L3800, electrical advise

[Benhameen]

L3800, electrical advise needed!

Ok, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to most matters electrical. So I need your responses to be in simple terms for a simple guy.

I just picked up a small atv broadcast seeded, that I would like to modify to fit on my tractor. It has a 12VDC electric motor which used to be hooked directly to the atv's battery. There is an open electric plug under the left fender on the L3800, see pic.

Ideally, I would like to replace the wiring, put an on/off switch that's easy to reach from the seat and a connector to plug into the open plug under the fender.

Will this work?

How do I test how many amps that plug is receiving? I do have a multimeter but its a little Greek to me.

Thanks for the help.

Ben

 

[Benhameen]

I was able to figure out that I am getting 12.46 V at the open connection under the fender.

Shouldn't this run a 12v motor?

 

[Russell King]

The voltage of the tractor should be 12 V. You state that the motor is 12V. This is common voltage on ATVs and can be verified on the motor nameplate. The voltage should not be a problem.

The motor nameplate should also state how many amps the motor will draw.

The sizing of the wire and the switch will need to be selected by the amperage of the motor. You should also put in a fuse somewhere.

The wiring on the tractor is already there so you will need to verify what it is/was for. Then the rating of the fuse for that circuit will give you the amperage rating that circuit was designed for. If it is equal to or greater than the motor amperage draw you are good. If it is less then you need to find or run another circuit.

 

[Benhameen]

Thank you, I'll check it again for the amps, I didn't see it yesterday when I looked.

This is all that is listed on the motor itself;

PV23130Q
12VDC
24/07/95

I'll post what I find, thanks again.

 

[Benhameen]

I believe I found the fuse that goes to that open connector. It's listed as "work light" in the tractors fuse box, it is a 10amp fuse.

No amp rating on the electric motor, but it does have 14 ga wire coming out of it, if that helps.

I'm going to call the manufacturer later today to see if they can give me the amp rating of the motor.

 

[Burt]

Re: L3800, electrical advise needed!

Ok, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to most matters electrical. So I need your responses to be in simple terms for a simple guy.

I just picked up a small atv broadcast seeded, that I would like to modify to fit on my tractor. It has a 12VDC electric motor which used to be hooked directly to the atv's battery. There is an open electric plug under the left fender on the L3800, see pic.

Ideally, I would like to replace the wiring, put an on/off switch that's easy to reach from the seat and a connector to plug into the open plug under the fender.

Will this work?

How do I test how many amps that plug is receiving? I do have a multimeter but its a little Greek to me.

Thanks for the help.

Ben

Benhameen:

Here's a site that has tutorials on how to use a multimeter:

https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-to-use-a-multimeter

Other than that, OHM's law prevails. Simplified, Volts times Amps is Watts.

The wire size, switches and fuses plus manufacturers specifications have been mentioned to you already.

For house wire and voltages, you can purchase a clamp-on AMP meter that will tell you the ampacity of the wire it surrounds.

It's a bit of another language and well worth learning.

Good Luck,

Burt

 

[Benhameen]

Thanks Burt, I'll check out that link as soon as I can.

 

[seanbarr]

If you DO manage to hook that circuit up to the motor, it's highly likely that your motor won't run at peak efficiency due to the 14g wiring size of the motor. My recommendation is to run 12g to the battery (fused of course) and put your choice of a proper switch at your choice location.

 

[Benhameen]

Ok so here is what I ended up coming up with.

I bought a new meter that can measure amps, my old one wasn't capable, it was showing only 1.50 amps on average while the motor was hooked up directly to a lawn mower battery. So I decided to proceed with my original plan.

I rewired it using 14g wire, installed an on/off switch, but did not install the inline fuse, even under load it maxes out at 1.60 amps, so I decide that the 10 amp fuse on the tractor, labeled "work light" would be enough.

Everything thing seems to be working fine. I spread a bushel of old sunflower seeds, with no issue. I even made a nice little switch holder, out of a piece of scrap metal I had laying around.

 

[Benhameen]

Here are a couple pics of what the end results looks like.

 

[Benhameen]

I did say a couple, so here's another.

 

[skeets]

Whats that green thing in the other picture???

 

[Benhameen]

That's one of the two JD I have, it was given to me after my stepdad passed away a couple years ago.

I used it until I bought a finish mower for the K.