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Adding lights to lawn tractor

TractorHobbyist

Feb 14, 2017
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Feb 14, 2017
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I realize that the original post on this is very old, but it seems a lot of people want to do this (add lights to a stock lawn tractor for snow blowing)... I did a lot of research online, and in the end, the best and only option for me turned out to be a very good one for reasons people never think of.... ballast.

Basically, I wanted to run two 6" 50Watt off-road lights at the back of my JD D160, which has a 44" blower up front, plus two 4" tail lights so I could be seen at night (the tractor has no rear lights stock, just two small useless reflectors). I live in Canada, and in an area that gets hammered with snow (my front lawn has about 6 feet of it right now, and thats not just the snow banks).

Power output on the stock tractor wouldn't handle the additional lighting without putting a serious load/drain on the battery. It just isn't designed for what I wanted to do. So, here's what I came up with....

I fabricated a "hauler box" on the rear end of the tractor and mounted it to the suitcase weight bracket so it's completely removable for season changeover. I just undo four bolts and it comes off. The "tray" portion of the hauler box holds two .50 calibre ammo cans, weatherproof from surplus at Princess Auto, and in them are Pro Point lawn and garden batteries, one battery in each can. Outside of this, I fabricated a rear frame at the end of the hauler box to hold the additional lights, which places them approximately 12 inches above the rear fenders and 6 inches out from the soft cab on the tractor. I wired the off road lights to one of the batteries, then to a glowing blue toggle switch I mounted on the hinged lid of the storage compartment right of the drivers seat. I then did the same with the rear lights, except I wired them to the other battery and to a red glowing toggle switch in the same place. I also wired both batteries in parallel so that when I put them on a tender it charges both at the same time.

The real magic? I run tire chains on my JD with two suitcase weights and sometimes I still need traction in deep snow.... however, the additional weight of the two batteries, ammo boxes, and hauler box sure made a difference in snow squalls when I'm getting hammered with snow! Its just a part of the solution that most people never think of....
SOrry, I forgot to mention, when designing this solution I was willing to spend the money on two extra lawn and garden batteries not just for the weight.... I also wanted to have room to spare in the power department because my next addition is a small power winch to raise and lower the blower....
 
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