6 volt battery charging need help

I have to select 6 or 12 volt on my load tester.  6 volts have 3 caps, 12 have 6.  Me thunks the battery was either frozen when charger was put on, or the guy did not realize it was a 6 volt and put a 12 volt on, high charge.  Batteries can go bad but *I* have never had one blow.  IMHO  During winter, 6 or 12 (I have both in tractors), I take them out and keep them in the garage fully charged.  If  I need one, I put it in and it spins right over, depending on how cold the eng. oil is.  Good luck

Do yourself a BIG favor and change your tractor to a 12 VOLT system. Especially if you use it in cold weather. I'm sure some folk will disagree with me but as long as it's 6 volt it will never start good. Every single cable ,connection,componet.ect. on a 6 volt system has to be perfect for it to work even close to right. 12 volt is not only stronger but a little more forgiving as far as everything being perfect. If you leave it 6 volt get a battery tender and keep it plugged in at least for the winter. 

Battery posts on 6 volt systems need to be cleaned twice a year, both posts and connectors. There isn't much tolerance at 6 volts for the voltage drop of a dirty connection, nor in the wires. It takes at least twice the current to crank the engine at 6 volts as it does at 12 volts.

Lots of 6 volt systems depend on protecting the battery from being blasted by charging simply by current limiting in the three brush generator, but depend on the operator to turn the current down when the battery is going into overcharging. When the operator isn't good at that the battery looses water from the electrolyte and if that water isn't replaced and mixed with the remaining acid the battery does go bad.

While it isn't original, a 12 volt alternator (watch for the ground polarity, nearly all alternators are negative ground only) with its internal solid state regulator treats a battery 100 times better than a generator with a magnetic voltage regulator and 10,000 times better than the three brush generator with manual current setting.

With some serious custom work inside a common alternator I'm sure it could be modified for positive ground and 7.100 volts instead of 14.2 volts. The polarity change is probably easier than the voltage change if the internal regulator is waterproofed and circuit details not documented. I haven't tried either. I did build a 6 volt transistor regulator for a 12 volt Beetle engine I put in a 6 volt Beetle and that generator really worked well, as good as an alternator. One of a kind though.

Starter cables at 6 volts need to 0 gauge or bigger, 4 or 6 gauge won't work at all.

Gerald J.

I doubt the kids at the auto store have even SEEN a 6 volt battery. My guess is there machine is auto set at 12 volts and they NEVER move the selector.

It takes a big load or overcharging to get the combustible mixture from dissociating the electrolyte.

Gerald J.

you should have gone right back in there and checked the charger to see if it was set right for your battery. I too am guessing he put 12 Volts to it and maybe a hard charge!