MT3 cab work light fuse ??

[Bobrown14]

I decided to upgrade my overhead work lights for the winter snow plowing season. I installed the rears and they work great. When I hooked up the fronts and tested I herd a pop sound then they went out.

To trouble shoot I swapped the switches to be sure the front switch didn't go bad. The front switch worked fine on the rear lights.


I looked at the fuse box and there were no blown fuses.

I replaced the work light relay under the roof with a new LS relay exact same as what I pulled.

I still dont have any front work lights.

I'm wondering if there is an inline fuse for the front work lights somewhere I'm not seeing??

Any other advice would be awesome and welcomed.

 

[alexpops]

Are you getting power to the front worklight socket? Could the pop have been the bulb blowing out?

 

[GS650GL]

There is more than one fuse box so make sure you are checking all the fuses. Besides the fuse and relay box behind the dash side panel, there is also one on the left cab post, and some models have another down low under the dash between your feet. The work lamp fuses should be in the cab post fuse box.

 

[Jkott]

How big of lights did you upgrade to? Most LED light bars, especially if you do both front and back, are way too much current draw for the factory wiring and are going to blow the fuse.

I got socket connectors that connect into the factory light plug and use that to trigger relays that are wired directly to the battery. I can still use the factory switches but have plenty of power for the light bars.

 

[Bobrown14]

The lights I used were from a u-tube vid the guys were upgrading LS cab tractor lighting. I set it up plug n play just like the vid.

I think there's a fuse I'm missing. Possibly an inline fuse. I checked the fuses behind the dash by my left knee and nothing was blown in there. I saw the relay box but the relays for the work lights were up top under the roof. I replaced that one and its a double relay all in one package. 1 relay for the front and 1 for the rears. There should also be a fuse for the front and another 1 for the rears. I'm thinking inline somewhere not in the fuse box because not all tractors come with work lights?? My thoughts onit.

I am upgrading the LED wattage somewhat compared to the stock lamps. The LED lamps are 120W but again these were plug and play on LS tractors with cabs like mine.

The vid is here:

There's another vid of another guy doing the exact same mod same LS tractor.

The wiring is 16awg on the lamps same as what the stock wiring is.

Next step is getting out my multi-meter and checking for voltage. I thought its probably a inline fuse I cant find I was looking at the wiring diagrams and how I found the relay but didn't see any fuses and I know there has to be 2 sets of work light fuses somewhere??

 

[Bobrown14]

There is more than one fuse box so make sure you are checking all the fuses. Besides the fuse and relay box behind the dash side panel, there is also one on the left cab post, and some models have another down low under the dash between your feet. The work lamp fuses should be in the cab post fuse box.

fvcking eh right buddy - found it and the front 15A fuse for the front work lights was blown.... niiiice.

Now I gotta figure out why it blew.

I installed the same lights in the rear as the front and no blown fuse on the rear.... maybe I installed the plug backwards on 1 of the lamps..... I'll try a new fuse and see what happens. Thanks

 

[GS650GL]

On a 12 volt circuit, a 15 amp fuse should be good for 180 watts total. Amps x volts = watts. If you hook up LED wiring backwards, the light won't work, but it shouldn't blow the fuse. There's a short somewhere or maybe one of the lights is defective. I had that happen once. Try hooking up the fronts one at a time and see if that will help narrow it down. I've also seen damaged wires under the roof, but you would probably have noticed that when you changed the relay under the roof.

 

[Bobrown14]

On a 12 volt circuit, a 15 amp fuse should be good for 180 watts total. Amps x volts = watts. If you hook up LED wiring backwards, the light won't work, but it shouldn't blow the fuse. There's a short somewhere or maybe one of the lights is defective. I had that happen once. Try hooking up the fronts one at a time and see if that will help narrow it down. I've also seen damaged wires under the roof, but you would probably have noticed that when you changed the relay under the roof.

Yeah it was weird - I installed a new fuse - disconnected the driver side lamp - turned on just the right side lamp no problems. Hooked up the other lamp and pop - the fuse blew.

I was somehow able to hook up the plug from my new light and plug it in backwards into the stock socket. So I just replaced the fuse and then the drivers side light did not come on but the fuse did not blow. I reversed the plug and vola everything works.

Yeah familiar with Ohms law - these lamps are each 120W so 240w/12v= 20A - I installed 25A fuse..

These lights are BRIGHT

 

[GS650GL]

Glad you got it working. Holy crap it's lit up like a football stadium.

 

[Doofy]

I am in the process of adding a 120 watt LED Lightbar to the front of my LS. I was thinking of adding an inline fuse to the wiring at the light itself to hopefully double protect the usually woefully undersized factory wiring. Dumb idea? A 10 amp fuse should handle the 120 watts.

 

[Bobrown14]

The stock wire is the same as the wire on my LED lighting. Its 16awg so enough for that load I have four 120w LED work lamps. Its bright af now worried about white out conditions when I'm plowing.

 

[CoyPatton]

The lights I used were from a u-tube vid the guys were upgrading LS cab tractor lighting. I set it up plug n play just like the vid.

I think there's a fuse I'm missing. Possibly an inline fuse. I checked the fuses behind the dash by my left knee and nothing was blown in there. I saw the relay box but the relays for the work lights were up top under the roof. I replaced that one and its a double relay all in one package. 1 relay for the front and 1 for the rears. There should also be a fuse for the front and another 1 for the rears. I'm thinking inline somewhere not in the fuse box because not all tractors come with work lights?? My thoughts onit.

