MT3 cab work light fuse ??

[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.