john deere tractor led work lights
These are questions farmers often ask and the answer is LED lights provide fantastic levels of illumination while emitting a light experience similar to daylight and using half the battery power of traditional halogen lights.
When using LED lighting you will find superior visibility is one benefit, you will have the ability to work seeing exactly what you are doing, safer and all with far less eye strain or tiredness. Your long days planting or harvesting will become far more productive.
LED work lights draw almost half the current so make less demand on the machine alternator, switches and wiring circuit.
Manufacturers are starting to offer LED work lights as a factory option, but this sometimes comes as a very expensive option. Hence farmers are looking for alternatives suppliers – which may be found in local 4×4 or agricultural dealers or possibly the internet.
However, the saying ‘You only get what you pay for is very true’. Not all LED lights are the same, and here are some tips to help you buy value for your money:
- Most LED’s are produced in China and can be bought in a wide variety of qualities, performances, specification and price. Cheaply made lights are usually light in weight and will usually have poor beam control which produces a lot of bleached white light shining everywhere but none clearly.
- A well-designed light will generally be heavier in comparison and this due to better use of components. Extended life expectancy, clarity of performance and clearer detail of what is ahead all come from better components and design.
- A well-designed light will include EMC – which is the prevention of electrical interference to radios/two-way radios. Ideally look for an EMC rating called CISPR25-CLASS4 or higher.
- IP rating is a quality standard for how well protected the light is against dust or water getting inside. IP67 is okay, but IP68 is perfect.
What you should know before purchasing LED lights
Wattage: This is the size of the LED chip which produces the light and similar in purpose to a light bulb. Tractor work lights normally range from 27 through to 40 even 60 watts in size.
Lumen: this is the measurement of light given out so at this stage lumens are the best indication of performance and a good rule by which to make your decision. However, there are two types of Lumen – one is ‘raw lumen’, the other is ‘effective lumen’.
Raw is what the light should produce in theory, but effective is what it produces in reality and this is the most important.
Lumen example: A normal 55 watt halogen work light emits 700 – 800 lumen. A 40 watt LED work light for a tractor or harvester emits around 3500 lumen so about 5 times extra light and for half the power draw.
In addition to normal tractor white lights there are some blue LED lights such as those already offered by Hardi Crop Protection who have branches in both Jhb and Cape Town. These blue lights are proven to make spraying crops at night much easier by highlighting the spray pattern and show if any nozzles are blocked or badly performing.
Another use for blue LED lights is for machinery working in poultry houses because the colour does not frighten and scatter poultry.
Following our six years experience specialising in LED lights for agricultural tractors and machinery it is evident a small additional investment in quality well designed LED lights can bring a vast improvement and benefit to working in the dark whereas cheap poorly designed lights can bring absolute disappointment.
