Generator question

thanks.
Brian.

The beauty of this is you change nothing on tractor except pos to neg ground. On my tractor that was ten years ago and I am still on the same battery. My tractor starts better, runs better, plugs points and condencers last longer,etc. I have never had the generator back on tractor. When my tractor had a generator, it seemed like every time I turned around I was changing points, condencer, regulator, distributor cap, rotor, plugs,etc. you name it. It was non stop, fix this , fix that. Today I have a 6 volt SA with original lights, coil, etc. With those items original no one ever notices the alternator. It is tucked in so it is just barely visable from front of tractor. I will chalange anyone in North America to find a better working Farmall Super A than mine, there may be better looking Super A's, but we all know looks is only skin deep.

Thanks again guys.
Brian.

The rub is that it only generates something around 20 amps. You'll need 3 to 4 amps for the coil, leaving about 16 or 17 amps left over for the three lights. The lights draw around 4 amps each, so at 6V nominal you have three ~25 watt lights (V*A=W). More than that, and you start discharging the battery. So the question becomes how many more lights do you want, how powerful are they, and how long do you want to run them.

Check the reserve capacity or RC rating on your battery. It should be somewhere around 70 to 80 minutes - meaning it can supply an extra 25 amps for that length of time. If you want two or more extra 55 watt halogen light; better go to an alternator. A few more 25 watt lamps might work for an 30 minutes to an hour without any real problem -- might have to externally charge your battery from time to time.

If your Super A has bulbs instead of sealed beams, maybe the best way to tackle the problem is with the 25 to 35 watt halogen bulbs you can get from classic car places (guys trying to drive 30's vintage 6 volt cars at 50mph at night have the same problem, or maybe worse). I think you'll find a 6V halogen 25 watt bulb produces 500 to 600 lumens versus the 250 to 300 lumens of the old incandescent bulb. If you have sealed beams, then it gets more complicated -- you'd have to buy a 12V halogen light and swap in a 6V halogen bulb. Either way, the halogens should give you a lot more light without drawing much, if any more current than stock lights -- plus you don't have to re-do the gen/alt/charging system.

The halogen trick seems to me to be the best compromise short of going to an alternator. Good luck with the project.

If I were going to work the tractor, then Hugh MacKay's alternator setup would probably be the best bet long term --even though a bit more expensive and more work in the short run. I think the 6V alts are even available for pos ground now and produce something around 40 amps, or twice the output of the generator. Only problem is they just don't look like generators and are obviously not the "right" look for any casual observer. You've got to respect that point of view as well --so, different strokes for different folks -- many ways to skin a cat -- your mileage might vary, and so on. The important thing is that Brian has been given some food for thought. After that, it's his tractor; so he can put pen to paper and figure out what he wants to do. What's more, all the ideas we all put forth can be easily searched in the archieves. Res ipse loquitur, which is Latin for what Texans mean by the phrase: 'nuff said; but I sincerely thank you for your kind comment.