[AT] 24 volt Deere's

[jtchall at nc.rr.com]

Anyone here have experience with Deere tractors that cranked on 24 volts and run on 12? Dad’s 1968 4020 diesel is this way,  the ‘69 we used to have was not. I’ve never heard anything good about this electrical system setup, and we have had way too much trouble with batteries in this tractor for the past 45 years. I just replaced one of them, it was slightly over 3 years old. I bought a service manual a while back so I decided to start reading up on the electrical system. The tractor cranks on 24 volts and then runs on 2 separate 12 volt systems. Apparently Deere knew this was a worrisome system, as it begins to trouble shoot why one battery may be charged and the other one not. It gives remedies such as adding a bulb to pull one battery down, adjusting the regulator output, and switching sides with the batteries occasionally. I was told many years ago we should just convert it over to a later style electrical system, but stubborn pride has caused us to keep it original. Anyone else ever dealt with one of these systems and tried Deere's tricks to maintain longer battery life?  When the field work ends for the year I plan on checking/adjusting the regulator.


John Hall