8 volt or 6 volt battery

[Ed Junior]

Im in the process of finshing up my super h Im wondering to put a 8 volt battery in it or 6 volt if 8 will it hurt anything if so what do i have to change thanks

 

[CNKS]

If you are finishing it up it means you have a new battery, cables, wiring etc--if so 6 volts is ok. All an 8 volt does is cover up (barely) bad cables and connections. I have a Super A, C, Super H with 6 volts, currently restoring a Super M, still 6 volt, I'm going to leave it 6 volts.

 

[old]

I do not know of any machine that had an 8 volt battery in it when new. The 8 volt battery at best is a band aid fix for other problems. So either go with what it should have or upgrade to a 12 volt system. With an 8 volt battery the generator will not keep it charged up and when was the last time you saw a 8 volt battery charger??????//

 

[rhtx55]

BTDT, the 8 volt will cause a few longevity problems with all the bulbs, ruin points & condenser prematurely, not ot mention going through several voltage regulators trying to get one set up to properly charge the 8 volt battery.
Good advice above, either get the larger battery cables, and clean all contact points to bright shiny metal, insulate with di-electric grease any exposed terminals to prevent further corrosion problems, tune for easy starting, and you would be good to go with a 6 volt over 700 cranking amps., and a battery maintainer, or trickle charger.
Or convert to 12 volt, install a resistor on the hot side of the coil, change out all the bulbs, etc. Plenty of posts here on how to convert one.
I spent less getting everything to operate on 6 volts on my F300 than going the 8 volt route, from my experience stay with the 6 volt and follow everyone's advice on battery cable sizes, and clean contacts.
The consenus seems to be if you want it to stay original go with 6 volt, if you plan on using it every day, go with the 12 volt conversion.

 

[John T]

An 8 volt battery (plus being expensive and not standard) will shorten the life of the lights and the points, although sure, it will crank over a bit faster. However, depending on your genny and charge control system, you may have some charging problems and/or have to modify the Voltage Regulator (if it has one).

If it were mine Id either change it to the standard 12 volts (8 is an oddball system) or else keep the 6 and use heavy gauge (like 0 or even 00 gauge) battery n starter n ground cables and keep the starter motor and engine well tuned and use a big heavy high CCA rated 6 volt battery.

John T

 

[David G]

Keep if 6V or upgrade it to 12V. The 12V will crank real nice when it is warm if it has the fire crater pistons in it.

 

[mkirsch]

What they said. 8 Volt batteries are the spawn of the devil.