8 volt batt

Recently bought a Massey Harris Mustang that has an 8 volt battery in it!! Will a 6 volt battery charger charge this battery sufficiently!!! How about a battery maintainer??? It?s doing fine now, the tractor charging system seems be charging it ok, just checking for the future and whether or not to put a maintainer in it??? Thank You

8 volt battery is a band=aid fix for a poor starting machine. Unless the charging system has bee adjusted it will only be part ways charged to say 7-7.5 or so volts. That is one problem with an 8 volt battery one cannot find a charged made to charge there either over charged by 12 volt charged or under charged by 6 volt chargers

Like Old says, it's a bandaid.

What you might want to do is check the running at operating RPM voltage across the battery to find out if the regulator was adjusted up for the 8v battery.

If it was, the voltage should be up around 9-9 1/2 volts. If so, the next battery should be an 8v, or adjust the regulator back down if you go back to a 6v battery.

If the voltage is down around 7-7 1/2v, the regulator was not adjusted. You can try to adjust it, or leave it be and go back with a 6v battery next time.

orchelns use to sell those. don't know if they still do. put one in my jd 420 crawler once. did help. just a little more boost for starting them old 6 volt systems. your charging system will keep it charged. a 6 volt maintainer should keep it charged to close to 7 volts but never tried one so don't know for sure.

If the system is charging correctly yes they will keep a 8 volt charged, I used to run one in a 47 Chevy truck for some 40 years and had zero issues,, I was getting 10-15 years out a battery on a unit that was used once a year for seeding and seldom ever had to charge a battery in the spring,, the last time I needed a new one I could not get one in town without ordering it so I just threw in a 6volt it started it just fine,, the man it was bought from had bought the truck new and said the 8 volt made it start much easier in the winter, he also said the charging system was untouched the truck had just under 30,000 on it when I got it,

To answer your question, "will a 6 volt charger or battery maintainer, charge the 8 volt battery" ....a 6 volt battery maintainer will not do the job. An old school 6 volt charger will, given enough time. An automated charger will not charge an 8 volt.

When I was a farmer and used tractor dealer back in the day I came across several 8 volt batteries on 6 volt tractors. Some would charge at a low rate others hardly charged at all. What I found was the ones with only a cutout relay and a manual Low High charge were more likely to maintain the battery while those with a full fledged voltage regulator were less likely UNLESS the VR was properly adjusted, many of which were NOT.

Put a volt meter on the battery and at rest and stabilized if full charged it should read around 8.4 or so volts subject to temperature. Next start the tractor and have it at fast RPM. If battery voltage rises to at least 9 to 10 volts its charging to some degree. However if it doesn't rise much above 8.4 its not being charged sufficiently.

If it has a VR it can be adjusted up to keep an 8 volt battery charged, so start with determining the voltage of the battery at fast RPM then go from there if needed.

I'm NOT a fan of the 8 volt system on 6 volt tractors. If its not cranking good enough using a good heavy high CCA rated battery try using 00 Gauge battery cables as that can help...??. Also if it has a three brush adjustable genny adjusting it for max charge can help.

A maintainer for a 6 volt battery wont supply much (if any) charge into an 8 volt battery (but subject to design parameters) as some are only like 1 amp even at the right conditions IE a 6 volt battery. Again to find out how it might perform see if it raises the 8 volt battery to say at least 8.5 or a tad more volts. If so it might just "maintain" the 8 volt battery, if not its not going to help much. Otherwise to see if a 6 volt battery maintainer will keep up an 8 volt battery place an ammeter in the to see what (if any) charging amps into the battery it may be delivering. If its say 0.5 to 1+ amps sure its delivering some degree of charging.

Hope this helps

John T

Used them for years in Ford and JD tractors and 50 IHC truck. Nothing checked or changed on charging. Seemed to help. At least on the fords it brought the voltage up enought to reasonably start. Found out later they had a resistor to cut that voltage thinking it would make points last longer but that kept them from wanting to start or even to keep running. Repair was to get rid of those resistors.. The Deere I changed to 12 volt for accesories I was planning to buy but never did. The truck was switched right after we got it and stayed that way all the time we ownrd it. Don't worry about an 8 volt battery. just use an old charger if needed but tractor should keep it up.