Loader Loader Lights Dissapointment Help

[corey9212]

Hello, I finally got my tractor back with all the addon's installed and immediately started mowing the lawn, it got dark and I thought sweet lets see how well the loader lights work. I flick the switch and nothing, wtf?!? I turn on the regular lights and the loader lights turn on but the regular lights stay off, I flick the loader light switch off and the loader lights turn off and the regular lights turn on, that means I can have either one set of lights on or the other but not both.

I could see if the switch was a 3 way allowing one or the other or both, but to have just one or the other doesn't make sense to me.

Is there anything I could do to make it so the switch turns the loader lights on or off like flood lights? The loader lights have their own high beam and low beams which is cool but to use both would be sweet.

 

[AKfish]

Well... that's a real letdown! I've considered buying the loader lights - even with the extra cab lights on my M - it gets really dark up here in the winter and I do a lot of snow plowing in pitch black, heavy snowing conditions.

Loader lights, cab lights, and front engine lights; can't have too many - IMO.

If all I could have were loader lights or the other tractor lights; well, let's just say I'll hang onto my money! :thumbsdown:

That said; have you cycled thru all of the cab light settings? Either with the loader light switch in both the off and on positions?

AKfish

 

[corey9212]

Well... that's a real letdown! I've considered buying the loader lights - even with the extra cab lights on my M - it gets really dark up here in the winter and I do a lot of snow plowing in pitch black, heavy snowing conditions.

Loader lights, cab lights, and front engine lights; can't have too many - IMO.

If all I could have were loader lights or the other tractor lights; well, let's just say I'll hang onto my money! :thumbsdown:

That said; have you cycled thru all of the cab light settings? Either with the loader light switch in both the off and on positions?

AKfish

Same here in the winter, so do I that's why I bought the light kit.

My theory for tractor lights there's not enough lights until the area becomes daylight.

I paid just under $1000 for the light kit installed if I knew they would be like this I would have held onto my money as well that's why I'm trying to find a solution to make them act like auxiliary lights.

Yes I have cycled through all the positions with the loader lights on and off. There was no difference either choose one or the other. I'm gonna talk to my dealer today and see what he says about it cause I feel like John Deere robbed me of that feature (pretty much like the fuel tank plating.)

 

[Zebrafive]

It should not be hard to rewire the loader lights independent of the tractor lights.
Determine which wire is the power source to the loader light switch and separate it from the tractor lights. Hook to a new power source. I would make sure it's a source only hot when the key is "ON" so you can not leave them "ON" and drain the battery.

Also you need to determine why the tractor lights do not work when they are switched "ON" and loader lights are also switched "ON". I wonder if there is a relay that is normally closed in the tractor light circuit that the loader lights activate when "ON" opening the circuit to the tractor lights.

This sounds like a fun project to solve.

 

[Willl]

Who installed these ?

Did you tell them how you wanted them to operate ?

This is an easy fix if you know wiring and such.

 

[corey9212]

It should not be hard to rewire the loader lights independent of the tractor lights.
Determine which wire is the power source to the loader light switch and separate it from the tractor lights. Hook to a new power source. I would make sure it's a source only hot when the key is "ON" so you can not leave them "ON" and drain the battery.

Also you need to determine why the tractor lights do not work when they are switched "ON" and loader lights are also switched "ON". I wonder if there is a relay that is normally closed in the tractor light circuit that the loader lights activate when "ON" opening the circuit to the tractor lights.

This sounds like a fun project to solve.

It would be nice to have them rewired to work independently of the headlights and still have them go high and low beam with the high and low beam of the headlights. To me that would be ideal.

I bet it could be a relay, one is on or the other, if I find that relay and remove it would that stop the loader lights from shutting the main lights off? If so the fun part is finding the relay.

Who installed these ?

Did you tell them how you wanted them to operate ?

This is an easy fix if you know wiring and such.

Dealer installed them.

I thought it would be common sense to have them turn on and off with their own switch without affecting the normal headlights.

I am familiar with wiring (rewired trailers and rv's, installed vehicle electrical mods.) I'm not familiar with relays though.

 

[AKfish]

I'm looking forward to hearing what/how your dealer responds to this conundrum! The situation does not make a great deal of sense! Most definitely not an "optional" feature that's worth a $1,000!!

AKfish

 

[DT86]

I have a theory to the the reason the head lights don't work at the same time as the work lights... I may be 100% wrong.

They do not work together so you can not accidentally blind oncoming traffic with the work lights while driving on the road.

 

[Mechanos]

Commom sense tells me that they should not come on with the headlights in "driving" mode, but they should all come on in "work" mode.

 

[Dr Dave]

The reason they wired it this way , may be to prevent overloading the charging system.

