Cursed LED's

[ItBmine]

Well I just had an interesting time. I put the one 80W LED square flood facing backwards on it's own switch, worked fine.
It and the two forward facing 70W spot's are replacing the 35W halogen work lights my kubota dealer installed. All I did was cut the wires at the ROPS bar.

Anyway, bolted the two forward facing ones on. One works and the other blew the 20A fuse. Didn't have any more 20's so put a 30A. Blew it. So disconnected them and tried just that one light. Blew fuse. OK...bad light.
I tried 3 more, all blew the fuse.
Tested them all with an electrical engineer friend's meter. Checked voltage, current draw, start up draw, continuity, grounds. All good. All lights including the one that works measured out at 3.6 to 3.7 amp draw each.
Keep in mind I only have one red positive feed and one black ground. Hooked same feed to one light at a time individually. Lights are all on the same ROPS bar.

Took them off and the one that works, works on both sides. Other 4 blow the fuse. We have no explanation at all as they all measure out the same.

So I got a 180W 21 inch light bar, put it on and it works perfect, LOL. Very strange.

 

[Cglaza]

I would physically inspect the wiring to those lights that are blowing fuses. Sounds like a short to ground. Also check the switch as that may be faulty as well if it is shorted internally. Good luck.

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[ItBmine]

Thanks. I did test the feed wiring. No back feeding or bad grounds or shorts.

Very strange one light worked perfect. (two if you count the rear facing one.)

I gave up on them and tried the single light bar. Works fine.

And all the LED's that blew the fuses bolted to my tractor....all worked off my tractor's feed wires as long as they weren't touching the tractor.
Yet we even checked them to see if they were going to ground internally or through the mounts and the meter showed nothing????

The meter belongs to an electrical engineer and gets tested and certified regularly.

Three days I played with this thinking I was missing something stupid, but I can't explain this. I swear it's the lights, but they all test the same???

 

[Cglaza]

Sounds like the power and ground may be hooked up backwards on the lights. The key was you said that when they were not touching the tractor all was fine. I've done that on a camper before and it is quite frustrating to figure out, especially when you are on your last fuse. Go back and make sure that is not the case. I would almost bet that is what is going on.

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[ItBmine]

Ya, I don't know. I already returned those lights and my dealer tried them off a battery and tested them while I was there.
He kept thinking all along it was my tractor wiring too. He thought maybe it was wired in series-parallel, but that doesn't explain why one light would work fine, then take the wires off, touch them to the other 3 lights and it would blow.

I'm just glad the light bar works. I wasted all my days off going crazy over this.
Sure got a lot of light now compared to the 35W halogens, LOL.

 

[mikeslater]

How hot does the wire get before the fuse pops

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[ItBmine]

Just warm enough to feel the change. I still swear those other lights had an internal short to the mounting bolts or something. But yet when we tested on the bench with the meter from the red to light housing, mount and where the bolts go in....it showed no problem.

Gotta be something we were missing. I'm just glad it's all over now.

 

[yamatitan]

Im betting the polarity was reversed inside the lights or the driver. So as soon as the touched the tractor there would be a direct short positive to negative. As long as they didnt touch the tractor it would have worked fine. This also would explain why your buddies meter didnt pick it up because if that was the case the light would have read fine on the meter when not connected. If you would have tested them with the same meter bolted to the tractor it would have picked up the short.

 

[ItBmine]

You may be right Yamatitan. Anyway, nightmare over. Light bars works and so does the square 80W rear flood. Just have to aim tonight.

 

[Knott]

One thing just to save money & lessen frustration, when blowing fuses & trying to find faults, install a circuit breaker instead of a fuse. It will trip & reset allowing you to find the fault without using up all those fuses, & it is safe.
There are breakers made to fit blade type & older glass round type fuse blocks & holders.

 

[ItBmine]

LOL....ya, my light dealer gave me a couple boxes of fuses and some of those circuit breakers.

Good advice Knott.

 

[ItBmine]

Here I am in my parking area looking down my driveway. I only have a cheap camera but I can see the road 300 feet away while sitting on the tractor.

I think I have enough to mow and snow blow with now. The stock headlights look like two yellow 1157 bulbs now, LOL.

Pic10 is the single 80W flood, Pic11 is the front light bar.

 

[Knott]

Here is my LED light bar.

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[ItBmine]

That must be bright Knott. I just went single row because dealer already drilled holes in the top of my ROPS so I wanted to use those holes, so I kept it low profile.

I bet you also learned real quick to not be looking up when you turn around to look behind, LOL.

 

[RonBoyBX25D]

looks great, I have a 10" light bar for forward and 2 - 2" for reverse lights to install this week.