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JERSEYHAWG /  Glenn

Cab Light Electric Lessons needed ,, wiring and all

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JERSEYHAWG /  Glenn

Ok ok, so I am an electric dope ,, :lol:

 

Anyway, my new cab has no lights, reading the old  cab Light threads already on  :wh:  doesn't help to much, because electric advancements happen quicker than our posts. While searching on Bomb Bay, you can find 10watt lights with almost a thousand lumens, you can get 12 watt and go higher, more watts more lumens.  IMHO, I think 2 ,  800 lumen front lights are plenty,   and don't know what I want to do on the back of cab yet. Maybe one small light for backing up. Maybe a blinky light for safety???   I will disconnect the headlights cause they are useless, BUT want to keep the taillights for safety.

 

Can one of you fine electrical wizards walk me through if I am on the right track. How to wire, amp draw, what kind of switch, more lumens, less lumens. The whole she bang from stem to stern. 

 

I would like to do this right, don't know how. I am sure others will get into this to. It is a hot topic every winter.

 

My cab had lights, now I have holes, there is a toggle in the cab, some wires, but it's all got to go and start from scratch. I don't want to use that old crap, flip the switch and become the rolling fire ball........Please Help Me Do This Right.............thanks.

 

Glenn

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Digger 66

I'm no pro , but the first thing I'd be looking at is 

The output of the charging system itself .

LED's provide more lumen while being vibration resistant and draw far fewer amperes than standard incandescent "work" type lamps . 

 

A small magnet mounted LED light bar on the leading edge of the hood will provide at least some forward visibility at night and can be fitted with a simple plug for removal during the summer .

 

 

 

Edited by Digger 66
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953 nut

Have you looked at these?

 

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mmmmmdonuts

I agree with digger. We need to know what size your charging system is. I would without a doubt go with an LED setup. You only need a few amps to have even the biggest LED lights. Take a look here on this page, most of them should work: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=led+flood+light+12v&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aled+flood+light+12v

 

To give you an idea if you had a 10A charging system the absolute most you could do is 120W of lights, but that doesn't give you enough headroom on the system itself to run all the other components, so I would try and keep all your lights under 100W or less total.

 

Lately, because of LED's and how light the power draw is I have not been using relay's and have been just wiring to the switch. For higher current draws 10 amps plus I go to relays.

 

I drew up a quick diagram of this as well. If you use spade terminals (fast on's) to connect the wiring you can disconnect at any point in the circuit when you remove the cab.

wiring diagram.jpg

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JERSEYHAWG /  Glenn

See, I forgot to look up my charging system. I must find it. This is for my 2002    522xi.  Have to go look in the manuals.

 

So far some sound comments.....thanks.

 

Glenn

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shallowwatersailor

Glenn, the 522xi has a 15 amp charging circuit. If you use two 27 watt LED work lights, that will be close to a 5 amp draw. It should be able to handle that load easily.

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JERSEYHAWG /  Glenn
10 minutes ago, shallowwatersailor said:

Glenn, the 522xi has a 15 amp charging circuit. If you use two 27 watt LED work lights, that will be close to a 5 amp draw. It should be able to handle that load easily.

John, just curious. why use two 27 watt draw lights IF your getting good / bright light with 10 / 12 / 14 watt lights? 

Curious on that,  plus ,just looking in the manuals online, reading on the charging systems. Couldnt find that number. lol

 

AND you just schooled me on it to. 

 

thanks, Glenn

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shallowwatersailor
14 minutes ago, JERSEYHAWG / Glenn said:

John, just curious. why use two 27 watt draw lights IF your getting good / bright light with 10 / 12 / 14 watt lights? 

Curious on that,  plus ,just looking in the manuals online, reading on the charging systems. Couldnt find that number. lol

 

AND you just schooled me on it to. 

 

thanks, Glenn

 

A 27 watt light provides approximately 2,150 lumens. A 15 watt light is only 1,000 lumens. A lumen is an amount of light emitted each second. The higher the number, the brighter the light. A comparable incandescent light would be double the draw of a LED.

Edited by shallowwatersailor
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varosd

and remember to leave a couple amps for the "rear"!

 

th_IMG_0617_zpss5yzqxu2.mp4

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slammer302

The main things I focused on when hooking up my cab lights were staying well below my charging limits and making sure I used fuses in case something grounds out. I also used heat shrinking tube at all my connections so they are well insulated and covered up. Also used plenty of zip ties to keep wires out of the way. Good luck!

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JERSEYHAWG /  Glenn

Ok, it's been some time since I posted here, I am in the garage now installing these on the cab, I figure should be plenty of light for the snowblower at night. I got this set on sheep's Bay. They weren't pricey and seem fairly well made. Honestly they cost me 17 bucks, and free shipping, HAHA. They also seem to be in the parameters of low end power consumption, not to bog my system down. Soon as I am done mounting I will post a few pics. I like the low profile. The important step (wiring) them up is nest, and put a fuse able link in on the hot leg, right Fellas?  

 

Mr. Frugal strikes again , :lol:

 

Glenn

 

 

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Edited by JERSEYHAWG / Glenn
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ACman

Glenn , those should light up your night :scared-shocked:. You'll have to wear shades B) .

