8V battery charging

I put an eight volt battery in my 420 JD because is hard to crank. The amp gauge on the tractor will read a charge, just as good as with the old six volt. But what about the 120v chargers? With the charger on the 6v,6amp setting, the amps are low, about one amp. While on 12v, 2 amp setting, the charger will read about 5 amps. Do I rigg up some light bulbs to drop the voltage to about 8.5 to 9 volts?

Thanks,

Craig

Craig, any exact answer DEPENDS on the charger you have, it may be an old basic one or a modern "smart" technology etc.

HOWEVER that beind said, if all you need is a slow trickle charge or periodic winter maintenance, if on the 6 volt setting she charges an amp or so, then so be it if charging times not any big factor, although it may never bring it up to a full deep charge....

BUTTTTTT if on the 12 volt setting she charges say 5 to 10 amps or so, that will get her charged faster and better HOWEVER not knowing the chargers type and capacity I WOULD KEEP AN EYE ON IT AT THE 12 VOLT SETTING TO AVOID EXCESS OUTGASSING AND/OR OVERCHARGING...........I would NOT set it on a 12 volt high current setting and leave it n go to lunch although a low current setting is less risky.

It sounds like your charger is a smaller lower amp rated unit, and if so theres less worry of overcharging or boil over or excess outgassing on the 12 volt lower amperage settings. Its any high amp setting on a higher current rated charger that would cause more concern and careful observation to avoid overcharging.

A good hydromoter may be in order to see whats happening in each of the batetry cells..

I dont envision you need to add any external series voltage dropping ballast ASSUMING ITS A SMALL AMP RATED CHARGER AND/OR YOU KEEP AN EYE ON IT

John T

I just put the charger on 6v then take a reading on the Hydrometer after a few hours to see is all 4 cells are coming up always looking for the weak one and it will work for you.

an older 'dumb' 6v charger that just has diodes a breaker and an xformer will eventually get it done.. otherwise you need a small lamp and 12v charger to get at least 2.1v per cell at full charge.. meaning you will likely want 2.4 charge volts per cell.. IE.. 9.6v charge voltage..

soundguy

Thanks for the input and info.