8 volt battery charging

[Tom in Mo.]

I understand the purpose and use of the eight volt battery but how does one charge an eight volt battery off the tractor?

 

[NORMAN MOYER]

I HAVE FOUND A SIX VOLT GENERATOR WILL CHARGE AN 8V BATTERY . ON A FARMALL M , I LEARNED A SIX VOLT GENERATOR WOULD CHARGE A 12 VOLT BATTERY . JUST DONT LET THE 12V BATTERY GET ON THE LOW SIDE CAUSE THE GENERATOR WON'T PICK IT UP . YOU'LL HAVE TO PUT A CHARGER ON IT THEN . SAME WITH 8V . USE YOUR SIX VOLT GENERATOR AND SET YOUR GENERATOR UP IF YOU ONLY USE THE TRACTOR OCCASIONALLY

 

[old]

Yep you found another reason why the 8 volt battery idea does not work well. A 6 volt charger will charger well charger one up to around 7 volts give or take a bit. A 12 volt charger will over charge it so what do you do. Simple fix the problem that if has and will not start with a 6 volt battery or convert it to 12 volts

 

[souNdguy]

you can dummy up a plain 12v charger with a load resistor or a handfull of diodes.. or find a 9v wall wart power adapter.. or just build one from electronic parts.. etc.

soundguy

 

[Sean in PA]

(quoted from post at 23:21:44 11/12/11) you can dummy up a plain 12v charger with a load resistor or a handfull of diodes.. or find a 9v wall wart power adapter.. or just build one from electronic parts.. etc.

soundguy

Soundguy, I understand how to do it with a load resistor, but could you explain how to do it with a handfull of diodes? From my limited understanding, I thought that all that diodes do is to allow current in one direction while not allowing it in the other direction. I understand how diodes work in a rectifier, to convert AC to DC, and as a safety mechanism in DC circuits, to protect against current flow in a particular direction, but I can't for the life of me think of how you could use them to reduce the output of a 12 volt charger to 6 volts.

 

[Dean]

The typical silicon diode will exhibit a voltage drop of approximately 0.7 V when forwarded biased.

Simply calculate the voltage drop that you need and divide by 0.7 V to determine the number of diodes to wire in series with your 12V charger to produce the desired output voltage.

Of course you will need to buy diodes capable of carrying the charging current and heat sink as necessary.

Dean

 

[LJD]

Charge an 8 volt battery with an 8 volt battery charger. Plenty around. Sears and Battery Tender sell small 1.25 amp, 8 volt chargers and so do many other companies.

You can buy chargers in 6 volt, 8 volt, 12 volt, 24 volt, 36 volt, 48 volt, etc. You just have to look around.

When on the tractor, most 6 volt regulators can be tweaked to raise the voltage high enough to charge an 8 volt battery.

 

[Ed H.-OH]

Hello, I ran an 8 volt battery in my Ferguson for several years and it worked very well. Cranked a lot faster, headlamps were brighter.
All i did was put it in and turned the regulator up 2 volts. I think i set it to start regulating at 10 volts.-worked great.

 

[Ed H.-OH]

Norman, Hello, you are correct, I have run a 6,8,12 volt battery in my ferguson. All with the same generator .It charged them all with adjustments. I rate generators by amp output not by volts 35 amp,75 amp , 150 amp is a big one.
Reguards, Ed

 

[36 Coupe]

A 6 foot piece of zip cord works to reduce current flow when a down battery draws too much and opens the chargers circuit breaker.

 

[souNdguy]

I've used a 2-d cell flashlight bulb ( 3v bulb )as an inline load with a 12v charger and an 8v bat, for a slow charge. ie.. 2-10a.

soundguy