Thanks for the Compliments and to Answer Some Questions.
Thanks for the Great Compliments! It was a fun project.
To answer some questions:
The stop/tail & indicators lights on the ripper bar are from a 789 haul truck and use halogen bulbs. I did this mainly to keep the rear visible during a phase II or phase III blow. During a blow the graders are responsible for plowing the road and leading the crews back to camp, we get in a caravan and the trucks all try to stay as close as possible. I turn off the rear work lights, which are on a separate switch, so they don’t get white spots in they’re eyes and run the rear flashers. The halogen bulbs put out just enough heat so they don’t cake up with snow and ice over. The reverse lights on the ripper are tied in to the reverse switch on the transmission and only come on when the machine is in reverse. I set it up this way because I don’t like the ripper all lit up when I’m backing up at night. Having the lights on the back of the ripper instead of ahead of the ripper, this eliminates the glare and shadowing going on behind the machine.
In the summer time they work great as indicators; my one roller hand referred to them as “The Get the Heck out of Way Lights”. She said “When I see those lights come on I’m switching to reverse”!
In regards to the lift cylinder mounted lights; this is the third machine that I have setup with these lights. It works really nice since the light pattern moves with the drawbar sideshift. As you centershift either way the lift cylinder leans and the light pattern moves in that direction.
Nige, this 14H has the optional 100 amp alternator. Yes; we have tried LEDs and though the lighting is great and the amperage draw is far lower they simply don’t put out enough heat to prevent them from icing over or caking up with snow. In a blow up north the lens will literally get covered with snow and block the light. I did switch all the tail/stop & indicator lights to LED; one taillight was over $160.00, OUCH! Plus I then had to cut off the “Sure seal” connector and install “Deutsch” connect to machine wiring harness to keep it all weather proof. The new LED tail and indicator lights come from CAT with Deutsch connector pigtails. Two months ago while we were testing at the Tucson Proving Grounds we tested four different LED lighting packages on a 16M. The lighting was fantastic and on the Quad LED it was so good that it would cause problems for the haul trucks passing the grader. Even the Quad barely put out any heat and there was actually talk about putting a small heater in the lamp holder to prevent it from caking up with snow. Solve one problem only to create another!
Joispoi, in regards to cold weather preparation and winter time operations. The machine has synthetic oil in every compartment (Hyd. Tandems, Trans. Circle Drive) except the engine. It has a Huber Reversible fan, all quilted insulated winter covers, a 20,000 btu auxiliary heater, the engine coolant lines running to both heaters are all covered with insulated blankets, 110 heating pads on the hydraulic tank, trans & engine, 110 engine coolant block heater, chain hanger beam just behind the radiator, the hydraulics are all plumbed for a reversible nose plow and rear wing, another complete set of snow tires and it has the warm air/cold air engine intake system mentioned in the “Sandman” thread.
Just to give some an idea of what it's like for visibility, I shot this picture last year while I was in a pickup headed back to camp after going out to fuel up some light plants. We had to follow behind our 16M as it was blowing Phase II conditions. If he gets just a little too far ahead you instantly lose sight of the machine and the road which he is plowing for you will drift back in very quickly. Not fun when it's around 70 below 0 windchills!
Regards, Randy
