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toronado3800

Want to put more lights on my Simplicity 5212.5 need advice

Hello, wandering over from the tree forum.

Thanks to my work schedule I'm going to be mowing later in the day than ever this year. I have a decent sized yard and my neighbors are pretty cool so mowing at 2100 won't generate any complaints.

My old Simplicity 5212.5 has a decent set of headlights on it but I would like to install some fog lights underneath and point them to the side at up to a 45 degree angle or so.

I have two questions:

Does anyone have a favorite brand, something with a tough lens that won't vibrate apart?

Think I should just use the existing headlight switch or will it be too much of a draw where its best if I wire in another circuit off the battery?

Thanks for the tips.

Comments (3)

  • mownie
    9 years ago

    Your questions should have included whether your tractor will be able to power up something as large as a pair of fog lights, if you mean real, genuine automotive fog lights.
    Most of the small yard type tractors use mini automotive incandescent bulbs such as 1156, or even smaller.
    The additional electrical load of a pair of even these small incandescent light bulbs could likely be more than your alternator can maintain and charge the battery, and operate the electric PTO clutch, and the fuel solenoid on the carburetor, all simultaneously.
    I suggest you look into getting some LED lights because those will use just a fraction of the power sucked up by plain old incandescent lights.
    In fact, I suggest you replace your current incandescent headlight bulbs with LED replacements as well.
    Doing that will allow you to add some LED lights to shine off to the side as you desire and probably still come up with less current draw than your 2 headlight bulbs do now.
    That means you can use the same light switch without overloading it or any wiring.
    The only unknown in this case is whether your Simplicity has a separate feed out of the alternator just to power headlights.
    If it does have this separate feed circuit just for headlights, it is probably an unregulated and unrectified alternating current feed, and alternating current will not work for LED lighting.
    But it is easy to determine whether your lights are fed by AC or if they are fed by DC.
    Just turn on the light switch when the engine is not running.
    If the headlights burn when the engine is not running, they are fed from the battery and are part of the standard DC charging system.
    If, however, the lights do not burn unless the engine is running, and are dim at idle but brighten with increased RPM.....the lighting circuit is AC powered and LED lights will not work.
    And if you do find out you can use LED lights, do yourself a favor and put one shining to the rear so you don't have to be blind when you need to back up.
    Click the link below and you can browse that site to see what I mean about LED replacements for standard automotive light bulbs.
    I am not promoting the site at all, just using it as an example to show you some options that would work.

    Here is a link that might be useful: some ideas for LED lights

  • justalurker
    9 years ago

    You might want to try #796 35w halogen bulb replacements if you have 1156 bulbs. Cheap, they twist right in, and NAPA has them.

    If you do DON'T touch the glass with your fingers.

  • bill_kapaun
    9 years ago

    I looked up a manual and this machine only has the 3 AMP DC charging/5AMP AC lighting circuit.

    You could probably get by wiring in a couple LED lights off the battery and then put the machine on the battery charger when done mowing. This assumes you won't be mowing all night.

    It might be simpler to get a couple LED bicycle headlights.
    Some of them get 200 hours on the "LOW" setting.
    Other option is to replace the flywheel, stator and add a Voltage Regulator. That's probably not financially feasible.

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