Flood LED Light Bars

Shop Nilight Side Shooter LED Pods 2PCS 6.5Inch 60W Flood Spot Beam Combo LED Light Bar LED Fog Light Driving Light Led Work Light for Truck ATV UTV Boat in high quality, support 2 Years Warranty. Equipped with high-quality LED chips that emit bright white light to dispel darkness and make your...

www.nilight.com

And playing with mounting locations will probably get you there

 

[Windblown]

I have a led floods on mine. One facing forward and one back. I’m not sure why you want to cover everything in light. With my setup there is probably a lot of darker areas but still enough light to see everything. I think you’ll be happier with more of a flood pattern.

Agreed. I tried spot/flood combo and I hated the pattern but thought perhaps the op was looking for more reach. Work light beam patterns typically have even broader pattern than most flood lights. They do such a nice job of spreading a wide even swath of light at close range.

Baja lights (stupid expensive for tractor use) has a pretty decent explanation of lighting zones. For them zone 7 & 8 would be good work light options for tractor use. Baja Lighting zones explained

 

[bdhsfz6]

Whatever ROPS lights you choose, I suggest you mount them on the underside of the ROPS cross tube. Mounting them on top makes them a target for branches, overhead doors, etc. It's a necessity if you use the tractor in the woods. Ask me how I know.

If top mounting is necessary, do what I wound up doing and use strong magnets to hold them in place. That way, they're "breakaway" and won't sustain serious damage if you hit something. This also avoids drilling the ROPS, which could weaken it structurally.

 

[chim]

The combination flood/spot housings do equally poor at both. Id like more uniform forward and rearward projection - like the OEM headlights on the new tractor, but up in the clear where they are unobstructed to get around the loader. Same goes for rear work like the brush hog. I mow a lot in reverse.

If you look at the sides of the old tractor in the picture you can see where the spots are hitting. Id rather not have that there, and instead fill in the "flood" more intensely (to a point) and even the light spread.

Your lighting looks quite good in the picture, and in my experience pictures have a tendency to make lighting look different / worse that real life. I have snapped pictures where the lighting isn't accurately shown. In the picture of the L3200 with halogen lights (grass is green) the lighting observed while sitting in the cab is uniform front and rear but isn't very good on the sides (it looks brighter in the picture). Then the picture of the L4240 with LED's looks a lot more uniformly lit while viewed from the cab.

 

[Oaktree]

Whatever ROPS lights you choose, I suggest you mount them on the underside of the ROPS cross tube. Mounting them on top makes them a target for branches, overhead doors, etc. It's a necessity if you use the tractor in the woods. Ask me how I know.

I decided against ROPS lights largely for that reason, plus I have amber strobes mounted to it...any aux lighting would just overpower them. Another reason I was reluctant to put any lighting on the ROPS is that I need to fold it to get it into either the garage (winter only) or the portable shelter I'll keep it under rest of the year and I was concerned about wiring getting pinched.
Currently have one mounted behind the seat facing backwards, plus 2 on the FEL framework, aimed so they're about 8' in front of the bucket...halogens for now, but considering replacing with LEDs. Don't really have any need for side lighting.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I decided against ROPS lights largely for that reason, plus I have amber strobes mounted to it...any aux lighting would just overpower them. Another reason I was reluctant to put any lighting on the ROPS is that I need to fold it to get it into either the garage (winter only) or the portable shelter I'll keep it under rest of the year and I was concerned about wiring getting pinched.
Currently have one mounted behind the seat facing backwards, plus 2 on the FEL framework, aimed so they're about 8' in front of the bucket...halogens for now, but considering replacing with LEDs. Don't really have any need for side lighting.

That's where the magnets come in handy. Just pop off the lights when they get in the way.