Anyone using the new LED or HID lights

[Thumper & Buttercup]

I know that there is a thread on this and in it a couple guys said they were ordering the expensive lights. So has anyone got them and how is the light off of the units.

Our tractor has a 40 amp alternator and the stock lighting is Halogen so with all the lights that are on the tractor I'm at 220+ watts or half my usable voltage. Either I go with the cheaper Halogen lights and wire them so they can be used by themselves or get the more expensive lights and add them to the tractor then it won't matter. I'm going to mount two rear work lights low on the rops and two high lights facing forward for when I'm doing loader work in the dark.

I'm looking at the JD lights but have not gotten a price on them yet. So what are you guys running, thanks.

 

[LRH]

I have 8 of the TruckLite LED's; 4 of the 81360 trapezoid pattern, and 4 of the 81380 flood pattern; and no, they are not all on the tractor. Two of the traps are on the front, and I have temporarily setup the rear with traps at the upper brackets and floods at the lower (fender area) level, and plan to swap the positions to see which way works best, or see if it even makes a difference. I have always been accused of overdoing the wiring with relays, heat shrink, adhesive backed heat shrink, GM WeatherPack's etc, but these with low 1.2A draw, and stable lumen output from approx 7-16 volts make wiring simple. You will like them.

 

[DieselPower]

Ahh, someone else with the same affliction I have, wiring. Having installed thousands of lights on truck/tractors over the years I have my own little system to. Probably a little worse than yours. In addition to the relays, adhesive lined heat shrink, WeatherPack/MetriPack/MicroPack I also run everything in split loom conduit using all the breakout's, T's, clips and other associated fittings. I also have a heck of a stock of junction box's and bulkhead connectors. I look at it this way, if it's worth doing it's worth doing right the first time and when your installing 400-800 lights on one truck you really don't want to have to redo it again.

The LED lights work great. I have installed a bunch of them on tow trucks as work lights and the truck owners love them. I even got a pair of the new DOT legal LED headlights for one truck. So far the truck owner is very happy with them.

 

[MJPetersen]

Because of my rather small (15 amp) dyno I have been experimenting with the LEDs. I have a thread of my conversion of standard head lights to the LED bulbs. I have used the MR-11 bulbs (picture is of the MR16 which is a little bigger around, but similar) and the 1157 LED replacements BA15. In my head light application I have found that they produce more light than the original standard 25/35 watt bulbs. It is also much whiter light and I do not worry about leaving them on even when the tractor is off because they draw almost nothing. MR11 draws 1.1 watts and the BA 15 draws 5 watts. When I add additional work lights they will be using these bulbs.

I am very happy with the result.

Mike

 

[medicshawn]

I bought some Maxxima MWL-01 Heavy Duty LED Work Lights off Ebay. I'm also still in the install process but hooked up to a car battery thery seem very bright. They were a little cheaper than the trck-lite and grote options.

 

[AndyMA]

Our tractor has a 40 amp alternator and the stock lighting is Halogen so with all the lights that are on the tractor I'm at 220+ watts or half my usable voltage..

Just wanted to clarify a couple of things. As an electrical engineer, one of the things I constantly notice is that very few people seem to understand electricity. Voltage is potential, like the height of the water in a bucket. amperage is the flow of electricity, like the amount of wter flowing in a pipe. Wattage is power. Ohm's law states that E=IR where E is the same as voltage. In this case 220 watts/12 volts equals 18.33 amps. If all of the alternators current is available to the lights then in fact they will use slightly less than 50% of what's available.

Andy

 

[Thumper & Buttercup]

Great posts guys,

I'm still looking and my wallet is calling me names already.

Andy,

What I am worried about is with the 220 watts draw with the current lights and then adding another 220 watts with the additional lights. This does not include the dash lights, tail lights and the engine systems.

So now I would be putting 440+ watts of draw on a system that is maxed out at 480 watts. So I would be a little over 36 Amps on a 40 Amp alternator without all the little stuff added.

I like the look of the New JD lights so I'm going to check their prices today, but I'm still in the planning stages right now.

