Adding LED rops lights

[northender]

Hello all, been looking through the post on here and have yet to find the answer to my question, so here it goes.

First off I am adding lights on a bx2370 I bought this summer, I bought my led lights off amazon as suggested in other post, made home made brackets to clamp the lights to the rops, and am using a water proof cell phone box to mount the switches in.

I found on here about the two wires located near the top link off the three point hitch. My wires are red and red with a blue tracer. I asked my dealer about the wires but he wasn't sure what wire did what. I figured one was hot and the other was ground, well that assumption was wrong. The red wire is a constant hot, I haven't had a chance to test it yet, but was wondering if the other wire (red/ blue tracer) is hot when the key is on? in a few days I will be able to get back to finish up the lights and test my theory, but thought I would ask if someone could verify if I am right about the red blue wire. Once I get it all hooked up I will post some pics of the lights.

Oh yeah, I thought I should mention that I am glad I found this site, very informative and lots of great ideas on here!

 

[bandaidmd]

The factory supplied wire for the worklights is hot with the key switch(red wire) the wire with the blue tracer is your ground.
The blue tracer one is a male bullet and the red is a female ?

If you have a simple test light or a multi meter its easy to confirm. With a light, clip the ground onto the exposed terminal and touch the pointy end to the female one and it should light (key on).
With a meter set to ohms touch the test leads together and look at the reading on the screen then (with the key off) touch one lead to the blue tracer wire and the other to bare metal on the tractor and if the reading on the screen is the same you have found your ground.

 

[chim]

Just a personal preference, but my aux LEDS's and strobe are connected to a constant hot. There are times I want the lights without running the engine. There's no electricity in the shed the tractor is kept in, and since the LED's sip so few electrons they get used for temporary shed lighting whils searching for odds and ends.

 

[85Hokie]

I too, like Chim said like my lights mounted and always hot, not that i ever remove the key from the switch, but I gaUrantee that i would need those @#@# lights the ONE time i didnt have the key in the switch, and like he said, i could leave them on for a good while with no ill effects to the battery.

another way to "skin the cat" testing for which wire is which..
take your VOM (volt ohm meter) and place the black lead on a good ground, then set you voltage to <20 or whatever above 15 or so volts....

hit the red one, should have about 12.6 or so volts........

then do the other one, red with tracer, if you turn on the key and nothing happens, then test that wire via the resistance on your meter, i like the audible scale, beeps at you when you got a good closed loop ( ground to ground)

if you dont have meter, they are everywhere, radio shack, wally world , amazon, a cheap $10 meter is a great investment!

please tell me what you find on those two wires.......I have 4 leds on the rops, but I ran mine to a new fuse box.

 

[northender]

The factory supplied wire for the worklights is hot with the key switch(red wire) the wire with the blue tracer is your ground.
The blue tracer one is a male bullet and the red is a female ?

If you have a simple test light or a multi meter its easy to confirm. With a light, clip the ground onto the exposed terminal and touch the pointy end to the female one and it should light (key on).

I haven't had a chance to get back to the lights yet, but both wires have female connectors on them. I thought the red with blue tracer was a ground, but when I hooked up the lights, they were dim, not getting a good ground. If I touched the ground side of the lights to a chassis ground and the hot to the red wire, they worked great, only hot at all times. Then I had the key off and cut the wires I had added to the tractor wires, both at same time, when I made this cut, I heard either the fuel shut off or the starter drive click, like it was back feeding power through the red with tracer. By that time it was getting dark so I put the tractor away and haven't got back to it yet. When I get back to it, I will figure out what is what, post what I find out and of course some pics of the finished product. Thanks for the replies!

 

[northender]

I may hook them up where they remain hot with key off, my shed doesn't have lights either at the point in time, never thought about using them for shed lighting!

 

[northender]

Not much getting done in the lights, been extremely cold here and my building is unheated. However did get a chance to test the wires, the red wire is constant hot, and the red with blue tracer is hot only when the key is on.

Hope this info helps out others wanting to add lights/ accessories to the bx series tractor.

 

[northender]

Yesterday the mercury rose to the mid 30's so I made it out to the shed and finished up the LED lights.

For a switch box. I found a waterproof cell phone case that was big enough for the wiring and the 2 switches, the top switch is wired to the red/ blue tracer wire at the back of the tractor (only on when the key is on) and it runs the rear light, which is a 60 degree beam LED. The switch box was attached to the 2 bolts that hold the bracket for the slow moving vehicle placard, and the wires enter the box through a hole I drilled in the bottom side, so it would shed the weather better, and in the event if draws moisture, it could drain out. The bottom switch was wired to the solid red wire (constant hot) and controls the forward mounted lights which are 30 degree beam LED's. I wired these constant hot, so like a suggestion I got on here, that I could go in the shed at night and kick on the front lights, to illuminate my shed. I grounded the lights at the rear of the tractor on the left upper bolt that holds the bracket for fixed mounting of the left three point arm.

The brackets for the lights were made out of some angle iron that I picked up at the locale Orscheln's store, the clamps were picked up there as well, they measured 2" inside width. I put 3/8" fuel line over them to keep from scuffing the paint, also I used some camper shell tape on the brackets themselves where they contact the ROPS bar for the same purpose.

Overall I am happy with how they came out, we are currently experiencing freezing rain and expect 4-6" of snow tonight, so I may get to use them.











I could only download 5 picks/ post, so I will post the remainder of the pics in the next post.

 

[northender]

here are the rest of the pics of the completed project.

 

[chim]

Nice neat install. I like the switch box. The angle of the first pic in the second post makes it look like your rear blade is mounted on something like the arm of the space shuttle

 

[northender]

Nice neat install. I like the switch box. The angle of the first pic in the second post makes it look like your rear blade is mounted on something like the arm of the space shuttle

LOL....I see what you mean, does make it look as if it's about 15' from the tractor, never paid that much attention to it, just made sure it was in focus!!

 

[skeets]

I saw that too , but was afraid to ask what it was,,

 

[85Hokie]

I like that switch box, very handy - might need to do something like that too, and thanks for the wiring - that too will come in handy next time.