Dave

 

[BRBurns]

The reason they wired it this way , may be to prevent overloading the charging system.

Dave

I believe you are right. If it were me, I'd rewire it, but keep an eye on it to make sure you do not drain the battery running all the lights at once.

 

[corey9212]

I'm looking forward to hearing what/how your dealer responds to this conundrum! The situation does not make a great deal of sense! Most definitely not an "optional" feature that's worth a $1,000!!

AKfish

I will talk to him on Monday and see what he says. I agree that for the price it's definitely not worth the $1000

I have a theory to the the reason the head lights don't work at the same time as the work lights... I may be 100% wrong.

They do not work together so you can not accidentally blind oncoming traffic with the work lights while driving on the road.

True, I could see that but common sense says to shut them off during road travel plus they do have their own high beams and low beams so they should be adjusted like headlights to avoid blinding oncoming drivers.

Commom sense tells me that they should not come on with the headlights in "driving" mode, but they should all come on in "work" mode.

Yes but they are a driving light to assist the headlights when having a loader attached but the way they have it set up is when the loader is attached you use them instead. They are automotive style headlights so they should be ok and if aimed properly shouldn't affect the driver.

The reason they wired it this way , may be to prevent overloading the charging system.

Dave

It does come with a 90 amp alternator with the possibility of upgrading to the 120 amp so there should be lots of power to use all the lights.

I believe you are right. If it were me, I'd rewire it, but keep an eye on it to make sure you do not drain the battery running all the lights at once.

If the dealer doesn't do something then I will end up doing my own rewire (try and figure out how to bypass the switch that shuts the headlights off when the loader lights are on.)

 

[Jtschnel]

Good lesson here. Whenever we have something done, we should be very explicit as to our expectations. Even if it seems like common sense to us, it is always better to assume our expectations may not seem like common sense to those doing the work for us.

 

[AKfish]

Commom sense tells me that they should not come on with the headlights in "driving" mode, but they should all come on in "work" mode.

That's the way the optional cab lights work on my M. There's 4 roof mount lights - front and back - they are all "ON" when the light selector switch is on "bright".

AKfish

 

[corey9212]

That's the way the optional cab lights work on my M. There's 4 roof mount lights - front and back - they are all "ON" when the light selector switch is on "bright".

AKfish

My roof lights come on with the light switch set to the work position, I got:

-Off,
-Flashers (both self explanatory),
-Road lights (flashers on and headlights on and in this case I pick either tractor OR loader lights to come on, both have high and low beam.),
-Work lights (all 4 roof lights on and headlights on, again I pick tractor OR loader lights and both have high beam and low beam again.)

 

[corey9212]

Talked to my dealer today and he said its so the operator doesn't forget to turn it off and blind oncoming drivers on the road, but he knows a lot of farmers who have that feature and bypass it so both sets of lights do come on.

I told him that wasn't an issue with me so he sent me to talk to the shop Forman who said this was the first install of that type that he's done so he has to look in the install manual and will get back to me.

 

[Zebrafive]

Talked to my dealer today and he said its so the operator doesn't forget to turn it off and blind oncoming drivers on the road, but he knows a lot of farmers who have that feature and bypass it so both sets of lights do come on.

I told him that wasn't an issue with me so he sent me to talk to the shop Forman who said this was the first install of that type that he's done so he has to look in the install manual and will get back to me.

They should have given you the install manual at delivery.

 

[corey9212]

They should have given you the install manual at delivery.

That would have been nice, I will ask today if they even still have it.

 

[corey9212]

I talked to the head mechanic today and he said thy John Deere rigged the tractor that way on purpose cause something about the headlights reflecting off of the loader and the reflected beam overheating things and causing malfunctions. Personally I think that is the stupidest excuse if I ever heard one cause if that was the case all tractors with FEL's would have no headlights on them.

So cause I want it to perform differently it will cost me another $600 for them to come out with some parts and do a field repair to make it work how I wanted, I'm just a little pissed about that, spend $1000 for a part installed, it doesn't work like I thought it would (and they didn't tell me I would lose my headlights when using the loader lights.) so now I have to spend another $600 so my $1000 lights will work how I expected them to work from day one.

 

[corey9212]

Finally got a tech out here for the lights, I couldn't believe how easy the fix was, it took us 1/2 hour to figure it out and 2 mins to fix. All it took was jumping two sets of wires and now headlights work like normal and the loaders lights turn on and off with the switch and stay separate from the headlights.

If anyone else has these lights or is thinking about getting these lights let me know and I will post pics of the wires jumped.

Now I have to wait and see what the service call will cost me (Think there is a discount for me showing the tech what the solution was? Lol)