L175/L185 LED Headlight upgrade conversion

[wokndadog]

Just curious, is there anyone here who has done an upgrade to convert the headlights on their L175/185 to LEDs? If so, please provide details such as what you used (i.e size, style, model#, and vendor etc, photos of end result).

Thanks in advance for your response and any assistance you may share.

Regards,
Gary

 

[Rosher18]

I'm subscribing because I'm always a fan of some LED conversion. I did one on my motorcycle a few months back and it's great. I can post details of that if you'd like, Gary.

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[Witchgrass]

Curious myself in doing this myself. I haven't pulled one yet, but am wanting to go LED if possible, and cheap enough.

 

[wokndadog]

Rosher18,
Thanks for the offer, I certainly appreciate your willingness to help. I am pretty good with electronics and electrical, what I am most curious about, is what products others may have found to specifically work with the L175/L185 with the least amount of modification.

You mentioned doing a conversion on your motorcycle, this reminded me of how the headlight assemblies of several older bikes I owned were designed and this in turn made me wonder about the L185. Low and behold there is another thread about changing headlight bulbs (not converting to LED, just original bulb type replacement), which indicates the L185 headlight assembly opens up by taking off the front lens.

http://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13396&highlight=headlight

So although the assembly looks like a sealed beam bulb, it is just a housing for a dual filament bulb. I have not had the assembly apart yet, but now I am wondering if there may be a direct fit replacement for the bulb? If so, then conversion will be easy.

Regards,
Gary

 

[coachgeo]

Most all the LED conversion discussion are in the Fabrication forum. There is quite a few that have been done on various models.

To search deeper you can use your favorite search engine's Advanced feature to search this site for LED. A bulletin boards search feature typically will not search for a 3 character string.

 

[wokndadog]

Thanks Coachgeo,

I did use the advanced search feature and searched under "All Open Forums" for the following:
"L185, Headlight"
"L185, Head light"
"L185+headlight"

The result only gave back 4 threads, none that discussed an LED conversion on an L185.
Regards,
Gary

 

[kckndrgn]

Thanks Coachgeo,

I did use the advanced search feature and searched under "All Open Forums" for the following:
"L185, Headlight"
"L185, Head light"
"L185+headlight"

The result only gave back 4 threads, none that discussed an LED conversion on an L185.
Regards,
Gary

I don't think that's what he meant. You can use Google (or your favorite search engine) and search a specific site/forum.
Go to google.com and put this in the search box:
siterangetractortalks.com led conversion

anything after the .com is your search string, so do "L185 headlight LED" (I got 37 results with that search)

 

[billrigsby]

Just curious, is there anyone here who has done an upgrade to convert the headlights on their L175/185 to LEDs?

I did my L1500 (L175) a while back...........

https://www.facebook.com/pg/thekubotaproject/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1701495370119270

A bit involved, but well worth the extra light, and kept the original look.
I could not find "bolt in" replacements.

 

[Rosher18]

Billrigsby, I've used those lights on a piece of laminating equipment at my last job. They're great! Been thinking about mounting some of those to my ROPS instead of getting a light bar.

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[Rosher18]

Woknadog, I might be able to take a look at my headlights and see if I can get a socket size off of them. The motorcycle was an H7 if I remember correctly.

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[wokndadog]

Hey everyone, thanks for the responses.
Here is an FYI update for anyone looking to upgrade the headlights on their L175, L185 tractor without having to modify the headlight buckets... As in DIRECT FIT BULBS.

I recently purchased an L2500 and found "DIRECT FIT LED's on ebay, as well as another listing for those which reportedly are "DIRECT FIT" for the L175 and L185, so I am upgrading both tractors.

The seller appears to be out of Oklahoma. He indicated he had a hard time finding bulbs for his Kubota, which is apparently how he got started selling LED's. See the image below and notice the search term I used on ebay, just change the model number to match your tractor and you may find a direct replacement set for your tractor.

P.S. Notice that the price is for a "PAIR" of bulb replacements, not individual pieces, so for just a couple dollars more than the cost of one STANDARD OEM bulb, you get two LEDs. Seems like a low cost "no brainer upgrade"...

Regards,
Gary

 

[aaluck]

Here is an FYI update for anyone looking to upgrade the headlights on their L175, L185 tractor without having to modify the headlight buckets... As in DIRECT FIT BULBS.

Thanks for the info. Please report back on how they work and I'll probably pick up two of these if they are better for you.

 

[freewheel3]

Hey everyone, thanks for the responses.
Here is an FYI update for anyone looking to upgrade the headlights on their L175, L185 tractor without having to modify the headlight buckets... As in DIRECT FIT BULBS.

I recently purchased an L2500 and found "DIRECT FIT LED's on ebay, as well as another listing for those which reportedly are "DIRECT FIT" for the L175 and L185, so I am upgrading both tractors.

The seller appears to be out of Oklahoma. He indicated he had a hard time finding bulbs for his Kubota, which is apparently how he got started selling LED's. See the image below and notice the search term I used on ebay, just change the model number to match your tractor and you may find a direct replacement set for your tractor.

P.S. Notice that the price is for a "PAIR" of bulb replacements, not individual pieces.

Regards,
Gary
View attachment 58086

I bought a set from that same seller for my MX5000. They are a lot brighter than my factory bulbs and were truly plug and play. Fit perfect and seem to be good quality. These were the only ones that I could find with forward facing LEDs in the tips of the light, throws light further instead of just wider.