Help Batteries on a 1968 IH 3444

M Miller · Jan 6, 2009

This tractor had one 12 volt battery & would eat them up even after overhaul. Start good when weather is warm but when it gets to 35 deg F have to give it a shot of starting fluid. I change to two 6 volt batteries in series & this seamed to help but not the cure. If I change to two 12 volt batteries in parallel would this help more & what else would be needed to do this? I change the generator to a alternator some time ago & that helped quite a bit.
Thk's for the help

teddy52food · Jan 6, 2009

Put a coolant heater on it & plug it in for an hour or 2 before starting.

Janicholson · Jan 6, 2009

High cold crank 12v in parallel, or high cold crank amp 6 volt in series make it work. Optima and other non liquid batteries are gaining believers as they last long enough to pay the price difference. Look for 800CCA or more! Thye might need different battery boxes. Marine plastic boxes work well. JimN

mkirsch · Jan 6, 2009

Two 6V in series is the same as two 12V in parallel, if the CCA rating is the same for all the batteries.

It's a lot easier to find larger 12V batteries.

What is the problem you are trying to cure? What is "eating" the batteries? If you use the tractor daily in the cold, you should look into getting power to it so that you can plug in a block heater.

Chris from Wa · Jan 6, 2009

Check your battery cables to make sure they are big enough to handle the amperage, especially if going to dual batteries. I frequently see after-market battery cables that are too small.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 6, 2009

When trying to start in cooler weather, it makes no difference using the glow plugs or just cranking on it takes the heart out of the batteries on each start. I mean they are just about down to nothing when it fires. About 12 times starting like this & the batteries are gone. So I started using either/starting fluid cuz @ 200 a pop for batteries it was getten pricy. I have moved the batteries to the front of the tractor to make the cables as short as possible but still takes all the batteries have to start. OEM starter has been rebuilt this helped a little, am going to change starter button as this may help also. I am thinking about going to a gear starter to increase cranking speed & decrease amp draw. The tractor will some times set for a few days without being started. Maybe I should just install a block heater & forget my troubles. But pluging in when only down to around 35 degs just doesn't seem right. When the temp is around 60 the 3444 fires right up. The engine is a diesel BD154

JimB2 · Jan 6, 2009

Hi, from 1962 thru 1991 we had B414, 434, and 384 all with BD154 on our family farm. The only way to start the BD154 when temp drops below -5F was with coolant heater. You can put an inline heater in the lower rad hose easily. Plug heater in for 1 hour and your good to go. The BD154 is very hard on batteries for two reasons: it has a 22:1 compression ratio so requires lots of amps from batteries for glow plugs and for starter to roll engine, next reason is engine has lots of vibrations and causes battery plates to fail.

When we worked in our wood lot in the winter with the B414, we either had to drive it a mile and plug it in at an uncle's or leave in on a hill. If we left on a hill we would heat the glow plugs then let roll down the hill in 4th Hi, hit the starter and pop the clutch at the same time and it would always start even in -25F weather. Only danger was a deep snow fall and we would have to shovel some of the hill but usually if there was a pending snow fall we would drive it to my uncle's place and plug in the heater.

JimB

M Miller · Jan 7, 2009

JimB:
Thank's for the info. I think now I will just install a coolant heater.

M Miller · Jan 7, 2009

Thank's to all for your help.

Help Batteries on a 1968 IH 3444

M Miller

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teddy52food

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Janicholson

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mkirsch

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Chris from Wa

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Anonymous-0

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JimB2

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M Miller

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M Miller

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