8 volt battery

[grandpa Love]

Guy dropped his cub off yesterday for us to fix. It has an 8 volt battery that needs charging. My chargers have 6 or 12 volt settings .....now what?? Any advice?

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Guy dropped his cub off yesterday for us to fix. It has an 8 volt battery that needs charging. My chargers have 6 or 12 volt settings .....now what?? Any advice?

Gp
When I can't buy what I want, I make it.
I bought this charger when I was in HS many many years ago.
This is before smart chargers. It is just a basic manual charger.
The last time I rebuilt it, I installed a switch on the left so I can use one or both diodes.
I installed a dimmer switch on the right to adjust the input voltage which will allow me vary the output voltage to make this a trickle charger.
I use a manual timer to shut the charger off.
So find yourself an old school manual charger and a dimmer switch to crank the output voltage down to 9 or 10 volts.
I don't think a dimmer

will work on a smart charger.

 

[John T]

The 6 volt setting wouldnt be my choice so you’re left only with the 12 which I would use. I have charged many 8 volt batteries with a 12 volt charger which I

1) Used the low charge setting Manual charger NOT automatic !!!! 2) Monitored the charge rate,,,Voltage,,,Water levels,,, Any excess outgassing or over boiling 3) Did NOT leave it in any long periods 4) Occasionally checked the specific gravity.

Thats how I did it successfully and never had a problem.. Being electrical you may well get different methods and opinions and more detailed reasons why it works or why not and better methods. See how others would charge it and their experiences and what they can add to this as this is ONLY what worked fine for me. Of course this method is not perfect or ideal or engineering correct yet it worked fine for me if all I had was a 6 or 12 charger

PS you did not ask so I didn’t discuss the whole 8 volt battery issue which others might go into

John T

 

[JOCCO]

Well as usual I am in John T's camp on this one follow his instructions! I think he hinted at the 8 volt issue it can be quite a topic. Willing to bet you will do some serious looking to find a dedicated 8 volt charger.

 

[Fixingfarmer]

so we actually had a ford 2000 dad bought with one of the 8v wouldn't charge off its generator and I got all kinds of opinions on this particular topic and I don't think I ever went back and posted what we ended up with so I'm going to try to find that now but it was around the time the forum swapped over. We ended up putting a 6volt battery in it albeit more cca than original. We had a 8v trickle charger dad found on amazon hooked to it for awhile but that got old in a hurry. They are fairly common trickle charger wise. I don't know where you would find a real charger. We have had zero problems the last year otherwise with the 6 volt being charged up if its sat all winter I have no idea why they switched it. I think if you know what you are doing you can adjust the voltage regulator but it is my somewhat bias opinion that its not worth knowing how to do that.

I also think if it wasn't mine it's something I wouldn't touch. Thats the kind of thing well you touched it now it won't work when chances are it probably wasn't done right ESPECIALLY if he's sending it to you to charge his battery either he didn't do the conversion or worse maybe he did.

The dimmer switch idea is cool though I like that.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

so we actually had a ford 2000 dad bought with one of the 8v wouldn't charge off its generator and I got all kinds of opinions on this particular topic and I don't think I ever went back and posted what we ended up with so I'm going to try to find that now but it was around the time the forum swapped over. We ended up putting a 6volt battery in it albeit more cca than original. We had a 8v trickle charger dad found on amazon hooked to it for awhile but that got old in a hurry. They are fairly common trickle charger wise. I don't know where you would find a real charger. We have had zero problems the last 2 years otherwise with the 6 volt being charged up if its sat all winter I have no idea why they switched it. I think if you know what you are doing you can adjust the voltage regulator but it is my somewhat bias opinion that its not worth knowing how to do that.

I also think if it wasn't mine it's something I wouldn't touch. Thats the kind of thing well you touched it now it won't work when chances are it probably wasn't done right ESPECIALLY if he's sending it to you to charge his battery either he didn't do the conversion or worse maybe he did.

The dimmer switch idea is cool though I like that.

Fixing
A variable transformer, Variac, is best but costs more.

Auto Voltage Transformer AC Variable Voltage Converter Transformer 110VAC Input, 0-130VAC (500W)​

$56 from Amazon.
No idea what happened. the pic to a variable transformer is below.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

 

[Fixingfarmer]

Interesting. Ive used a cheap model railroad dc transformer for testing some fan motors and things of that nature but that doesn't have a gauge and I don't exactly know what the output of a charger is as far as amps so I think id feel more comfortable with a real charger like you have shown and using the dimmer switch to throttle it down to what my volt meter says. I assume the charging amps would go down also so a 10 amp charge would be more like 8 or about perfect imo

 

[Brown David]

Toss the 8 volt setup and either fix the 6 volt system or convert to 12 volt.