I am upgrading the LED wattage somewhat compared to the stock lamps. The LED lamps are 120W but again these were plug and play on LS tractors with cabs like mine.

The vid is here:

There's another vid of another guy doing the exact same mod same LS tractor.

The wiring is 16awg on the lamps same as what the stock wiring is.

Next step is getting out my multi-meter and checking for voltage. I thought its probably a inline fuse I cant find I was looking at the wiring diagrams and how I found the relay but didn't see any fuses and I know there has to be 2 sets of work light fuses somewhere??

Personally I would have went with s meter instead of swapping wires front to rear to check the switch. Spend a little bit more money on a meter if you don't have it already and get a meter with a clamp amp tester. Your fuse is one source of amp rating for the circuit, the other (better in my opinion) is the wire size. 16 ga wire is good for 10 amps, 14g for 15 amps, 12g for 20 amps and 10g for 30 amps, anything smaller than 16 will run a 5 amp fuse, but the wire may be iffy for that—I would mot want 22g pulling 5 amps continually.

 

[CoyPatton]

The stock wire is the same as the wire on my LED lighting. Its 16awg so enough for that load I have four 120w LED work lamps. Its bright af now worried about white out conditions when I'm plowing.

If you are running your added LED lights and the factory lighting, you may well be overloading that wire.
I have done a lot of wiring over the years, and my standard move when adding lights to an existing circuit (using same switch) is to use the switch as a supplying power to a relay (electrical switch) while using a large gauge wire to supply power to the relay and to the load. I’m 63 and being do this since 19, never had a failure on 1000’s of jobs. I have refused a few jobs cause they didn’t want it done my way.

 

[Bobrown14]

If you are running your added LED lights and the factory lighting, you may well be overloading that wire.
I have done a lot of wiring over the years, and my standard move when adding lights to an existing circuit (using same switch) is to use the switch as a supplying power to a relay (electrical switch) while using a large gauge wire to supply power to the relay and to the load. I’m 63 and being do this since 19, never had a failure on 1000’s of jobs. I have refused a few jobs cause they didn’t want it done my way.

I hear ya brother - I doubt the lamps are pulling 120W. I run grow lamps indoors and those lamps pull 700w but are 5'x5' and a lot more chips. My thought is that if the work lights are supplied with 16awg wire that wire should be good enough for the draw and its the same gauge wire the stock harness has.

There's an inline fuse and a stock relay to protect everything.. Those work lights I bought are from a very popular company so I would think if the wires couldn't handle the load, it would have been an issue.

 

[Bobrown14]

Personally I would have went with s meter instead of swapping wires front to rear to check the switch. Spend a little bit more money on a meter if you don't have it already and get a meter with a clamp amp tester. Your fuse is one source of amp rating for the circuit, the other (better in my opinion) is the wire size. 16 ga wire is good for 10 amps, 14g for 15 amps, 12g for 20 amps and 10g for 30 amps, anything smaller than 16 will run a 5 amp fuse, but the wire may be iffy for that—I would mot want 22g pulling 5 amps continually.

Yes I agree on the meter - I was working outside in my driveway and my meter is in my basement lol Its definitely 15awg wire and the stock fuse was 15A - I went up a little since Ohms law and all - figuring for 120w - but I doubt thats what is the actual load.

There's a bunch of LS tractor guys that have installed these lamps same as way I did it, so its probably all good.

 

[CoyPatton]

If he told

I hear ya brother - I doubt the lamps are pulling 120W. I run grow lamps indoors and those lamps pull 700w but are 5'x5' and a lot more chips. My thought is that if the work lights are supplied with 16awg wire that wire should be good enough for the draw and its the same gauge wire the stock harness has.

There's an inline fuse and a stock relay to protect everything.. Those work lights I bought are from a very popular company so I would think if the wires couldn't handle the load, it would have been an issue.

If he told us how old his tractor is, I missed it. If his tractor has a bit of age, his factory lights may not be LED. So again if he left his factory lights in place and added lights he could be pushing that 120 watts. From my perspective there are lots of unknowns. My approach with relays and heavier fused wire using a relay, added a safety factor on the electrical side.

 

[Bobrown14]

If he told

If he told us how old his tractor is, I missed it. If his tractor has a bit of age, his factory lights may not be LED. So again if he left his factory lights in place and added lights he could be pushing that 120 watts. From my perspective there are lots of unknowns. My approach with relays and heavier fused wire using a relay, added a safety factor on the electrical side.

Yeah I agree - these I wired plug and play with stock wire harness. The original halogen lamps have plugs that unplug at the halogen lamp at the back of the original lamps.

I bought the same plugs and hard wired them to the new LED wires so IF I wanted to switch back to the stock lamps I can.

I considered getting a wiring kit with new switches and new relays but once I pulled the cab lid up and saw what the stock stuff was it looks decent enough. The relay that LS has in there is fer sure proprietary, I've never seen a relay like that before. Its 2 relays in 1 package and the connectors aren't anything that I recognized and are not labeled.

Prolly going for a test spin one of these nights and see how it works over time. If I blow a fuse then I might go to new wiring but I think this is going to work fine. I got the idea from a few other LS tractor owners that did this same exact LED kit upgrade.

I started out with one of the plugs in backwards which was a problem. Should just have not lit, not sure why my fuse blew.