lights left on -> dead battery

[WinterDeere]

I park my tractor in a shed with a sealed concrete floor, where any leak is going to be blatantly obvious, so I'll admit I get a bit lax about checking fluids. I'll check crankcase oil each Saturday morning, as I'm mostly a weekend warrior, but hydro oil might get checked only once per month, and coolant almost never.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

I park my loader tractor like this, with the bucket cutting edge down, mostly because the exhaust misses the lower side of the loader arm, if I leave it flat on the ground then I get the black smudge of exhaust smudge ... The headlights will shine on the loader cross member!

The Kubota in the background has a much more difficult light switch to "accidentally" turn on, compared to the Massey ...

If you have LED headlights, maybe a battery tender would keep up?

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I park my tractor in a shed with a sealed concrete floor, where any leak is going to be blatantly obvious, so I'll admit I get a bit lax about checking fluids. I'll check crankcase oil each Saturday morning, as I'm mostly a weekend warrior, but hydro oil might get checked only once per month, and coolant almost never.

Habit, man, habit!
I have a big sign on walk-in door leaving garage: COMPRESSOR OFF!
THERMOSTAT 60°F
LIGHTS OFF!!!!!

 

[WinterDeere]

lol... I only turn my compressor off if I'm going out of town for a week or more.

 

[Carl_NH]

You guys are lucky to have heated barns and leave compressors on!

My compressors stay off in my unheated barn until I need it - usually only in the warmer months.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

My barn is only heated in the summer, when it's not needed!

 

[WinterDeere]

You guys are lucky to have heated barns and leave compressors on!

My compressors stay off in my unheated barn until I need it - usually only in the warmer months.

I always seem to find myself living in houses with a small carriage barn, the plight of an "old house nut", and either I or a prior owner has insulated and heated each one in various ways.

The one where I spent my 20's and early 30's was heated with a resistive in-wall heater, which stank of burned sawdust each fall, and the place had no cooling. Since I seemed to be forever working on projects mostly in the hotter months, I spent most of my time out there just broiling in heat... with the constantly-running compressor never helping with that. Trying to do any painting out there with isocyanate-hardened urethanes was always a hassle, with my rigging up various window air conditioners to try to make the climate a little less humid, as best I could.

So when I fitted out my current carriage barn, which I believe dates back to the 1770's addition to this house, I decided I was going to have air conditioning! So I installed a mini split system with a single outdoor unit, and one indoor unit on each of the two floors. It is now my refuge and solace on hot days, I'll go out there to work on projects in the cool space, when it's too hot to work outdoors.

Where I (or more specifically the guy who sized and quoted the system) screwed up, is that the single indoor unit on the first floor is woefully under-sized for keeping the space warm on the coldest days in January and February. It'll keep the space a comfortable 55 - 65F down into the 20's, but it struggles when we get into teens and single digits. I've been meaning to get around to having a second or larger indoor unit installed for years now, but there's always other more urgent projects in the way of making that happen.

 

[RayIN]

Would a red light mounted in plain sight work?

 

[CliffordK]

I have a similar, but different problem with the Diesel Ford 1715. It has a mechanical shutoff. So, the key is primarily used for the glow plugs and starter motor. And perhaps charging. But the tractor is shut off by pulling the shutoff cable. So, it is so very easy to forget to turn the key off. The key hasn't been out of the lock for years.

I try to remind myself to look for dash lights. But, the light is rather dim.

 

[WinterDeere]

I have an idea for a simple mod that will get me what I want, but it might be awhile till I have time to get the parts and implement. Basically, it will connect into the lighting circuit, either at the switch connector or one of the light connectors, using male/female plug pairs for easy plug-n-play, as well as the key hot accessory terminal that Deere includes under the hood. It'll contain a latching relay and a non-latching relay in logic configuration to start a buzzer each time lights are left on with key off, and contain a push button to silence the buzzer, until the next key cycle resets the circuit.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I have an idea for a simple mod that will get me what I want, but it might be awhile till I have time to get the parts and implement. Basically, it will connect into the lighting circuit, either at the switch connector or one of the light connectors, using male/female plug pairs for easy plug-n-play, as well as the key hot accessory terminal that Deere includes under the hood. It'll contain a latching relay and a non-latching relay in logic configuration to start a buzzer each time lights are left on with key off, and contain a push button to silence the buzzer, until the next key cycle resets the circuit.

