I don't know why it's taken me 'til now to have this idea, but now I'm wondering about replacing the battery on my Farmall with some supercaps.
The battery on the tractor is dead. Deader than an Allosaurus. I don't use the tractor enough to keep a charge on it and it spends its time in the weather. Adding a solar maintainer didn't really help.
Now I'm thinking that a bank of supercaps and a few bicycle dynamos wired in series to generate 12v might be a sufficient substitute. The tractor starts up well enough on the crank, but some days it's just a bear on my elbows and hands to yank that handle one. more. time. Some dynamos all run together by a single chain or gear, cranked by a single handle (one with a spinner, please), crank at a comfortable pace for a couple of minutes instead of giving mighty, elbow-snapping yanks might be the way forward. Stomp the starter and off she goes.
Anybody want to weigh in? This sounds like the first idea I've had that would be a crosspost to
MyTractorForum.com