[AT] 8-volt batteries in 6-volt tractors

[Mike Sloane]

 From what I understand, your Ford's 6 volt generator & cutout will 
charge the 8 volt battery up to about 6.75 volts, so you really will 
gain nothing. On a tractor with a "normal" three terminal voltage 
regulator, I understand that it is possible to adjust it to put out 8.9 
volts (which is what you need to charge an 8 volt battery properly). If 
you do that, your lights will last maybe an hour or so and then burn 
out. And I know of no 8 volt replacement tractor lamps. Your coil will 
also run hot at the higher voltage.

But, as many folks have said before, if the tractor won't start on the 6 
volts it was designed for, then your problem isn't the battery; it is 
something else - ignition, wiring, rings, valves, etc. Higher battery 
voltage may help for a while, but you haven't fixed the problem. On the 
other hand, if your battery/generator is shot, you need brighter lights 
for night work, you need to start in bitter cold, or some other issue, 
then you might as well just "bite the bullet" and do a proper complete 
12 volt conversion.

Mike

D. Day wrote:
> TSC has quit stocking 6-volt batteries and replaced them with 8-volt. The 
> sticker on the 8-volt battery states that the 'extra 2 volts helps antique 
> vehicles start easier.'
> 
> Several years ago, a friend suggested that I buy an 8-volt for a Ford 2N 
> that I was working on. Once I installed it, I found that the charging system 
> on the 2N wasn't keeping up with the task and I was unsure exactly how to 
> charge an 8-volt battery with my 6-volt/12-volt charger.
> 
> I called Exide, the company that made the 8-volt battery, and finally spoke 
> with an engineer. He suggested strongly that 8-volt batteries should never 
> be used in any application that was not designed to maintain an 8-volt 
> battery.  He said that typically the on-board 6-volt charging systems are 
> not adequate and except for a few industrial machines, no one makes an 
> 8-volt charger.  According to him, charging an 8-volt battery with a 6-volt 
> charger doesn't work and charging it with a 12-volt charger is dangerous.
> 
> Anyone have experience with 8-volt batteries?
> 
> Dick Day 
> 

-- 


Mike Sloane
Allamuchy NJ
mikesloane at verizon.net
Website: <www.geocities.com/mikesloane>
Images: <www.fotki.com/mikesloane>

You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image
when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.
-Anne Lamott, writer (1954- )