Either that or change how you dismount tractor so you have to walk around the front every time after it's shut off.
What works for me with a bad habit like leaving lights on is incorporate a new habit.
Even if it's a string tied to key and a loop other end over light switch. To remove key you have to take it off light switch knob.

 

[randyjs]

Seems like the easiest would be to just mount an idiot light on the dash.

 

[D&D]

Possibly, I can imagine some rare scenario where I might do enough stupid things in a sequence to create that problem. But it seems like a pretty unlikely scenario, if the chime is implemented in a way that it had to be bypassed each time a new event occurred.

Put otherwise, I want a chime that will sound if I turn off the tractor and leave the seat with the lights still on, and then a momentary-press button that silents the chime until it auto-resets with the next triggering event. A triggering event would be defined as lights on + ignition off + no one in seat.

Perhaps someone has already made such a thing, I hoped someone here would chime in with that, saving me an evening of searching. If not, I think that some enterprising person could probably make a few bucks at this as a side gig, if they were willing to do the design + manufacturing + sales.

Unfortunately for me, the design + mfg. + sales would mean taking hours away from more profitable work, as there's no such thing as "free time" or "side gigs" for the self-employed. I don't want to spend my few free hours away from doing my primary design + mfg. + sales work, doing even more design + mfg. + sales.

Sounds overly complex vs a simpler solution

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[WinterDeere]

Sounds overly complex vs a simpler solution

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Hey, those look great! I don't think that having to remember to disconnect a battery is ever going to be a good solution for the problem of someone too forgetful to turn off their lights, but I can think of many other good uses for those things!

Related: There are lots of questions on this forum about whether disconnecting a modern tractor with all of its onboard electronics, is a good or bad idea, but nearly zero answers on that question.

 

[D&D]

Related: There are lots of questions on this forum about whether disconnecting a modern tractor with all of its onboard electronics, is a good or bad idea, but nearly zero answers on that question.

All that should be lost is presets on clock, radio, gps. As far as I know (and read) the tractor world is using NVM so a dead battery (or power loss) doesn’t permanently disable it.

 

[Fetch_21]

Probably the easiest & safest would be to just add a relay in series with the lights that's activated only when the key is on. Link below for Amazon version of fused 40A relay. The coil of the relay would be powered by the ignition switch. When on, the relay is closed. When the key is off, the relay opens. An insulation displacement clip (trailer clip) can be used for the ignition / coil side without cutting anything. For the light side, the wire could either be cut & relay spliced in - or, the relay end or bulb end could have it added in-line to avoid cutting.

Relay

Amazon.com

IDC Terminals

Amazon.com

 

[johneking]

I went to start the tractor today, so that I could get to some equipment behind it, and found the battery was dead. Apparently I'd left the lights on last time I'd used it, because it was daylight by the time I shut it down, and it just wasn't obvious that they were on. This has happened at least once before, that I can remember, and it's only a matter of time 'till I'm hosed with a truck waiting to be unloaded while my tractor has a dead battery.

I was thinking, every old car I've ever owned had a buzzer or chime that'd remind me I had my lights on, as soon as I'd shut off the ignition and/or opened the door. Would it be too much to ask that Deere give us some option for a chime or buzzer, when lights are left on after ignition off?

I can see where this'd be annoying to some, there has to be some means to suspend it in those cases where you want lights on with ignition off. But for most other cases, I do want to be reminded that I've left the lights on, when I kill the ignition and hop off the seat.

Why not install a light on the dash that is on when lights etc. are on -- that way you'll know they are on when shutting down.

 

[Gord Baker]

You will be fortunate if your dead battery did not freeze causing internal damage. Poor design to be sure.

 

[WinterDeere]

You will be fortunate if your dead battery did not freeze causing internal damage. Poor design to be sure.

Exactly. Sorry if I hadn't made that clear in my OP. Of course I'll be hosed if I need the FEL to load or unload a truck that's waiting in the road, or to plow the driveway and get out to an important meeting. But the icing on the cake is when you find your battery will no longer even hold a charge, after such an event.

My tractor sat with the lights on for several days, in an unheated shed with temperatures ranging -8F to +10F. The roof is gray metal and the floor is concrete, which will help it pick up a few degrees of solar heating during the day, and the concrete probably moderates those nighttime lows a bit. But no matter how you slice it, it was damn cold, and that battery likely had no charge left after the first 24 hours.

 

[Fxfymn413]

Find the lead that feeds the lights and add a relay across it that is activated by turning on the ignition switch. No ignition power opens the relay and kills the lights.