6 volt LED lighting?????

[MiCarl]

I recently purchased a 1944 H that I have lent to the educational farm where I volunteer. The tractor is still 6 volt.

A previous owner had replaced one of the stock lights with a plastic housing sealed beam unit only marked "Made in China". I'm assuming it's 6 volt because It's quite bright. The stock IH light was too rusted out to be usable.

The previous owner had installed a rear work light that is almost identical to the aftermarket forward facing light, so I moved that up to the light bar and it seems to do the trick.

Problem is the generator cannot keep up with these two lights. The tractor is going to be used this fall to pull wagons after dark so I'd like to find some bright, low power 6 volt light assemblies.

Is anyone aware of a good 6 volt headlight assembly?

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Not sure, but I think Steiners does.

[MiCarl]

Not sure, but I think Steiners does.

I wasn't able to find a complete light assembly in LED. I'd have to buy a whole incandescent assembly and purchase replacement LED lamps.

[Eugene]

Math time. Research the amperage out put of the generator currently on the tractor. Some generators are quite low in amps generated.

Research the amp requirement for the LED bulbs.

Add in an amp or two for the ignition system. Lights on the trailers?

Conversion cost to 12 volts. Long/maybe short time repair costs of the 6 volt electrical system.

[MiCarl]

Amperage output not currently known, but clearly not enough to keep up with two sealed beams (unknown wattage) and the ignition system.

Amp requirements for LED bulbs is minuscule compared to similar light output from incandescent.

No lights on the wagons.

I may end up doing a 12V conversion. I think the battery is on its last legs anyhow.

*******
Wagon rides start tomorrow night. If the lights turn out to be a problem I'll probably just disconnect one. Permanent solution isn't imminent.

[MiCarl]

I thought I'd post my solution in case anyone comes across this:

The lamps in the Chinese housings were PAR36 sealed beam. I found some PAR36 led lamps on Amazon that work from 6-30 volts at $16.49 each. I ordered a couple and popped them into the housings. THEY ARE AWESOME! An incredible amount of light and if I watch the ammeter when I turn them on I can see the needle wiggle just a little. Of course the generator has no trouble keeping up. They are a bit brighter than the 35 watt halogen that was originally in the light.

I tested one of the lamps on my Cub in the shed before taking to the farm and going to the trouble of installing. One of these led lamps drowns out the light from a pair of stock IH lights.

If you need a lot of light at low power draw and don't care about being original consider buying the Chinese light with the PAR36 ($10 for the 12V model on Amazon) and swap in a pair of these leds. This is exactly what I will do if I ever need a work light.

6V LED PAR36 Bulb 5W 500lm 6 Voltage to 30 Voltage

[Urbish]

Thanks for sharing, Carl. These are the 6V LED PAR36 sealed beams we've been waiting for!

[MiCarl]

NOTE:

I JUST NOTICED THE DESCRIPTION ON THAT LIGHT HAS CHANGED. IT'S NOW LISTED AS 10-30 VOLTS, 9 WATT, 900lm. WHEN I BOUGHT IT WAS 6-30 VOLTS, 5 WATT, 500lm.

IT APPEARS THE PRODUCT HAS CHANGED BUT THE SELLER KEPT THE SAME ITEM NUMBER. I'VE GOT A QUESTION IN TO FIND OUT BUT UNTIL I GET AN ANSWER YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO ORDER FOR A 6 VOLT TRACTOR.

[Lt.Mike]

If you want 6volt and are ok with the flat back design it’s hard to beat $18.61 a light.
This easily the cheapest I’ve seen them.

https://www.dbelectrical.com/products/3 ... 0-130.html

[ShawnAgne]

If you look in the Cub forum there is a thread that shows how they hooked up 12V LED's to a 6V system. I did that for about 4 months then I decided to change the Cub and 300 over to 12V. If you decide to do that, I have the electrical part they use that allows it to work that I can sell you.

Shawn