Kubota Headlight Retrofit

[OC455]

Originally I was going to retrofit a pair of OEM fog lights with a set of Morimoto Matchbox 2.0 projectors. But now that I traded in my Bighorn for the Longhorn, the Gen4 fog lights I was setting up are just collecting dust. And I never finished them up...so

I removed the Matchbox projectors and then removed the headlight assembly off of the Kubota. I stuck the headlight assembly in the oven for about 10 minutes at 210 degrees. Opened them up so easy.

Hog'd out the opening for the 881 bulb to fit the projector shafts. Enough clearance for the projectors with the shrouds. I have to clean the lens up...going to have to sand them and then use plastic polish to clean them up.

Will see how it works out.



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[Badger 13]

Now that is an interesting project. It has to be an improvement over the stock Kubota lights. Good luck with it.

 

[OC455]

Now that is an interesting project. It has to be an improvement over the stock Kubota lights. Good luck with it.

I had a cheap set of LED bulbs in there that didn't real have any good light, they just made the headlight "whiter" so no real improvement at all.

I have a relay harness that I'm going to use that I bought on clearance and give them a try that way. I don't want to overload anything on the tractor.

I think the 881 bulb has an H11 style plug, so I will have to dig through all the spare electrical stuff I have to find something that will work. If not, I will order some H11 pigtails and set something up to run it.

I found some guy on youtube put a set of HID bulbs in his Kubota without projectors and he got it to work....albeit was a newer Kubota BX he was working on.

 

[OC455]

So, just a little update. I have the projectors lined up ok. Slightly off up/down on one side, but its going on a Compact Tractor, so big deal. Cleaned the lenses. Wet sanded 400,600,800,1000,1200,1500 and then 3000 grit. Meguires plastic polish, looks a lot better, still not as good as a brand new headlight set would be, but better than being "yellowed" like they were.

I have a HD wiring harness thay I grabbed on clearance a while back before the fog light build started. Going to use that to power the ballasts and lights.

To check everything, I hooked the harness to the -/+ terminals under the hood of my Charger and unplugged my high beam and plugged into the input of the harness to trigger the ballasts. I could only do one at a time because I couldn't find one of the ignitors I had.

The only thing I have to wait on is a new ignitor and an adapter harness to go from the 880 style plug to a 9006 plug. 880, 881 is the same as H11, H9, so not hard to find.

Just waiting on a new hood/bonnet for the Kubota because I damaged it two years ago when I messed up putting on my front end loader. Trying to take the headlight assembly off also cracked the tabs for the headlight mounts that are on the hood/bonnet.

Just have to find mounting points for the ballasts out of the way.


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[OC455]

Ok, got everything buttoned up and put back together. Got the ignitor and adapter and I tested everything before I knew where to mount it all. Most everything is zip tied to places that allow clearance or using existing holes or stuff that won't cause an issue

Everything works!!! No weak lighting anymore.

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[OC455]

Just some night shots...a lot better than regular 881 halogen bulbs or LED...

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[OC455]

About 25ft away from the house...Not totally dark, but enough. Because they're mounted so close together it doesn't really distribute the width of the beam pattern, which I expected, but hey, it's an oversized garden tractor...lol.

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