|
The 3EE is the little brother of the 3ET and they are the only 12 volt batteries that will fit the 4020 battery boxes. At the least you should have matching batteries, both for size and for age. The long thin battery case causes long interconnect bars inside the battery (made of high resistance lead, not copper) which limits the cold cranking amps. I recall seeing a similar long thin battery in some Packard cars. The limited usage of these batteries in recent years tends to make them orphans of the battery industry. If the 12 volt conversion included an alternator, the batteries should be fully charged in ten or 15 minutes of running. If it uses a Deere generator it takes hours to recharge the batteries for each start. The 24 volt generator was rated at only 10 amps. The 12 volt generator at 20 amps. My gas 4020 has an alternator and an ammeter so I can tell when it charges and when its done. Both have proven to be worthwhile additions. A volt meter isn't nearly as handy a battery condition indicator as the ammeter. The battery boxes often loose their hold downs and so the batteries can bounce up and short out momentarily to the foot plate which makes them take a lot longer to reach full charge. On my 4020 gas, I made a new step that holds a more modern battery in place of the left step. Then that extended step has a lower step out in front of the rear wheel that is down 16". I was having trouble getting to that first step 29" from the ground. The more modern battery that I used has side terminals and being very close to the starter has short and LARGE diameter battery cables (Walmart cables aren't fat enough to crank a diesel well) that I found at NAPA. The battery came from Walmart for maybe $40 in round numbers and has twice the CCA rating of the best long slim battery. I don't yet know its life. With the alternator charging and cranking a gas engine with a newly rebuilt starter (the little auxiliary relay stuck and kept the starter spinning and hooked to the engine and threw the windings out of the armature slots) I'm on the third or fourth year and haven't yet had to charge the battery and I've let it set all winter some winters, or run it at 10 degree temperatures after sitting a couple months. As you can guess by now, I'm no fan of the long slim battery. Even at Central Tractor they used to cost about $90, and with the original 20 amp generator it took another each year or using the battery charger every day that I wanted to use the tractor. It could have been the fault of the lack of battery hold downs or a bad voltage regulator on the generator. When the alternator cost only half again the price of a replacement regulator the swap decision was simple. There are some 6 volt long slim batteries, that could be wired in series. We can debate which is better for a week and come to no conclusion. I think the 6 volt batteries in series could supply a bit more cranking power than a pair of 12 volt batteries in parallel but only if the makers filled the slightly greater available space in the 6 volt with battery plates. Unfortunately the outside dimensions of a battery can be a very misleading indicator of the actual active plate area in each cell. The best of batteries won't serve well if not fully charged, and won't crank well if the battery cables are wimpy. Go for 0 gauge battery cables, 00 if long. Gerald J.
| 
