Fuse

[bigjoey38]

The trike has a plug if it needs to be towed by a vehicle. you can plug in your tow vehicles plug right into the trike. The problem is when its plugged in the parking light (vehicle) fuse blows. Can I replace it with a higher amp. Its at 10 right now and it I use a regular small trailer its ok. parking / turn /brake signal still works.

 

[Woolie]

How many more lights are you adding to the circuit when adding the trike? Is there something like driving lights or fog lights normally connected to that circuit on the trike? How large is the wire supplying the power to that part of the circuit on the tow vehicle? Do you have an amp meter? If you do, connect the amp meter in place of the fuse and see how much current you are drawing. If it isn't much over the 10 amps you can most likely increase it or change it to a slow blow fuse, it may be that the amount of current required to start the lights is blowing the fuse. You could try a 15 amp fuse just to see if it will help, but if the wire at the plug on the tow vehicle is very small it will still try to carry enough current and may overheat, meltdown and cause you real problems. First thing I would do is count the number of lights that come on when you connect battery to that part of the circuit on the trike. You could connect battery and ground just to that part of the plug and see what comes on. Lights like a dome light use about 1 amp, tail lights use about 3 to 4 amps, driving lights use about 7 or more amps, that is just a rough estimate. Usually the brighter the light the more current it will draw unless it is LED. You might get by with replacing the fuse with a larger fuse but there is a lot to be considered before saying yeah go ahead. Hope this gives you some ideas.

 

[cpt logger]

Joey, Woolie is right to be concerned that plugging in a higher amp fuse in the taillight cicuit may lead to a fried wiring harness. I agree with him that we should first find out why this fuse is blowing. First off does it blow as soon as you plug in the trike or does it blow only after 10 minutes or only when you turn on the lights? If it blows as soon as the trike is plugged in, I would llok to be sure that both the tow rig and the trikes plug are wired the same. I had a new-to-me trailer that had the ground wire in the taillight pin, then when I used any lights on the trailer, the fuse for the taillights blew. When I wired the trailer correctly my problem was solved.

Hmmm, I just had a thought, If the plug is set so that it lights the taillights, is the tow rig trying to light the head lights by going backwards thru the light switch? Do you have to unplug this trailer connection from the trikes wiring harness or is it just a plug in and go situation? If the later I would try to find out how it was designed to prevend back feeding the head lamps.

Lots to think about. So in answer to the original question, NO, do not just put a higher aperage fuse in the fuse box. Find the problem first. IHTH, Matt W.

 

[bigjoey38]

Thanks Guys

Not going to take a chance and mess something up. Can always buy a 12 Volt Magnetic LED Towing Light Kit and just use that if needed.