Batterys

I was just told to make a 6 volt tractor system start faster and easer put 12 volt battery in it:
My thought is it will burn out the 6 volt system.
I am also thinking the guy that told me that
must have tryed that and had bad luck. What do you think.
JR FRYE

genny will have to be rewound for 12 volt, or alternator installed, internally resisted 12 volt coil, or external resistor installed and 12 volt light bulbs installed and itll work great.

(quoted from post at 14:28:29 08/20/11) I was just told to make a 6 volt tractor system start faster and easer put 12 volt battery in it:
My thought is it will burn out the 6 volt system.
I am also thinking the guy that told me that
must have tryed that and had bad luck. What do you think.
JR FRYE

Click to expand...

Or just replace those old battery/starter cables with new #1 gauge cables.

There is no reason to go to 12v other than to crank a modified higher displacement engine, or make jumping it from cars and trucks easy for all.
If it cranks slowly, it has probably had the battery cables replaced with those designed for automobiles (usually 3 or 4 gauge) these do not carry enough current to start a direct (non geared) 6v starter motor. The cables that do handle the current are 0 gauge, or 00 gauge.
These have copper as thick as a sharpie pen cap. almost 1/2 inch of conductor, with insulation over that. 200 amp welding cables of that gauge can be found at welding repair shops. Jim

A 12 volt battery will in fact make one start faster and easier but if all you do is stick in a 12 volt battery and not do all the other stuff that needs to be done it will cause the points to burn fast and also cause the coil to go bad faster and of course the battery will not charge because a 6 volt charging system can not charge a 12 volt battery to full charge

I had that problem with one of my Cubs - It turned real slow and sometimes I had to jump it with a 12 volt battery. after I had that starter rebuilt it spins a lot faster - Best $ 45 I have spent in a long time.

An 8v battery will mask the problems you have in the starter system. If you want more juice go that route. If you want to fix it the 'Right' way, Buy a new battery and some 0 or 00 gauge wire's. Hope this helps- Pat

Yahoo! Somebody else who likes 6-volts!

The original cables were #2 gauge. #1 gauge is a huge improvement and will carry more current than necessary. #0 gauge or #00 gauge gets real pricey real fast, and is good enough for cables that are 3 feet long or less. I have a 1940 H and a 1950 H, both with the original 6 volt systems, both with #1 gauge cables, and both have plenty of power to spin the starter and start the engines. Even in cold, winter weather.

If you have deep pockets, go with the #0 or #00, but your tractor will not start any better because of it.

Just had all the cables made up for my working M with 00 gauge cables and the right ends on each for less than 3 dollars more than the prefab cables at my local parts store, must be a big difference up there to require deep pockets for that!

On my 300U, could not get a 6v battery to start it in cold weather. so I added a 2nd 6v battery in parallel + 0 guage wire. Mounted 2nd battery in the tool box behind the seat. Problem went away.

Most of the time you will find that people convert to 12 volt because of a problem. The 12 volt system will mask that problem for a time but not forever. So first....CLEAN TIGHT and BRITE plus a fully charged battery! Thats all the connections and the mounting between the starter and torque tube/bell housing. Good tune up, carb working and adjusted right plus good compression! If you have those clamp on battery cable ends put new cables on. If it still has trouble starting pull the starter and have it bench tested.

With a tractor with a battery ignition system going over to 12 volts includes an in line resistor or a coil with built in resistor. The genny will have to be modified or changed out to keep the battery up along with changing the lites out. On older tractors that still have a magnito you don't have to worry so much about the charging system. The mag produces it's own power for spark. A 12 volt battery will start one many time before requiring a charge but you cannot use the lights.

I'm converting/have converted most of my 6 volts to 12 and will be doing the last one later this month when I rebuild the engine. The 12 volt gives just that little extra when it's -30 out. But the main reason I'm converting is compatability and avoiding problems. All my tractors are working tractors. My wife, son and daughter in law all help out here and I really don't need them trying to jump a 6 volt system that they are not familiar with. Plus the last of the 6 volts will be parked at the father in laws for snow duty this winter......that means a 2/3 of BILs may try to run it.

For the purest keeping 6volt on a collector makes sense. For a working tractor today when 6 volt chargers are getting hard to find and others who are not konwledgable about + - of the ground may use it it could get expensive.

Rick

You can put a 12V battery on a 6V tractor, AS LONG AS it's a typical neglected tractor with broken headlights and a non-functional charging system.

Lots of people just run them like that until the battery won't start the tractor any more, then they put the battery on the charger until next time.

If the lights and/or generator still work, you should disconnect the lights and/or remove the generator belt before connecting the 12V battery.

It's not the "right way" to fix the problems, but if money is an issue, you do what you need to do to make it work. Finding someone who can rebuild a starter or generator these days is hard, and rebuilt units are not cheap.