notjustair
Well-known Member
I was moving tractors today to grind feed and had a thought. That's dangerous in and of itself.
Why did the industry (auto and machine) move away from amp (ampere) gauges to volts?
When things were 6 volt (and for a while after the switch to 12) amp guages were king. The tractors I have here that are that old have amp guages. I fire them up and watch the oil and amp guages to make sure everything is working. On the newer tractors I do the same but wait to see the volts come up.
The only thing I have seen have both were the school buses I drove (Ford). For whatever reason they had an amp guage as part of the factory cluster and then a volt meter added on separate (a Ford unit not the body builder). Those always had both but that was the only thing. The last new vehicle I remember having an amp guage was a conversion van - 1982 model.
Did the switch come as people quit doing their own repairs/maintenance and no longer understood how amps work? I find that when I have an amp guage I watch it like a hawk. The grain truck is an example. It is 12 volt with a generator so I watch to make sure it picks up when I pull away from a stop. With an alternator there isn't much fluctuation but that truck runs from -15 amps to +15 amps at night with every stop or turn.
What are your guesses, boys?
Why did the industry (auto and machine) move away from amp (ampere) gauges to volts?
When things were 6 volt (and for a while after the switch to 12) amp guages were king. The tractors I have here that are that old have amp guages. I fire them up and watch the oil and amp guages to make sure everything is working. On the newer tractors I do the same but wait to see the volts come up.
The only thing I have seen have both were the school buses I drove (Ford). For whatever reason they had an amp guage as part of the factory cluster and then a volt meter added on separate (a Ford unit not the body builder). Those always had both but that was the only thing. The last new vehicle I remember having an amp guage was a conversion van - 1982 model.
Did the switch come as people quit doing their own repairs/maintenance and no longer understood how amps work? I find that when I have an amp guage I watch it like a hawk. The grain truck is an example. It is 12 volt with a generator so I watch to make sure it picks up when I pull away from a stop. With an alternator there isn't much fluctuation but that truck runs from -15 amps to +15 amps at night with every stop or turn.
What are your guesses, boys?