Snow Adding extra lights - YM1700

[DaveUK]

Just thinking ahead to the snow clearing duties. I'm making a snow blade for the 3 point, so will need some extra lighting looking backwards. Is the alternator/generator man enough to run some worklights? I'm thinking one on each mudguard, but that's an extra 110W of electric needed. The alternative is LED ones, but they're still very expensive.

So will I cause problems with an extra 110w?

 

[Scotty Dive]

I am in the middle of doing the same thing. Although they are expensive (LED's) I went that route instead of replacing the dynamo with an alternator and figuring out the wiring and bracketry. I went with four 27 watt led's - each pair powered by its own swtich. Three on my roll bar - two facing front and the one centered facing backward. I have another on the rear fender facing the rear implement. I figure that 27 watts X 12 V = 2.25 amps each light. so with all four on at the same time I am pulling 9 amps total....under the 15 amps the dynamo puts out. I can even run the front stock lights which total an additional 7.5 total amps with little issue but now drawing 1.5 amps from the battery etc. The 4 LED lights really provide a lot of light so I really do not see the need for both the LED and the stock lights at the same time. Also, the LED's I bought have a full aluminum case and seem capable of handling some abuse and the occasional tree branch I may run into....

If you run 110 watts that is about 9 amps and assuming your front lights are 45 watts (total 90) you will be pulling more than 1.5+ amps from the battery too.

 

[Pete Judd]

Dave don't know what model you have, but my 186D the dyno only puts out 15 amps per the manual. I assume that is at 2600 rpm. I think that all that extra non LED lighting, would drain the batt as plowing is not done at full speed.

 

[DaveUK]

Yeah, I think an extra 110W is a bit heavy. I can't find any reasonably priced LED ones here yet, so may get a couple of reversing lamps. They're usually 21W each, so will be a little better. Are the fronts really 45W each? They certainly don't seem it. I'm guessing I should also use a relay, as it's a lot of extra current through the 30 year old switch.

 

[Roonabeck]

I put four of these lights from Northern Tool on last winter (they were $5 cheaper then, too). They only draw about 1 amp each (or about 48w for all four). The factory headlights in my 1510 are only 25w each, so I replaced each headlight and then added two rear-facing lights to the same circuit. The LED headlights are noticably brighter than the incandescent headlights were, and the four together draw about the same power as the original headlights by themselves.

The headlight switch on the 1510 has two "on" positions (old headlight bright and dim settings). I'm thinking when I eventually get a ROPS I'll mount another set of lights on that and put them on the second "on" position on the light switch, so I can switch between "lower" and "upper" lights.

 

[deepNdirt]

on my 1700 I changed out the headlight sockets and bulbs to Halogen bulbs,
certainly puts out plenty of light, also have one rear utility service light that was from a set of Halogen fog lamps, I never hardly use the lights as most of what I do is during day time, although the one time i did use them all at same time was last Halloween when pulling trailer for hay rides, used them for several hours that night, haven't had any real issue with the battery, only problem was my own fault when melting a wire when welding close to it and it shorting out the lights, but was easily resolved,

even though the fog lamps came with a voltage relay switch I didn't bother using it, if i had used both of them I probably would have used the relay,
I use the same factory installed toggle but upgraded to a larger 10g wire to the service light,

 

[California]

I put four of these lights from Northern Tool on last winter (they were $5 cheaper then, too). They only draw about 1 amp each (or about 48w for all four).

I see another recommendation for these over in a LED thread. 5 inch work light, 54 LEDs, $39. 1 amp draw, 340 lumens.

 

[YannyMan]

The YM146/GT14 tractors had an optional rear light (non-LED, of course) from the factory and they only have 15 amp alternators..

I think one traditional light would be fine, but more than that would probably require LED's or a more powerful alternator for the 15 amp crowd.

 

[grsthegreat]

15 amps x 12 volts = 180 amps output (roughly speaking). Id go for the LED option also, although i personally dont like much of the current crop of WHITE led work lights out there. The ones i went to look at actually had some burnt out lights right out of the box. Cheap chineese garbage,

I bought 2 led amber lights for my DK45 for the rear emergency flashers hoping to get brighter light...i got ones guaranteed to be super bright. There no brighter than the factory lamps. I got them from Vleds for nearly $80.00, and really no better than $3.00 napa lights.
V-LEDS PLATINUM AMBER 20 LED 7W BLINKER/TURN SIGNAL LIGHT BULBS 1156 2056

 

[Scotty Dive]

Here are a few shots of what I ended up doing. I ripped off one of the lights (it is now under the ROPS) on the header under my deck becuase I forgot to fold down the rops. But this situation gives a lot of light and should not over run the 15 amp dynamo