anyone switch to LED lights?

PILOON · Nov 1, 2021

The LED's on my CUT were so much brighter that I also upgraded my 2011 Kia to LED's, both Hi and Low beams.
Now I can see!
---and should oncoming vehicle not dim his highs I can get back at him.

One slight problem is that the LED's do cause interference on my car AM band but oddly, not always. Must be a bad ground somewhere, but where?
In my CUT there is no interference from the LED's, both AM and FM.

CH4Ohio · Nov 1, 2021

PILOON said:
The LED's on my CUT were so much brighter that I also upgraded my 2011 Kia to LED's, both Hi and Low beams.
Now I can see!
---and should oncoming vehicle not dim his highs I can get back at him.

One slight problem is that the LED's do cause interference on my car AM band but oddly, not always. Must be a bad ground somewhere, but where?
In my CUT there is no interference from the LED's, both AM and FM.

The only complaint I have with the upgraded LED lights is that if you get off the tractor and accidentally look directly into the LEDs, you're blind for the next hour or so. . . That's kinda inconvenient.

ning · Nov 1, 2021

I haven't swapped for my tractor yet (I do have a light bar on the front and on the back of my ROPS), but I did go to LEDs for my '97 F350, and the difference is just astounding. When I drive my with's 2018 Toyota Highlander (not fancy lights, but still pretty decent) at night, I'm like "these lights really suck"; I used to get tired driving at night but I don't when I drive the truck because I can see so well. How well? Picks up reflectors easily a mile away. Best yet, despite the truck being on the high end of unlifted trucks (big-ish tires, "offroad" package which I think at the time was basically a factory lift as it's always ridden higher than other similar trucks), I never get flashed by cars coming in the other direction. Driving on the freeway, when I pass anything without LED or HID lights, you can't tell that they have headlights when you get near because the LED light output just paints over their feeble incandescent glow.

My motorcycle got an HID swap years ago to a similar effect (I can ID a lurking cop a mile up the highway, 5kK lights really show off reflectors). I think both the bike and the truck got wider beams, but they both have very sharp cut-offs which helps keep other motorists happy; this probably has more to do with the housing design than anything (bike: stock. truck: new housings that came with LEDs; my old ones were 23 years old and were heavily eroded and leaking).

I've put off getting new bulbs for my 3520 despite one original headlight being dead just because with my light bars I can see plenty well (plus the bucket blocking the lights in many useful positions), but one of these days I'm going to swap something in just because it looks miserable with one eye out.

It seems that light pattern with a tractor almost doesn't matter as long as it's same or more spread; an LED is unlikely to have a tighter beam (because most LED lights have more area that's emitting light than a filament bulb), and a tractor getting more flood is probably pretty useful assuming you're not roading at night in high range with the pedal to the floor.

ning · Nov 1, 2021

One concern I've had when considering a headlight swap to LEDs for the tractor is that LEDs typically have some sort of heat transfer that's behind the bulb - on my truck they've got a heat sink with a fan; some bulbs just have a large finned sink, and I've seen copper ribbons to do the same.

My concern is with how dusty & dirty things get under the hood of a tractor (and over the hood and behind the hood and you know what I mean) that the LEDs will burn out quickly because of insufficient cooling. HIDs may actually be a better choice because of this.

CH4Ohio · Nov 1, 2021

ning said:
One concern I've had when considering a headlight swap to LEDs for the tractor is that LEDs typically have some sort of heat transfer that's behind the bulb - on my truck they've got a heat sink with a fan; some bulbs just have a large finned sink, and I've seen copper ribbons to do the same.

My concern is with how dusty & dirty things get under the hood of a tractor (and over the hood and behind the hood and you know what I mean) that the LEDs will burn out quickly because of insufficient cooling. HIDs may actually be a better choice because of this.

FYI.

The LED headlight bulbs that I bought were 1650 lumens each and configured just like the original bulbs. No heat sink or fan. They are much brighter than the OEM bulbs. Nothing extends out the back of the headlight assembly except the terminals for the electrical connection. These are supposed to run cooler than OEM.

I also saw bulbs for the same headlight that were more like 3800 lumens. They had fans and heat sink fins on the back and would require the extra room behind the lights. Didn't really want to modify the rubber boots or deal with the extra heat so I went with the lower power direct drop-in bulbs.

ning · Nov 1, 2021

CH4Ohio said:
FYI.

The LED headlight bulbs that I bought were 1650 lumens each and configured just like the original bulbs. No heat sink or fan. They are much brighter than the OEM bulbs. Nothing extends out the back of the headlight assembly except the terminals for the electrical connection. These are supposed to run cooler than OEM.

I also saw bulbs for the same headlight that were more like 3800 lumens. They had fans and heat sink fins on the back and would require the extra room behind the lights. Didn't really want to modify the rubber boots or deal with the extra heat so I went with the lower power direct drop-in bulbs.

This sounds pretty good - do you have a link or source of where you got those? I've only seen high-lumen automotive style bulbs.

CH4Ohio · Nov 1, 2021

ning said:
This sounds pretty good - do you have a link or source of where you got those? I've only seen high-lumen automotive style bulbs.

2 LED light bulbs for Kubota L5240 L5740 MX4800 MX5200 MX5400 MX5800 TD170-99010 | eBay

1 pair (2 bulbs) of new SUPER bright high-quality LED bulbs for a Kubota L-Series tractor (see list below), MX-Series, and many others. They fit right into your OEM Deere's headlight wiring harness sockets.

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Those are the ones that I bought for the headlights. Not sure if they have them for every brand and bulb. Bright and dim work just like it should and the base is notched out just like the original bulb so they are oriented properly when installed.

As has been mentioned above, I wouldn't have bought them if they were really expensive since the bucket or snowplow does interfere with the headlights quite a bit. But they were relatively cheap and my factory bulbs were pretty weak. Quick and easy and they're MUCH brighter.

5030 · Nov 1, 2021

Just did my dusk to dawn area lights on the shop and barn with LED lights from Mercury vapor. The LED's have the same lumen output using 1/4th the juice