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

/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #41  
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 don't know the best answer for your question - but wanted to piggyback on your request as I have an L3901 tractor and the headlamps are blocked with the front loader. I wonder if there is a good set that people use that mount to the ROPS - similar to what you are requesting.
 
/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #42  
I put some Rough Country wide-angles on the canopy front and back. They work very well. I angled them outward & it provides a pretty good 360 coverage. We have a lot of steep, uneven ground & being able to see well to the side is important. My canopy is diamond plate, so that helps. The front ones are recessed a little to keep them from getting hit with branches. They make good lights & if you watch, they'll have things on clearance very reasonable.
 
/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #43  
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.
There are lots of lights out there. My compact tractor was used for skidding firewood logs and moving wood to from the splitter most of the time. It spent a LOT of time in brushy overgrowth. I mounted my auxiliary lights on the bucket arms and ROP rack inside 4 X 8 thick wall tubing. That tubing was stronger the lifter arms themselves! That protected the lights. Lights are fragile. Sorry, no pictures. I sold that one and the replacement does not get in the woods as much.
 
/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #44  
My RK-37 has a decent rear facing light, but the front headlights are pretty well blocked by the bucket. I have been meaning to mount some LEDs on the ROPs, but haven't gotten a round tuit. I use a headlight flashlight which is a decent temporary solution. I always wear headlights at night when working around the property anyways. Big help for visibility on the four wheeler.

Good thread, I'll be reading through it.
 
/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #45  
I have some in a box that I will install one of these days. I can't remember if they are floods or hybrids. But I am quite sure they will be ample for my needs. Need to figure out a method to mount them to the ROPS. But I could see how you boys that do snow removal with your tractor would really need them.
Everyone has different needs due to work, family and other demands. Mowing required lighting a lot more than snow removal for me. Before I retired there were periods of time that I couldn't find enough daylight hours to mow. One year I was well into the mowing season before the yard got mowed without auxiliary lighting.
 
/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #46  
I've had ROPS-mounted lights and didn't like them because of the glare on my glasses and they attracted bugs. Seemed like those little bugs were always buzzing in my face and ears. I had better results keeping them lower. Here's a pic of a B7500 I had. The lights were mounted between the loader arm and hood. Looks strange but it worked:) You can also see the single halogen rear-facing light above the ROPS stub.

B7500.JPG
 
/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #47  
The one thing I need to do with my LED flood lights mounted on my ROPS is to both angle them outwards (especially the front ones) and build a shield so when I turn mine head to the side I don’t get blinded by them.

I have not noticed a bug problem with these LEDs when mowing at night. A big plus it’s cooler in the summer.
 

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/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #48  
I have a ROPs with fiberglass shade on my T233. I bought this kit, and installed the light bar, under the front lip of the shade, and the four squares on corners of the top. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DHRT9Z3B?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_14&th=1

I sometimes plow on the road. So, I added one of these on the back of the canopy

The T293 has a cab, and a front mount snow blower. It is going to get the same, with an extra Xsprite chaser bar on the front of the cab, and an extra rear light bar.
 
/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #49  
Some tractors have wiring for hook ups also. On my JD they are wired in with the factory lights.
 
/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #50  
Just a thought, I do a lot of brush hogging after I get off work in the evening. I have a Zetor and Branson ROPS tractor, mounted lights on the roll bar, My main problem was, the small bugs the lights attracted. They would get so bad, I would have to turn them off, just use my headlights, with the loader adjusted so the head lights would light the ground in front of me.
 
/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #51  
I think the double row LED light bars would give you plenty of light. As for loader blockage the only way around that is to mount lights on top of the bucket with some kind of breakaway system. Then the problem would be changing the curl. I don’t know what your ROPS look like but you may need to add some mounting bars.
I attached these pictures mine with them tucked under and the wire and conduit.
 

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/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #52  
Just a thought, I do a lot of brush hogging after I get off work in the evening. I have a Zetor and Branson ROPS tractor, mounted lights on the roll bar, My main problem was, the small bugs the lights attracted. They would get so bad, I would have to turn them off, just use my headlights, with the loader adjusted so the head lights would light the ground in front of me.
Maybe mount a powerful UV light out of the way?
 
/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #53  
I have Rigid Industries, Diode Dynamics on a few different vehicles and they provide amazing light coverage and distance

For budget friendly lights Auxbeam has some decent options and the harbor freight lights.
I have ran auxbeam for several years now. I bought some HF lights a few months ago so there is some more time needed to see how they perform for the long run
 
/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #55  
Just a thought, I do a lot of brush hogging after I get off work in the evening. I have a Zetor and Branson ROPS tractor, mounted lights on the roll bar, My main problem was, the small bugs the lights attracted. They would get so bad, I would have to turn them off, just use my headlights, with the loader adjusted so the head lights would light the ground in front of me.
Yep, bugs were a real annoyance with ROPS mounted lights. Between that and producing glare in my glasses that wasn't a good setup. The cab made mounting lights easier.