 

 

Edited by ACman
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squonk

I thought you were going to put them inside the cab so you could see what you were doing! :teasing-poke: :banana-jumprope:

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JERSEYHAWG /  Glenn
On Friday, November 25, 2016 at 7:20 AM, mmmmmdonuts said:

I agree with digger. We need to know what size your charging system is. I would without a doubt go with an LED setup. You only need a few amps to have even the biggest LED lights. Take a look here on this page, most of them should work: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=led+flood+light+12v&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aled+flood+light+12v

 

To give you an idea if you had a 10A charging system the absolute most you could do is 120W of lights, but that doesn't give you enough headroom on the system itself to run all the other components, so I would try and keep all your lights under 100W or less total.

 

Lately, because of LED's and how light the power draw is I have not been using relay's and have been just wiring to the switch. For higher current draws 10 amps plus I go to relays.

 

I drew up a quick diagram of this as well. If you use spade terminals (fast on's) to connect the wiring you can disconnect at any point in the circuit when you remove the cab.

wiring diagram.jpg

Mr. Donuts, you can see the lights I bought. 18 watts, so a 7 amp fuse, and NO relay.  I was just watching a bunch of led wiring videos and glad you made in your post about the use of a relay, now I feel confident not to use one. Just a thank you to all you guys on this wiring thread. 

 

Glenn

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mmmmmdonuts

Glad the lights worked out for you Glenn. They look fantastic on the cab. Did you leave quick connects (fast on/ spade terminals) for when you remove the cab? Where did you put the switch? On the dash or on the cab? More pictures would be great.

 

Bob

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JC 1965

Lights look really good Glenn.   :thumbs2:

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Kurt-NEPA

Those lights look great Glenn.  Well Done.

 

Here is what I did.

 

Light Bar.jpg

 

They work great.  I disconnected the headlights in the hood and ran wire up to the LED bar. 

 

Kurt

 

 

 

Edited by Kurt-NEPA
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Fun Engineer

JERSEYHAWG/Glenn

Are you a member of Mytractorforum?

I've got a thread on there of my cab modifications and lighting system. Here's the link. 

New X530 customizing.

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mytractorforum.com%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D709065&share_tid=709065&share_fid=80748&share_type=t

Dave

Edited by Fun Engineer
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WHX??

I was looking at Glenn's lights on flea bay guys and ran across light bars galore like @Kurt-NEPA's. Got to be almost mind boggling with all the different styles, prices, wattage & what  not. :unsure: Now can't decide if I should go with two lights like Glens or some kind of bar?!?!  I think we are gonna have to get some night pics of these things in action! Who knew lighting up a cab involved all this decision making!!

 

I have (or PO did) two of the regular incandescent tractor styles pointing out the back which is a good idea so I don't back into the bird feeders but they really pull the old voltmeter down when switched on so thinking of going with two Hawg's styles out the back and a bar for the front. Looks like amber beacons are reasonable too so thinking about one of those as I do have to pull out in the road occasionally.

 

How important is it to have adjustability from side to side that the bars or lights like Glenn's  do not provide? I can only guess that they flood the light out pretty well?

 

Yes Dave @Fun Engineer throw up that link if you have it handy.  

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Fun Engineer
57 minutes ago, WHX9 said:

Yes Dave @Fun Engineer throw up that link if you have it handy.  

See link in above post 😁

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Kurt-NEPA

I had the same issue WHX9.  I kept looking at individual lights and light bars.  Finally my neighbor bought this light bar for his quad.  Wow, did it work nice.  This bar has the center lights pointed straight forward but the outboard lights are pointed to the side just a bit.  So that gives a really nice and wide pattern.  The price was right too.  $30 on Amazon.  At 126 watts, it is marginal on my 520H.  It taxes the charging system.  As long as I keep the revs up, it works fine, but I would not want anymore of a load.  BTW, I mounted 2 red LED clearance lights on the top - rear of the cab.  I disconnected the stock lights.

 

Kurt

 

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WHX??

Bet this is the same one or close to as yours then Kurt....http://www.ebay.com/itm/181403736487?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT .... looks like the outboard ones turn out a bit. I suppose for that kind of money if one gets a couple of years out of it ya did ok.  I  would have guessed they wouldn't be too hard on the charging system??? Notice they don't give amp draw in the specs

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JERSEYHAWG /  Glenn
8 hours ago, mmmmmdonuts said:

Glad the lights worked out for you Glenn. They look fantastic on the cab. Did you leave quick connects (fast on/ spade terminals) for when you remove the cab? Where did you put the switch? On the dash or on the cab? More pictures would be great.

 

Bob

Bob, I didn't wire them up yet, all I did was mount them. Yes, I will use spade or bullet connections for taking the cab off. I went to wire them last night and didn't have half of what I needed, everything in the electric box got feet and walked again. :lol:

 

I will post pictures when done.

 

Glenn

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Kurt-NEPA

Sure looks like the same one to me.

 

Mine  ---  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WE47FVM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

You are so right on the price - for the couple of hours use it will get every year I'm not worried.

Glenn,  I just ran the wires long, disconnected the spade terminals from the head lights and plugged in the wires from the LED lights.  Taped up other head light spade.  Next spring I'll reverse the process.

 

Kurt

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