KYKub
Silver Member
Getting ready for snow and decided to follow the lead of others on this forum and install auxiliary lighting on my BX. Found the factory-installed auxiliary power wires under the seat.
Ordered 4 18-watt LED lamps from Amazon. After reviewing several other folks' installs, I decided to go with mounting lights to ROPS with magnets. No drilling into ROPS and the flexibility to remove or move to rear of ROPS when not needed. I ordered 2" diameter magnets, drilled center holes to accommodate mounting bracket bolt and attached each light to a magnet.
Ran wires through split loom conduit into a box mounted on the safety sign bracket. I never use the tractor on the road so didn't need the sign and the bracket made a perfect mounting place for a switch box.
The auxiliary connection is hot any time the key switch is "on" so a switch is needed, unless you want the lights always on. I first installed a couple of exposed small rocker switches, but decided I liked the box mount better. A nice clean install on the dash would be great, but I didn't want to learn from mistakes in trying the install in dash.
Opinions: 1) The magnets hold the lights very securely. I wouldn't try this method if I was operating in an environment where they would get caught on limbs all the time, but for winter plowing they are great. I originally planned to move or remove them for use other than plowing, but I'll leave them and see how it goes. It would take a pretty good whack to move them. I used 2" magnets but it would be even more secure with a 3" magnet (ROPS is 3"). Magnets also allow you to easily position for front, rear, or side lighting. 2) The lights are very bright with draw of only 1.5 amps per light (4 lights = 6 amps). It's hard to "show" light coverage at night with a photo, but two lights facing forward and two facing rearward offer plenty of nice white light for my needs. 3) The lights are better quality than I expected from an $11 product ($44 total for four). Aluminum housing and low profile.
Glad to have this forum as a place to learn and copy good ideas!
Ordered 4 18-watt LED lamps from Amazon. After reviewing several other folks' installs, I decided to go with mounting lights to ROPS with magnets. No drilling into ROPS and the flexibility to remove or move to rear of ROPS when not needed. I ordered 2" diameter magnets, drilled center holes to accommodate mounting bracket bolt and attached each light to a magnet.
Ran wires through split loom conduit into a box mounted on the safety sign bracket. I never use the tractor on the road so didn't need the sign and the bracket made a perfect mounting place for a switch box.
The auxiliary connection is hot any time the key switch is "on" so a switch is needed, unless you want the lights always on. I first installed a couple of exposed small rocker switches, but decided I liked the box mount better. A nice clean install on the dash would be great, but I didn't want to learn from mistakes in trying the install in dash.
Opinions: 1) The magnets hold the lights very securely. I wouldn't try this method if I was operating in an environment where they would get caught on limbs all the time, but for winter plowing they are great. I originally planned to move or remove them for use other than plowing, but I'll leave them and see how it goes. It would take a pretty good whack to move them. I used 2" magnets but it would be even more secure with a 3" magnet (ROPS is 3"). Magnets also allow you to easily position for front, rear, or side lighting. 2) The lights are very bright with draw of only 1.5 amps per light (4 lights = 6 amps). It's hard to "show" light coverage at night with a photo, but two lights facing forward and two facing rearward offer plenty of nice white light for my needs. 3) The lights are better quality than I expected from an $11 product ($44 total for four). Aluminum housing and low profile.
Glad to have this forum as a place to learn and copy good ideas!
Who knew?!:laughing: