Need Help, Lights, I must be dummer than most

[Freds]

Thanks Red, I was really at a loss on whether I had to ground the switches or not.

We had a day in the fifties earlier this week and I got the light bar and lights on. I got a good jump on the wiring, also. The flex conduit is a lot flimsier than I expected so I let the wires come out a seam and wrappped the heck out of it with tape. It appears this is how the factory did it. I soldered the connections so I didn't have bulky connectors to try to fit into the 1/4" flex conduit. The 2-12 ga wires took up enough room on their own.
It looks like I'll be hooking up to the battery /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif . I had really wanted to utilize the fuse box, but can't locate the female terminal for the other side of the mini fuse holder and the hot wire, not even at my dealer. Seems kind of dumb that they would have a spare slot with one terminal in place, but spare terminals are not a readily available item. Might be nice to be able to flip the lights on without having to have the key on anyway.

Of course, it's winter again so I'm on hold for a while..., but the good thing is that I got to do some snow plowing again yesterday /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif and it looks like I have lights that work /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Freds, depending on its location, it might be easier for you to run your power wire to the alternator stub instead of to the battery. A lot of tractors have the battery all the way up front and the alternater is often easier to get to without running wire past any spinnng fans or moving belts. Just a suggestion you might want to consider.

 

[BXRICK]

On the subject of switches for aux lights:

Rather than find and buy waterproof switches, and a good place to mount them, and then drill holes in a perfectly good tractor (not that I'm really against doing so...), I used the factory light switches. It's already in a good location, it's waterproof, and now I have a single switch that turns on the factory headlights as well as the two aux lights on the ROPS. While I was at it, I wired the factory hazard switch to turn on the strobe light on the ROPS.

I tapped into the factory switch and installed a relay to do the actual switching, so I'm not loading the factory switches any more than they already were. The load wire to the relays comes from the battery (which on the BX is within inches of the factory switches under the "dash"), through a fuse, and to the relay. I then ran new wires under the tractor in wiring loom, up the ROPS and to the lights. The lights (one forward, one back, and a strobe) are installed on a piece of angle iron that is attached to the top of the ROPS with two hose clamps.

I used a 4-wire trailer wiring harness for the wire from the relays to the lights. The plug is positioned on top of the ROPS. This allows me to easily unplug the whole light bar assembly, should the need/desire arise. Since trailer wiring harnesses have 3 "hot" wires in them, I used one wire for each of the two lights (attached to the same relay), and the other wire for the strobe. The ground wire is attached to the tractor frame at the bottom of the ROPS. The ground wire is carrying the full amperage of the other three wires combined, but it's not as long, so that shouldn't be as big of a problem.

The only potential downside to using the factory light switches is you must have all or none in terms of which lights are turned on. As was mentioned somewhere on this thread, I've found that for many uses, you really need both forward and reverse lights on at the same time.

An advantage is that (at least on the BX), the headlights go off when the key is off, so you can't leave them on by mistake. Though I must admit there are times when I'd like to be able to have the work lights on when the tractor is off. I've thought of adding a parallel switch for that, but haven't done so - and I'm not sure I will.

Another tip related to wiring: Try to run wires so that there are no connections of any kind under the tractor, in wheelwells, or anywhere were the connections can get and stay wet or caked in ice. In other words, when running wire under the tractor, use a single piece of uncut wire and terminate both ends somewhere that's relatively dry.

I've been using the setup above for two winters plowing snow, done my share of lawnmowing at night, and have yet to find a reason to modify it - and it's worked flawlessly.

 

[Freds]

Thanks Bob, the thought never crossed my mind. I was going to run them alongside the existing harness and there's even some "ties" in place for some option I suppose... I'll have to give the alternator a looksee. I can't even picture where it is right now. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[billycalexander]

What is the difference between the FR-10, Fr-11 and FR-12, and do you recommend a fuse or a breaker?

 

[billycalexander]

Congrats you've now found someone dummer. What type of fuses plug into the ET 220 fuse block from sherco?

 

[PineRidge]

<ul type="square">
[*]FR-10 is rated at 30 amps w/12 vdc coil and is a SPST normally open set of contacts
[*]FR-11 is rated at 30 amps w/12 vdc coil and is a SPDT contacts
[*]FR-12 is rated at 30 amps w/12 vdc coil and looks like it switches 2 independent circuits both normally open contacts.
[/list]

I prefer fuses over breakers that automatically reset themselves.

 

[billycalexander]

I have a grand L 3430 and I plan to mount 2 55w lights on my rops. Some folk have talked about using a relay and switch but I was wondering why do that instead of using the connector on the right side of the seat and maybe put a switch in the wire from the connector to the light(isn't the plug by the seat already "relayed" and fused?

 

[GerardC]

If it's the factory wiring that your talking about, I would think that it is. Gerard

 

[Freds]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I was wondering why do that instead of using the connector on the right side of the seat )</font>

As mentioned earlier, the plug by the seat of my L3130 is only 7.5 amps. Not sure about your 3430, but my plug was only designed to run one 55w light. It seems they put a 20 amp in the BXs... /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif