My Kubota lighting project

[Woodland]

I thought I'd start a thread to document my lighting project on my Kubota L3400 and ask a few questions along the way. I'll post pictures as they come in as well.

The project it so mount 2 utility lights facing forward, two facing back, a single strobe beacon and possibly one work light facing either side of the tractor. There will be 5 switches to run all of the lights, one for the back lights, one for the forward, one for the strobe and one each for the two side facing lights. I have a canopy to arrive in a few days to which the lights & switches will be mounted.

So lets start off with the questions. First, I will need to use and mount 5 relays to run all of the lights. Where do I put them??? For those of you who have the L3400 Kubota, you know there isn't a whole lot of room under the hood. I am thinking my best bet may be to mount them to a piece of flat metal and then mount that right next to the battery? Seem like a good idea.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

I thought I'd start a thread to document my lighting project on my Kubota L3400 and ask a few questions along the way. I'll post pictures as they come in as well.

The project it so mount 2 utility lights facing forward, two facing back, a single strobe beacon and possibly one work light facing either side of the tractor. There will be 5 switches to run all of the lights, one for the back lights, one for the forward, one for the strobe and one each for the two side facing lights. I have a canopy to arrive in a few days to which the lights & switches will be mounted.

So lets start off with the questions. First, I will need to use and mount 5 relays to run all of the lights. Where do I put them??? For those of you who have the L3400 Kubota, you know there isn't a whole lot of room under the hood. I am thinking my best bet may be to mount them to a piece of flat metal and then mount that right next to the battery? Seem like a good idea.

If you want to make the wiring job a little easier I would use illuminated switches that are capable of the current that the lights will draw. I like inline fuses with those to give you some protection. Have the switches in some sort of weather proof enclosure. Bundle the wires away from high heat sources. That way you have less wiring and if you leave a switch on then you can see it right away. The small cost of using larger wire for some of the higher amperage lights won't be that big of a deal. Also use a wire ground to the lights instead of just grounding to the frame. Oxidation and vibration can give you problems later on.

 

[Woodland]

I gave that a thought. The only waterproof switches I've come up with are either 16 or 20amp. I was thinking that running the lights directly through the switches would be a tight fit.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Unless you plan on working in the rain a lot I don't think that you really need water proof switches. I would think the illuminated ones come in 10 amps or so. Normally that stuff can be found at Radio Shack or local auto parts store. The voltage is low enough you don't have to worry about getting shocked. Sounds like a fun project though. I just took out the plastic dashboard on my Kubota L3750 and bored holes in that for some light switches

 

[gemini5362]

Unless you plan on working in the rain a lot I don't think that you really need water proof switches. I would think the illuminated ones come in 10 amps or so. Normally that stuff can be found at Radio Shack or local auto parts store. The voltage is low enough you don't have to worry about getting shocked. Sounds like a fun project though. I just took out the plastic dashboard on my Kubota L3750 and bored holes in that for some light switches

It depends on how big a light and where you are going to mount the switches. If you are only going to have one or two lights per switch then just run straight to the switches. Lighted switches are nice but if you are going to have the power for the lights run off of the ignition key switch power when you turn off the key the lights will be off. if the switches are going to be inside of the dash then you might want to get switches that you can get a rubber cover for. A lot of industry that have wet environments use them. It is just a piece of rubber that is mounted to a nut and the nut screws down instead of the hold down nut on the switch. It will keep water from getting down the inside of the switch. Water proof swtices tend to get expensive if you get real waterproof ones. I worked at a chicken processing plant once about 20 years ago. When I got there we were buying waterproof momentary contact switches for the zeroing out function of our scales. We were paying about 12.00 a switch back then. I had them go to just a simple switch that was 86 cents a piece then bought the rubber covers for another dollar. We saved about ten dollars a switch. The rubber covered switches did not last quite as long but the problem with both switches was the clean up crews were hitting them with the cleaning stream from high pressure hoses. On something like a tractor light switch they would last a long long time.

 

[Woodland]

The most any switch will be running will be two 55w work lights (I'm thinking that I may use a relay for the strobe and tie it into the factory hazard switch) so I may just wire the switches in line and probably a fuse block somewhere near the battery. The switches willbe mounted under the canopy so they will be exposed to moisture but not a steady rain or snow, so I'm not terribly worried about how "waterproof" the switches are. I have a few on order that ran about $6 a piece.

 

[kennyd]

I did my setup (except for the side lights) with one 30 amp relay. A good quality switch will easily handle two 55w worklights.

The relay is connected to the battery and only active when the key is on, so I basically created a new 30a circuit.

 

[emmy71]

Here is where I mounted my relays, switches, and inline fuses.

I have three relays mounted under instrument panel. Five would probably fit. Switches are marine grade.

Terry

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Hey nice work Emmy71 and Kenny!

 

[emmy71]

Hey nice work Emmy71 and Kenny!

Thanks, I'll post some pictures of my canopy modification and lighting install later.

Terry