Charging an 8V battery

james,

A little outside the box thought --
Get a little regulated DC power supply cheap at an electronics surplus outfit, or an auction, or eBay. I've accumulated 4 of them over the years and think they're great. Just checked eBay and found this one bidding at 28 bucks.

You can set it at 6,12,8,7.5,2,3 - you name it volts and vary the current from 5 mils to around 3 amps. Stick it on your 8 volt battery at 8.5 volts and under 2 amps for 24 to 36 hours, and it will be nicely charged. Other times use it to power up whatever piece of electronics or other stuff that draws 500 to 3000 mils at whatever DC voltage south of 18 or so. There a plenty of uses for the things outside of a battery charger. Of course, the cheap way to do it is with the 12V headlight bulb inline with your present 12V charger to give it an equivalent slow charge.

A good old fashioned generator starter shop can probably set up your old 6 volt Voltage Regulator to maintain that 8 volt battery if thats what you have on a tractor.

Good Luck n God Bless

John T

~On the other hand a 12 volt charger charges at around 13.5-14.5 or so volts so that will cook a 6 volt battery..

~Some 6 volt battery chargers have a fast charge setting that might put out enough to almost completely charge an 8 volt battery..

~About your only choice is to try the 6 volt charger & see if it will add enough charge to get the battery to start whatever you need the battery for. [it probably never will completely charge it though]. OR, use the 12 volt setting & an in series resistor [or maybe an old sealed beam headlight] then monitor the charging voltage with a good voltmeter & make sure it stays below 9.5 volts even as the battery comes up to full charge..

~Or better yet buy a charger with an 8 volt setting..

~There are people that install 8 volt batteries in a 6 volt system & get by with it but the battery will never be fully charged without setting the regulator up..