LED Headlight Hack on My John Deere

Being a family man now, I'm finding more and more of my routine tasks getting moved into "alternative hours" (a.k.a "whenever I can find time to do them"). As such, the task of mowing the lawn falls into the category of "a waste of daylight". Unfortunately, the headlights on my John Deere 265 were barely adequate, being a pair of 1156 automotive bulbs in some crude reflectors.

I looked into mounting a set of driving lights on the tractor, but even the cheap ones run about 25 or 30 bucks...which would also require more wiring and drilling of holes for mounting.

As it turns out, Sylvania (and I'm sure others) make a drop-in LED replacement for the 1156 bulb. The original 1156 draws about 27 Watts, whereas the LED equivalent is only 4 Watts, and has its own built-in reflector. Thus, the total current draw drops to about 1/7th (good for the aged wiring and the crude charging system on the tractor), while the total light output...well, take a look.

Dayum! Well thanks for showing me the new reverse light bulbs for my Sammy!

Edit: Think I'll do the reverse lights in both cars and get some Philips Vision-X 1158s for brake lights.

GameboyRMH wrote: Dayum! Well thanks for showing me the new reverse light bulbs for my Sammy! Edit: Think I'll do the reverse lights in both cars and get some Philips Vision-X 1158s for brake lights.

Yeah, this would be great for reverse bulbs, too. I plan on upgrading the 1157's on my older cars to these LEDs, too. Much easier than adding a CHMSL for better visibility for brake lights.

The 1156's were $16 a pair at Advance; I bet you could find them cheaper online.

Oh, and don't forget to smear some dielectric grease on the bulb before installation.

volvoclearinghouse wrote: Oh, and don't forget to smear some dielectric grease on the bulb before installation.

Hehe you have a good memory!

While I applaud your ingenuity, I'd be pretty pissed, if you were my neighbor, mowing after dark.

RealMiniDriver wrote: While I applaud your ingenuity, I'd be pretty pissed, if you were my neighbor, mowing after dark.

I mow after dark all the time

Sorry. No noise regulations out near me, and I have had no complaints.

I also will be looking for these bulbs. What were their part numbers?

265 good tractor.

The Sylvanias are carried by Advance Auto Parts. Here's the link:

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/sylvania-1156-led-bulb-1156led.bp2/10997690-P

As for the mowing after dark, I'm not doing it at midnight. Generally I call it quits around 10PM, but that's still a good hour or so of post-dark mowing (more in the early spring and fall). We also have 3+ acres of land, of which I mow about 2. And our neighbors aren't exactly suburbia-distance from us.

If the neighbors want to complain, I'll be happy to accept their free babysitting services so I can have some time on the mower while the wife makes dinner.

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine:

It has been, once I figured out the maddening cut-out problem was caused by a $60 coil. A new set of blades made it cut like new again, too. Sometimes I long for a bigger deck, though, as the 48" takes a bit to slog through our lawn.

So... uh... those are the same as the center tail light in my 1999 Miata.

They're the turn and reverse lights in NAs.

volvoclearinghouse wrote: As for the mowing after dark, I'm not doing it at midnight. Generally I call it quits around 10PM, but that's still a good hour or so of post-dark mowing (more in the early spring and fall). We also have 3+ acres of land, of which I mow about 2. And our neighbors aren't exactly suburbia-distance from us.

That's cool. My parents' neighbors are close by, and one of them (a retired guy, that has plenty of other opportune times) has the knack for mowing at the most inconsiderate times - 9pm, 6am, when my folks are hosting an outdoor dinner party, etc. It just seems like he TRIES to mow, just to be rude.

We have one of those retired neighbors. He mows like 2 or 3 times per week, although usually at like 10AM or whatever. We're lucky if we sneak in a mow every 2 weeks. This does beg the question, however: how early/late is too early/late to mow? I tend to call it quit by 10pm, and never before 8AM on weekends.

Last weekend we had our daughter's first birthday party, and it seemed like every neighbor was out on their mower. shrug I just turned up the music and kept the beer well-iced.

too late or too early depends on your neighbors. I generally work early (like 5 or 6 am early) so I have a real problem with people making noise after 9 or 10pm..

When I worked nights.. anything before 9am was grounds for hurting somebody

One way to deal with the kid issue,they love riding on the mower with you.

BlindPirate wrote: One way to deal with the kid issue,they love riding on the mower with you.

I thought that was why mowers had trailer hitches, for pulling kids around in something.

volvoclearinghouse wrote: This does beg the question, however: how early/late is too early/late to mow?

I do my best to stop noise-making activities when the sun goes down, and not start before 9am on the weekends.

In reply to BlindPirate:

Not when they're 1. Maybe in a few years.

As for the courtesy thing, I figure I'll stick with my "common sense" hours, and if any of the neighbors have an issue, trust that I'm a nice and approachable enough guy that they'd come and talk to me and request I not mow before 9/ mow after 9/ whatever. Luckily, my two nearest neighbors are a retired drafter and a work-from home consultant engineer.

Back to the lights - how's the actual pattern?

Keith Tanner wrote: Back to the lights - how's the actual pattern?

Much more uniform than the old incandescent bulbs. And, obviously, brighter, farther, and whiter. It creates an actual haze of light over the area in front of the tractor rather than two oddly-shaped blobs of orange. If there was ever an oncoming tractor, he would surely flash his high beams at me in irritation!

Mowed last night- finished up about 1/4 to 10. It was like mowing in daylight. Really nice. Plus, the fireflies seemed to be attracted to the bright headlamps, so I got a cool light show as a bonus!

I am going to get a set for the reverse lights on my rover today. They look worth it

Whenever I stop using my neighbor's Dixie Chopper and buy my own tractor, it's getting one of those cheap LED light bars:

This thread is timely and relevant to my interests. We have just added a 1969 Wheel Horse Raider 12 to the fleet and it appears to use the same bulbs.

I can't say I have ever used the lights on my tractor.

Now the snow blower is a different story. I might try to led that.