Going to 12 volt is the best choice in my opinion.

 

[grandpa Love]

Guy dropped his cub off yesterday for us to fix. It has an 8 volt battery that needs charging. My chargers have 6 or 12 volt settings .....now what?? Any advice?

The whole 8 volt battery to make a 6 volt Cub crank better seems like a crappy bandaid to me. Fix the issues and a 6 volt should fire right up in a couple seconds. If it doesn't,fix it. We have swapped several to 12 volts with an alternator, usually when the 6 volt system is beyond repair ( generator frozen) or missing. Unfortunately more common than you may think.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

The whole 8 volt battery to make a 6 volt Cub crank better seems like a crappy bandaid to me. Fix the issues and a 6 volt should fire right up in a couple seconds. If it doesn't,fix it. We have swapped several to 12 volts with an alternator, usually when the 6 volt system is beyond repair ( generator frozen) or missing. Unfortunately more common than you may think.

GP
I'm not sure they make an 8 volt regulator so using an 8 volt battery that is charged with a 6 volt regulator isn't a good idea unless you can adjust the regulator to put out 8 volts.
A redneck with a Redneck Electrical Engineering degree will use an electric motor to spin a generator with an 8 volt regulator to charge the battery.

 

[John T]

A fully charged 8 volt battery Subject to Temperature at rest and stabilized would measure approximately 8.4 Volts so a charging source would have to be greater. Id expect at least 9/10 or more volts to pump charging amps into an 8 volt battery

John T

 

[chcase]

Guy dropped his cub off yesterday for us to fix. It has an 8 volt battery that needs charging. My chargers have 6 or 12 volt settings .....now what?? Any advice?

For most people putting a 8 volt battery in a 6 volt system is a waste of time unless the generator and regulator is set for 8 volts.Very few people have the still to adjust the regulator I personally put a good 6 volt battery in or if electrical system is junk then change over to 12 volt.

 

[Richard G.]

Guy dropped his cub off yesterday for us to fix. It has an 8 volt battery that needs charging. My chargers have 6 or 12 volt settings .....now what?? Any advice?

Had a tractor years ago that had an 8 volt battery and a 6 volt generator. The genny charged it well for years.
I would try 6 volt setting.

 

[used red MN]

What I would do to charge the battery is take a 12 volt headlight and hook it in series with the battery while charging it. Monitor battery voltage until you see 9 volts, disconnect the charger and see if it stabilizes at the proper voltage(8.4) or if it needs more charge. It might be slow charging because the charge amps will be limited to the amps the headlight would normally draw. This is not a set it and forget it process.
After the battery was charged and by some miracle the system worked fine I would kick it out the door and tell the customer no guarantee on the electrical system. If it didn’t work right change it to 6 or 12 volt.

 

[Janicholson]

What I would do to charge the battery is take a 12 volt headlight and hook it in series with the battery while charging it. Monitor battery voltage until you see 9 volts, disconnect the charger and see if it stabilizes at the proper voltage(8.4) or if it needs more charge. It might be slow charging because the charge amps will be limited to the amps the headlight would normally draw. This is not a set it and forget it process.
After the battery was charged and by some miracle the system worked fine I would kick it out the door and tell the customer no guarantee on the electrical system. If it didn’t work right change it to 6 or 12 volt.

8V charger
I agree with this "least trauma" and cost method to get operational. Chargers are modest, poke link for example. Jim

 

[fusion1]

I charge my 8 V , with 12 V and use low Amps 1-2
it seems to work fine

 

[John T]

I charge my 8 V , with 12 V and use low Amps 1-2
it seems to work fine

X2 Same works for me
John T

 

[flying belgian]

We have a auto electric shop in Mankato. I put 8 volt battery in 49 GMC and took truck down there and he tweaked the regulator to put out 8 volts. Worked perfect for years.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Go to Amazon.

6/8/12/14/24 Volt Battery Charger Automotive, JYEASTZ Smart Car Battery Charger 0-10A, Maintainer and Fully Automatic Charger with Cable Clamps, Suitable...$34