Tapping into electric for aux lights?

[TORQUIN]

I have added a couple of lights to point to the rear, off the ROPS (I made a bracket that bolts to the canopy brackets, no drilling the ROPS). I need to figure out how to tap into the electrical for it. I have had thoughts of coming off the headlights, as I shouldn't need the rear lights if the headlights aren't on, but I'm not married to that idea.
I was in the fuse box of my 3830 and saw a 7.5a fuse for "work light", but I have no clue where that wiring terminates, if it even gets out of the fuse box.
I also thought about tapping into one of the fuses, if I can find one that's downstream of the headlight switch, but if I tap into the fuse I will not be able to get the fuse box cover back on. It's that tight.
Considering this, I thought I'd post here and see how others have done it, and if they have thought of/discovered a more elegant way to do it. I'd like to make it look like the guy who did it knew what he was doing.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Spudgunner]

Wish I had a 3830 so I could be more specific; however, my BX23 also has a fuse for a work light. The downstream wire from this fuse terminates under the seat where the hot (black/red stripe) lead is terminated with a female connector and the ground lead (black) is terminated with a male connector. You will need a switch for your lights as, at least on the BX23, the circuit is hot whenever the key is not in the off position. Oddly enough, the fuse on a BX23 is 20 amp critter.

The Workshop Manual (WSM) for the BX23 clearly shows this circuit and I'd think the WSM for the 3830 would as well.

My real solution to this issue is to mount a Honda EU1000 genny to the Kubota. (j/k).

 

[TORQUIN]

I have an owners manual but no shop manual for this, so I don't know about the wiring. I will have a look under my seat though. I wonder where they pictured the switch going? I guess it would be someplace on the side of the seat?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[JJT]

I ran fused dedicated lines to my work lights. They'll work without the ignition being switched on.

 

[5030tinkerer]

On my 5030, I also ran fused dedicated lines to my work lights - 7.5 amps is enough to run just one 55w light (not enough). I used 2" PVC pipe painted Kubota grey mounted to the top of the ROPS with U bolts and capped. I ran two 30A fused power wires to the battery and then to two separate relays, one mounted just behind the driver side of the battery and one mounted right next to the steering wheel tilt control "pedal". I have four slim-line 55w lights flush-mounted to the front of this pipe and four to the back. I just drilled holes into the pipe to mount the lights and drilled an additional hole in the bottom of the pipe at each light to gain access to the wires hidden with in. I installed two marine-grade switches using the two pre-drilled holes just to the left of the driver seat (I did have to slightly enlarge these holes), one for the front lights, and one for the rear. All wire is in black flexible conduit. It works great and looks awesome - took forever to wire up though. So long wimpy factory lights...

 

[kwolfe]

Those wires may be directly under the seat, or in my case, just the to the left of the upper 3pt link arms. It should be just hanging out of existing wiring that is tapped together. I am sure that you could replace the fuse with a bigger one. I run 2 35w with my and have no problems. The avoid having to to put a switch in, I hook the aux power to a 12v cigarette outlet and the light to the adapter (like the one for your cell phone car charger). All that can be bought at Radio Shack. I also used round grounding magnets from HF to mount the lights to. This way I can move them anywhere on the tractor there is metal, and can simply pop them off when I do not need them.

The magnets hold them very well, however I stiff branch is able to knock them off (not breaking the light, this is a good thing).

Oh yeah, I can also plug them into my truck if I want to play night time horse shoes at my BIL's hunting camp.

 

[BXRICK]

This may not be for everyone, but I tend to start from scratch on these things. Run a wire from the battery - with a fuse right at the battery.
I always feel better with a relay involved, as well.

On my BX, I added worklights to the ROPS - one forward, one backward. I bolted them to a piece of angle iron that's then clamped to the ROPS with hose clamps. I also bolted on a strobe light for when I'm clearing snow out on the road.

I used a 4-wire trailer harness from under the "dash" to the top of the ROPS. It's inside split loom. The trailer harness plug is at the lights. I then used the trailer side of the harness to wire to the lights. This allows me to unplug the entire light assembly, rather than having it hard-wired.

To switch the lights, I tapped into the factory light switch under the dash. This pulls in a relay, which turns on the lights. I did the same with the factory hazard switch for the strobe. This way I didn't need to add more switches.

 

[n8wrl]

I have an owners manual but no shop manual for this, so I don't know about the wiring. I will have a look under my seat though. I wonder where they pictured the switch going? I guess it would be someplace on the side of the seat?

There is a 'T' plug nestled near the PTO engage lever in the cramped space behind/under the seat on my 5030. As a ham I had a few of these since they're pretty standard on radios. At 7.5A I didn't want to run too much, so I have a pair facing back and another facing forward and a SPDT toggle so only one pair is on at a time. So far, so good!

-Brian