A little help with lighting question...

[sld]

I thought about posting this in the owning / operating forum but I feel there are dedicated Ford experts here.

I have added 2 lights to the top of the roll bar on my Ford 1210. They are rated at 55 watts. First question, is that 55 watts per pair generally, or each?

I have a 35 amp heavy duty alternator according to the owner's manual and the only other lights are the factory head lights. I am not sure exactly what these are rated at but they are a standard twist in automotive style bulb and not near as bright as the auxilliary lights.

Second question is whether I am taxing my alternator by running all 4 of these or not. They way I have them wired is the lights on the roll bar don't get power until I turn on the factory headlights which are wired thru the key switch.

Just plugging in the numbers for worst case is 220 watts divided by 12 volts only equals 18.33 or so amps. I am using 16 gauge wiring for all.

Do you see any issues? At idle, the engine will slow down some when I turn them all on but at 1500 or more rpm's I don't notice anything.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[LBrown59]

I thought about posting this in the owning / operating forum but I feel there are dedicated Ford experts here.

I have added 2 lights to the top of the roll bar on my Ford 1210. They are rated at 55 watts. First question, is that 55 watts per pair generally, or each?

I have a 35 amp heavy duty alternator according to the owner's manual and the only other lights are the factory head lights. I am not sure exactly what these are rated at but they are a standard twist in automotive style bulb and not near as bright as the auxilliary lights.Thanks for the advice.

55 watts each.

 

[sld]

Thank you Mr. Brown.

That is what I thought but wasn't sure.

 

[kennyd]

I thought about posting this in the owning / operating forum but I feel there are dedicated Ford experts here.

I have added 2 lights to the top of the roll bar on my Ford 1210. They are rated at 55 watts. First question, is that 55 watts per pair generally, or each?

I have a 35 amp heavy duty alternator according to the owner's manual and the only other lights are the factory head lights. I am not sure exactly what these are rated at but they are a standard twist in automotive style bulb and not near as bright as the auxilliary lights.

Second question is whether I am taxing my alternator by running all 4 of these or not. They way I have them wired is the lights on the roll bar don't get power until I turn on the factory headlights which are wired thru the key switch.

Just plugging in the numbers for worst case is 220 watts divided by 12 volts only equals 18.33 or so amps. I am using 16 gauge wiring for all.

Do you see any issues? At idle, the engine will slow down some when I turn them all on but at 1500 or more rpm's I don't notice anything.

Thanks for the advice.

No Ford expert needed to answer this question...it basic Ohm's law.

Your two "extra" lights are rated at 55w each, not a pair-so they draw just under 8 amps @ 13.8 volts. Your headlights are probably 35 watts each (you can verify by checking the bulb number) so they draw just over 5 amps @ 13.8 volts

So I figure your drawing about 14 or so amps when all four are on with your 35 amp alternator...you are fine.

 

[sld]

Thank you KennyD.

 

[jwstewar]

One thing I would be a leery of. You said you are running these through the original factory switch. Are you using a relay? If not, is the switch heavy enough to carry the added load of these lights?

 

[Soundguy]

Ditto that.. I'd use that key switch to power a relay, that carried the lamp power.

real easy to change over.. the wire from the key going to the lamps.. just have that feed the coil of one of them 30a fog lamp relays.. ground the other side of the coil, then run bat power to one of the NO contacts, and the other NO contact picks that wire back up to the lamps.. probably take ya 5 minutes to connectorize it together..

soundguy

 

[RavensRoost]

...and if the below means you are running the combined load of 2 new and 2 OE lights on 16 ga wire, I would think about upping that to at least 14 ga.

"Just plugging in the numbers for worst case is 220 watts divided by 12 volts only equals 18.33 or so amps. I am using 16 gauge wiring for all."

RavensRoost

 

[sld]

One thing I would be a leery of. You said you are running these through the original factory switch. Are you using a relay? If not, is the switch heavy enough to carry the added load of these lights?

I have wondered about that also. I think I might wire the aux lights straight from the battery to the toggle switch that powers them. That leaves what was factory intact and the stuff I added separate. This will also cut the amperage in half for the marginal wire gauge.

Still think I need a relay? The metal toggle switch should be fine for 1 set of lights.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[kennyd]

The relay is a good idea IMHO. The "trigger" to the relay can be from a source that's only hot when the key is ON, that way the lights will not operate with the key OFF.

Check the rating on any switch you add, but most auto style toggles are rated for 20 amps.

Here is basically how I wired mine:

 

[kthompson]

I would want to be able to cut those on the roll bar off and leave just headlights on also. When on the road you may find those roll bar lights blind drivers.

There is one thing about roll bar lights I find to be a problem and that is insects. They draw them to your head area and you learn real fast why headlights have been moved from rear fenders to the front of the tractors. Another reason I want to be able to cut those roll bar lights off and leave headlights only on.

