Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

Comment:

There are different schools of thought here but not different facts, facts are facts. If a battery is at 82% the generator does not work at 100% to recharge it, the voltage/current regulator adjusts accordingly. If the car is from the early 30's or before it has only a cutout and may charge at a high rate.

The wear on a generator even when charging at 100% is minimal, they often go 50,000 miles before needing brushes.

I installed a Delco Hearse/Ambulance Heavy Duty in my 1930 Eight Deluxe Speedster in the early 70's, it fit in the battery box just fine but it was HEAVY. One time the car sat for 18 months untouched, when I went to start it fired right up on the first push of the starter switch. It lasted 11 years and I was sad to see it go.

Well, actually I was thinking about 50 or 60 anecdotes if I start at farm boy days and come up to today.

Fully agree that batteries need to be fully charged before going into storage as the sulfation rate vastly accelerates if they are low. Otherwise I am perfectly content to let the regulators confront the battery with 7.2 or 14.4 v till sated. Of course the other great battery killer is overcharging. I am getting more than 40k miles on a set of generator brushes and am not considering that an inconvenience.

To the original question, it is easy to attach the charger to the cable connection at the starter and any convenient ground.

On another note
Does anybody know of a tender that will work with a 6V gel cell ( optima )?
Purchased an expensive tender only to find that the direction say it should not be used for gel cells
thanks
W

I've been using the Noco Genius G3500 on my Optima for a couple of years now. It has settings for AGM and lead acid, and for both 6v and 12v. Works great on small equipment batteries too.

Bought mine from Amazon.

Thanks I will look into it
W

I have this one it is good for 6V and 12v batteries.
Sears Die Hard Gold 80A

Costco in my area is offering Battery Tender (Deltran) Brand 3A maintenance and storage chargers that do 6/12v for $39.99 at the moment. There's no telling how long they'll be there, it's Costco after all, but I've had good luck with these chargers. I'd avoid any kind of fast charger, there's some concern out there that regularly charging a battery at higher amperage rates (over 10% capacity) can eventually warp the plates. And ultimately it's the battery life you're trying to improve by keeping a charge on it. But that's up to you - in my experience it's hard to get by with just one charger. Fast chargers are great in certain circumstances, and many have a boost mode that will let you jump start a "dead" car. When parking my classics, I hook them up to a tender. But the faster charger gets good use too!