With a loader something is always short of perfect. Most times it's the headlights shining on the back of the bucket. To some extent it doesn't matter because the bucket itself blocks you from seeing a lot of the area that isn't lit. It was more luck than design but the lighting on my tractor worked out fairly well for loader work. Between the lights mounted high on the cab and low in the grille guard the front lighting is about as good as it gets. With the bucket low, the cab lights handle it and when the loader is raised the grill guard lights take over.

Running back and forth to town with the snow plow at night creates a lighting challenge. The plow is too big to carry low and have the headlights shine over it. I don't want to carry it high enough to let the headlights shine under it. I don't use the cab mounted LED's and be the Richard Cranium that blinds oncoming traffic. The solution has been to turn on the (useless) headlights and the amber LED flashers provide enough light to see where I'm going.
 
/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #56  
Yep, bugs were a real annoyance with ROPS mounted lights. Between that and producing glare in my glasses that wasn't a good setup. The cab made mounting lights easier.

With a loader something is always short of perfect. Most times it's the headlights shining on the back of the bucket. To some extent it doesn't matter because the bucket itself blocks you from seeing a lot of the area that isn't lit. It was more luck than design but the lighting on my tractor worked out fairly well for loader work. Between the lights mounted high on the cab and low in the grille guard the front lighting is about as good as it gets. With the bucket low, the cab lights handle it and when the loader is raised the grill guard lights take over.

Running back and forth to town with the snow plow at night creates a lighting challenge. The plow is too big to carry low and have the headlights shine over it. I don't want to carry it high enough to let the headlights shine under it. I don't use the cab mounted LED's and be the Richard Cranium that blinds oncoming traffic. The solution has been to turn on the (useless) headlights and the amber LED flashers provide enough light to see where I'm going.
There’s probably a position where both are blocked too. Unless one has a very small bucket.
 
/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #57  
1770128866620.jpeg

I added light bar and also replaced the front factory lights with all led. Also have 2 rear lights not on here. Nothing better than being able to see at night!
 
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/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #58  
/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #59  
I Piddle I need to add some lights to my tractor and I need a lesson on installation. These lights seem to be fairly high wattage. What guage wiring are you using? Is there any reason to use a relay if I don't run it though the ignition switch?


The lights I mounted aren't that high of a wattage since they are LEDS. Probably less than 15 watts each so less than 4 amps total. I used 14gauge wire because it's what I happened to have handy, smaller gauge would have sufficed. The method to wire the lights to power depends on wants and needs.

1) Constant power - If you want to use the lights for some reason when the tractor is off then wiring to constant power with proper fuse protection. Add a switch so they can be turned off. The problem is if you leave them on by accident...

2) Basic switched power - If you want the aux lights to only operate when the tractor is running then you could locate an existing ignition based power circuit with a high enough amp rating and tap into it and add a switch to turn them off when not needed. (this is what I did)

3) Relay powered - There can be a few different advantages to using a relay. If you want the aux lights to be controlled by the head light circuit for example you could power the lights with a relay to the battery and use the headlight circuit to trigger the relay and they would turn on whenever the headlights turned on. Add a switch to the trigger circuit and you add another level of control so they can be turned off, but they will still only turn on if the headlights are already on. Or you could use any other power circuit of your choice to trigger the relay. It doesn't need to be a high power circuit since it is only acting as a trigger for the relay.

I'd guess there are a metric ton of DIY diagrams on the internet showing basic wiring options. Key points to remember is all power MUST be properly fused. That's your get out of jail free card from burning up your tractor from mistakes during install or wiring related shorts in the future.
 
/ Adding good Area/Work Lights - What do you use/suggest? #60  
The "wattage" of led lamp assemblies is greatly exaggerated. When I put lights on my tiny truck, I sized wiring, switches, fuses and relays based on the "wattage" of the lamps. When I got the whole thing together and actually used a DC ammeter to discover the lights were only pulling about a fourth of the "wattage".

On the tiny truck, I bought fused relay boxes to power and control the light circuits: https://www.amazon.com/DaierTek-Pre-wired-Waterproof-Universal-Automotive/dp/B0CP56SXNT/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2HV5UKRS37VG3&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PSFJRQKxVDi6OcDSlP4_ODX4H73lJ4-s_ynELuoetX2iKcZInmctZO6g2yV4pKnLp-ESL51A3su1ZEF60i5em8QTcenFKjbcLDgh5k_hCGZp8sUPBz4fzDaSs0mLMyt1qlipevA0rk0gKJHHc9JuMkG8ezDx9pC9FR-8Ku5WmjjsYSa7T5TqNtVleUl0eHIORCkePoMixXKhWiu5ToS93TbyBgO103MWlzlUnp2gpDg.ozsy_My-r5ZwXmPlnnLrI-ox45X2s2WDXaQmq1qWqlY&dib_tag=se&keywords=fuse+relay+box&qid=1770142047&sprefix=fuse+relay+box,aps,215&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1

On the T293 and my Dodge 3500, I'm using these These are nice because you get the fuse, relay, ans switch in a waterproof package. They come with 4 to 12-circuits. Amazon.com: 6 Gang Switch Panel, NIRIDER 12V Universal Circuit Control System with Fuse Relay Box Button Switch Pod Touch Switch Box for Truck Wrangler 4Runner ATV UTV SUV Car Boat : Automotive
 

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