Mike,

I read your posts and all your info, that one helped a lot. Looking for feedback on what you guys think of the light you get out of the lights. Have a good one.

 

[LRH]

Are the JD lamps HID, LED, or halogen?

 

[Thumper & Buttercup]

We'll,

I went to JD, the parts person in a round about way would not tell me the price of the lights except they were expensive, the only thing he would tell me that they were $400+, this is for the HID lights. The Kid went on to say they have $5000.00 + of them sitting on the shelves.

I went to visit a friend who has a JD account and he looked up the lights they are $465 each.

I think I'm going to get a couple of the Bass Pro switches and wire up regular Halogen lights so I can run the tractor lights and one set of the others or just the dash lights and tail lights and both sets of the new lights.

Thanks for all the reply s guys!!

 

[Thumper & Buttercup]

Hey medicshawn,

How bright are those lights, are you using them to the rear and how far can you see? Is this a light that you can just see between the tractor and the equipment or is there some depth to the light? Thanks for the info.

 

[PAB_OH]

HID lighting is ridiculously expensive. My car has HID head lamps and I had to replace them, $300!!! And that is for a relatively high volume bulb. If you include the housing and HV transformer it's not surprising how much they cost.

Look in AW Towing catalog. They have a few HID worklights and they all run in the $300 range. But MAN are they BRIGHT!!! I'd love to have them on my machine.

 

[Thumper & Buttercup]

First off that's to medicshawn,

You pointed out a set of LED lights for just $65 each on e-bay. I did a search on them "Maxxima MWL-01 Heavy Duty LED Work Lights", and found a guy using them as a backup light.

He says there is a center light beam of 500' that is real bright with a good flood light effect around the area also. I am going to order two for the work light positions on my tractor and test them out before I order them for the front flood lights that I want. I'll post pictures when we get her going.

On a low note, cold...blowing....snow.....real cold #$%^# temps here right now......ccccome oooon sssspring.

 

[medicshawn]

That's what I did. I ordered 2 and hooked one up to a battery to test it. Based upon the brightness I ordered 2 more. Still working on installing mine. If you order from the guy in Pa he shipped quick. I knew I wanted LED's and these seemed like the most reasonable option. Alot of the LED lights are useless after 5 or 10 feet these seem to be much better.

 

[Thumper & Buttercup]

I'm orginialy from Roanoke Va, will be down that way in April if we have our spring flood over by then. If not will be down in May hopefully.

 

[Soundguy]

I'm at 220+ watts or half my usable voltage. .

Half your useable current/wattage.. voltage will be a constant in this calc.

I use led long throw lamps in stage lighting setups.. lot less heat!

soundguy

 

[Thumper & Buttercup]

Hey Soundguy,


I've got two of the LED units ordered, I'll be playing with them this week. I'll post up some photos, I'll make a couple pigtails so I can check the light as if they are mounted on the ROPS pointed forward.

I'll post up some photos of the test, I hope they are as good as I've read in other groups. If it all works out these first two will be rear work lights and the next pair will be forward facing on the ROPS. With the load being so low I'll be using the existing wiring for the rear work lights. I found water proof switches like what Bass Pro sells for only $6+ each. I have them coming in and will report if they are any good also.

 

[Soundguy]

The low wattage is the nice part.

Ever look at the new christmass tree lamp led sets.. due tot he low wattage.. you can plug in like 45 sets together with no visit from the fire department!

soundguy

 

[Thumper & Buttercup]

Got my lights today,

The company needs to pack these better, there was a defuser ring with clips to put it on with, they both arrived with a clip broken off.

I made a quick connection and tried one of the lights tonight, it was pretty bright, not as sharp a light as halogen but good enough to see in the dark. The one light lit up a area about 30'wide and lit up all the way to a set of trees about 75 yards away. I could not get my camera to take photos sorry guys.

Anyone know where I can order pigtail connectors the same size that come on a New Holland. I checked my rear pigtails and they are setup to apply power anytime the switch is on so I'll have to order a couple switches to wire the lights in.