 

[sld]

Great point KThompson.

Thanks for the schematic Kennyd. That gives me a good starting point. I know I have a relay laying around and some wire. This will be a cheap improvement!

 

[6sunset6]

hmm I mumbled about this maybe a year ago. TC34DA with a Fel in place the front head light package is all but useless. The frontloader frame breaks up and blocks a lot of the light. Even if the QA implement is removed. I only plow snow at night anyway so I cannot removed the plow. This tractor has two aux ports with bullet conn on each side in the rear at the roll bar. I mounted a light on top of the roll bar facing forward. It comes on with the key through on of the aux bullet conn. . Worked so so . Probably need a second light. Facing rear there are brackets lower on the roll bar, I used on for a light facing rear. This light had a switch built in. Also so so, gets blocked by the rear mounted snow blower. Then I put a cab on. Front light is useless, blocked by the cab to some degree. Back light switch is blocked by the cab but I could leave it on and it would come on with the key. I got to do this over. I have not decided where to mount the lights yet but I would like them all to come on with a switch. Since the built in front lights are useless , but they do come on with a built in switch , in fact 3 positions , I looked under the hood and found an inline Deutch conn. If I disconnect the built in hood light cable and plug in a new cable from my new lights I can used the built in switch with 3 positions and fused to boot.. Like front only, rear only and both.
Deutch uses the term Receptcle with pins for the light fixture end of the cable 4 wire pn is DT04-4P comes with 16-18g pins. Also available is a dummy plug to seal off the not used hood cable pn DT06-4S-C014. They are around $4.50 each from Batts Racing and DeutschConnector.com. Figuire out if you need anything else cause S & H is a little stiff for $9 worth of parts like $6 . Anyway I thought this was an interesting approach.

 

[LBrown59]

*I would want to be able to cut those on the roll bar off and leave just headlights on also. When on the road you may find those roll bar lights blind drivers.

There is one thing about roll bar lights I find to be a problem and that is insects. They draw them to your head area and you learn real fast why headlights have been moved from rear fenders to the front of the tractors. Another reason I want to be able to cut those roll bar lights off and leave headlights only on.

*So would I but the idea will not work with a tractor that has a FEL.

 

[sld]

*So would I but the idea will not work with a tractor that has a FEL.

That is partially why I am revisiting this project. I recently added a FEL and it all but blocks the factory lights in the rear fenders.

Swiveling one of the roll bar lights forward and leaving one backwards seems to be the solution for now. There has to be a better way.

 

[kthompson]

It is fine with me for you to wire your lights any way you desire. I was just pointing out the two issues I have found with them mounted on roll bar. But I don't have fel and thank God no need for snow blower. But willing for you to join me in field during a nice summer evening with your roll bar lights on. Our bugs dig lights. They really enjoy seeing what they eat.

It may have been covered but be sure you use the beam type you need there. For me trapezoidal for front lights and flood for rear worked best. Someone pointed out the number of positions their light switch had on it, my guess is their tractor's headlights have a low and high beam as does one of mine. Not sure you will find that in reasonable price aftermarket lights.

 

[sld]

But willing for you to join me in field during a nice summer evening with your roll bar lights on. Our bugs dig lights. They really enjoy seeing what they eat.

I hear you on the bugs and you have a very valid point.

Fortunately, most, if not all, of the time I use the lights is in the winter months due to lack of sunlight during my free time. Not many bugs out when you are pushing snow around!

 

[BobRip]

A 35 amp alternator only puts out 35 amps at high RPM. I don't know what that is for your alternator. So don't count on using all of that 35 amps or even 18 at idle. I would have a way of turning off the headlights and just running the bar lights. I may not have read all of this thread real carefully, so may be you have that already. I would fuse it at 20 amps and not thirty. Fusing is very important or you could burn up the wiring and maybe start a fire. I put the lights on my Power Trac up on the roll bar for the same reason, the bucket blocked most of the lights. Bugs have not bothered me much and probably won't bother you in the snow.

 

[Soundguy]

Alts are pretty darn efficient.. even at idle.. way better than dc generators.

If it has a 35a alternator.. once it's charging.. I'd expect 80% available from it without blinking an eye..

soundguy

 

[jwstewar]

I wired mine up similar to the way Kenny has them, except used one relay for the front lights and used the light wire that NH provided as my source for my switch. I then also used the light wire that NH provided for my lone rear light. Since NH runs their light off this directly, I figured I could run my single light on it as well. I was bushhogging until late last night. Almost 10:00. Had the loader on. Was planning on using both the factory headlights and ROPS lights. The ROPS lights had to go off pretty quick. Bugs were terrible. Just had to lower the loader more so the lights could go over them. Ran with the headlights and the rear light for probably 90 minutes last night.