Johnny, we had a similar question posted over on Johnnypopper which the Frankster aka FIT and myself answered, was that you??? To save time, heres a copy of what I posted over there concerning the differences in a VR versus a Cutout Relay system, if originality doesnt matter, the VR is the more modern and better way to go in my opinion. "Which is prefered?" Welllll lllll lll if originality and the Correct Police are your primary concern, thennnnn nn whatever is original is the answer, on older tractors that would be the 2 wire Cutout Relay which used a 3 brush adjustable genny and the light switch as the method to control field current and the gennys output. Disadvantages can be the light switch can go bad or its not kept well grounded (causing weak or no charge) and that you have to manually choose between the High and Low charge on the light switch and theres some risk if you keep it always on High charge and dont use lights the battery could get overcharged n outgas or boil over, but often those systems dont put out super high currrent so that risk isnt all that great. "Which is preferred" BUTTTTT TTTTT if better and more precise and automatic charging current regulation is whats important, then the full fledged 3 or 4 terminal Voltage Regulator. It automatically and more precisely controls the rate of charge with no worry of manually setting any light switch in Low or High charge. Furthermore if you go the 4 terminal (BAT ARM FLD LOAD) VR route versus only the 3 terminal (BAT ARM FLD) route they provide somewhat better regulation, even a lesser chance of overcharging, and alllll l the gennys output doesnt have to pass through the internal Cutout Relay (feeds loads via the LOAD terminal) as is necessary on the 3 terminal VR, I reckon they are a tad more complicated, however, possibly one more thing to go bad???? Its easy to convert from the old 2 wire cutout relay system to a full fledged 3 or 4 terminal Voltage Regulator still using your existing genny, you would have to tell us what you have now n which way you wanna go and we can tell you how to wire it "Is there a significant difference" The Frankster has that pretty well covered, yeppers theres some wiring differences, but its NOT rocket science. The full fledged 3 or 4 terminal VR system versus the older 2 wire cutout relay and light switch control system represented an improvement and they do work better and automatic buttttt ttt if originality and Correct Police make a big difference, go the cutout relay if thats how it was original best wishes, good question John T
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