6 Volt Positive Ground - LED lights?

[juslev4]

New to forum, did quick look and didnt see this addressed (maybe for good reason) but want to see what others thoughts are.
Im trying to run some standard LED lights I have on the back of my tractor to run while Im plowing snow (live down dark back road in country).
Standard LED requires positive polarity on Anode and negative on Cathode. My tractor is an early 1950s Farmall Super A, with 6 volt positive ground system.
Is there a way to use the negative power on the tractor to feed a 6 volt relay that changes polarity for the standard LEDs?
Im not really looking to buy a bunch of parts to convert/upgrade the power system, just seeing if any electrical gurus concur with this approach.

 

[sotxbill]

You would need to reverse the wires by....


open up the fixture and find the wire going to ground and reverse it with the other wire. requires soldering skills.

Or mount the light on an insulated mount of plastic and then wire it backwards with the appropriate wires to to ground and then b-negative.

Better yet do a 12 volt negative ground conversion, and join the 21st century. Then you can use regular bulbs, coils, batteries. and jump the tractor or use the tractor to jump other things on the farm.. A tractor with a 12 volt system and a 63 amp alternator can help start a lot of stuff on the farm.

 

[juslev4]

One day I will upgrade the power but not this winter, too expensive. :roll:

 

[wore out]

Typical LED "worklights" have both a red and black wire extending from them, if you can find them in a 6 Volt version the "ground polarity" would not be an issue, just feed (+) to the red wire and (-) to the black wire.

If using 12 Volt LED lights with a low/reasonable current draw you can use a "Positive Ground 6V to 12V Converter".

https://www.classiccarstereos.com/positive-ground-6v-to-12v-converter.html

https://www.amazon.com/DIGITEN-Conv...vlocphy=9020831&hvtargid=pla-537476086225

Here's a couple of examples.

 

[Bob Bancroft]

I have a tractor with a 6V system. I made the simple switch to negative ground. I couldn't find any LED's less than 12V at the
time. But I found a 6 to 12 volt 'inverter', I think it was, online. To me that would be a transformer, but they didn't call it
that. Works great.

 

[Royse]

LED lights require very little current. 8 D cell batteries
in a box with a switch will run the lights for quite a while.
My yellow LED flasher light runs on 8 AAA batteries.

 

[504]

I was given some 3/4 inch round lights(led) one worked great the
other one did not. I switched the wires on the bad one and it
worked fine,later I found out the lights came out of the trash.
Now we know why they were thrown away.

 

[used red MN]

J-4 welcome to YT! Wore out has your answer. The
only thing I will add is to check for no continuity
..connection.. between the black wire or whatever
color is the negative feed and the mount bracket if it is
metallic. If there is you will have a dead short hooking
them up as suggested.

 

[gene bender]

YES just have the lites mounted so they are not grounded to the tractor then
with a seperate sw run tow wires to them. I have elect air horns 12v on a 6v
system just mounted them on a piece of plywood ran two wires to them they are
just as loud on 6v neg ground as if they were on 12v neg ground

 

[mrslesq]

I did the same thing. I put LED lights on my JD4020 and thought the one light was bad. Changed the wire around and it works perfectly!

 

[juslev4]

Thank you for the info on the converter, inverter, transformer - getting hard to keep the differences straight. I didnt think about that approach and will look into it. These are rather small and low draw LED bulbs so it may work. Ill setup a test bench to make sure.

 

[buickanddeere]

Found some 6V LED's that are not polarity sensitive . They do need at least 6.3V to light up. Sometimes when the engine is not operating. The lights are dim to none.
This shop even has a DC to DC inverter to boost 6V to 12V . http://www.dynamoregulatorconversions.com/online-shop-for-led-bulbs-and-light-boards-etc.php

 

[buickanddeere]

Bought some 1500 lumen 6V LED's but can not locate the source again. Here are some small 500 lumen lamps .https://www.ledlight.com/a-13007-d-a-13007-c-headlight-6-volt-ba15d-base-positive-ground.aspx

 

[caterpillar guy]

By just coming directly off the battery you can use the negative ground lights just can't have then ground to the frame. Lights would have to mount on an insulated base like a rubber hose over the pipe on the light tree before mounting the lights. Or just mount s regular 12Vbattery on the tractor to run the lights and put charger on it occasionally as needed.

 

[buickanddeere]

Powerhouse 6V LED lights

http://www.classicautobulbs.com/automotive-light-bulbs/antique-vintage/1680-ba15s-optical-eagle-eye-tower-80-watt-16x-cree-6v.htm

 

[jvin248]

I had a questionable 6v generator that I promised the tractor if it gave me any troubles this winter I'd swap it over to 12v. I had the tractor idling waiting for someone, apparently to slow of idle to generate sufficient charge and the tractor stopped and would not start. I had to drag it out of the way with another tractor and used that one to finish the task.

So I bought the small Chevy one-wire alternator the hot-rod guys use (because it packages tighter and the typical one can get hit by the suspension arm), and a 12v coil with internal resistor. Under $120 which was half of messing around with a new 6v generator or rebuild. Completely different starting experience on that old Ferguson. If you've got space for the typical 'one-wire-alternator' you can find those for $65ish and $20ish for the coil. Might be worth it.

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