Why Are Tractor Lights Positioned So Badly?

A glaring flaw (pardon the pun) that really gets me is where tractor lights are positioned. I hate design flaws, especially ones that are easily corrected. On almost all tractors without cabs, the headlights are mounted in the grill.  Most tractors sold today are equipped with front end loaders, so the headlights are most likely shining right into the loader bucket. When on my tractor, I can actually see better with the headlights off, because the glare bouncing off the loader bucket blinds me. And it seems like tractor manufacturers just don’t care.

But what an easy problem to resolve! If an innovative tractor company would move the lights to the roll bar, the issue would go away. But for forty years we’ve had to accept tractors with lights shining into our front attachments. The only options were to raise the bucket above the lights, which is dangerous, or to operate your tractor in the dark, which is even more dangerous.

Tractor Mike Steps Up to The Challenge

Since the tractor manufacturers weren’t fixing this, I took matters into my own hands.

First of all, I wanted a tractor light bar that was really, really easy to install.  I knew it had to go on the roll bar, and there had to be a mounting method that didn’t involve drilling holes for the lights or the switch.  I didn’t want to have a long wire and a fuse.  I pitched the idea to a lot of people. But there was no positive response, until I spoke with Custer Products.

Custer Products Helped Me Solve the Problem

Custer Products had both the desire and the products to resolve the issue, and the idea for the RBI (Roll Bar Illumination) Tractor Light Bar was born.

Custer’s specialty is the towing industry.  They provide high quality, weatherproof lights for tow truck drivers who need to mount clearance lights on vehicles they’re moving. Their solution is to mate high strength magnets to premium quality LED lights.

Perfect for what I was looking for!

Here’s What We Designed

The RBI Tractor Light mounts to the bottom of the roll bar with a pair of heavy magnets. The light is waterproof and has both flood and spot lights for maximum illumination. A short wire leads to a waterproof switch mounted in a box with a magnet on the back. The box gets mounted to the inside of the roll bar.

Quick Installation and Great Results!

I decided to mount one up on my tractor and see how it went. Installing the light took under a minute, but then it got a little tougher. Because this light will draw several amps, it has to hard wired directly to the battery. There’s a long wire with a fuse, and the wire had to be fed through the tractor so it’s not exposed to brush when using a rotary cutter. Luckily, I found some other wires headed to the battery and just followed them, zip tying everything together. I connected the black wire to the positive battery terminal, the white wire to negative.

Now, you’ll probably have some wire left over at the end, so just coil it together and zip tie it out of the way. And you’re done. Installation took me about forty minutes, but it will be quicker if you have a battery mounted in front of the dash.

The end result is AMAZING!  I can see a huge area around my tractor and it’s much safer than ever before.  It’ll extend my productive time on the tractor, and I don’t have to worry about driving blindly.

As I post this, the manufacturer suggested I sell this kit for $260 + freight. But I want to get a bunch of these out and make everyone safer after dark, so I’m selling them for $249, and that includes freight!

Ready to add convenient safety lighting to your tractor?    Here’s the link the to product.