MT3 cab work light fuse ??

   / MT3 cab work light fuse ?? #1  

Bobrown14

Gold Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2021
Messages
274
Location
Upstate New York
Tractor
LS MT352 w/power shuttle + cab
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.
 
   / MT3 cab work light fuse ?? #2  
Are you getting power to the front worklight socket? Could the pop have been the bulb blowing out?
 
   / MT3 cab work light fuse ?? #3  
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.
 
   / MT3 cab work light fuse ?? #4  
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.
 
   / MT3 cab work light fuse ??
  • Thread Starter
#5  
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??
 
   / MT3 cab work light fuse ??
  • Thread Starter
#6  
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
 
   / MT3 cab work light fuse ?? #7  
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.
 
   / MT3 cab work light fuse ??
  • Thread Starter
#8  
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

20241104_200829.jpg
 
   / MT3 cab work light fuse ?? #9  
Glad you got it working. Holy crap it's lit up like a football stadium.
 
   / MT3 cab work light fuse ?? #10  
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.
 

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