Quote:
Originally Posted by elhigh
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 |
I'm not following. Does your tractor have both an electric starter and a hand crank?
A solar maintainer should be sufficient to keep batteries topped up as long as the tractor lives outside instead of under cover. I found that one of my solar maintainers has an LED that stays on constantly, even when it's dark outside. The 10 mA constant drain was more than the solar charger could make up for during a cloudy day.
I removed the LED from the charger, and now it keeps my truck topped up.
We have an old Alice Chalmers One Ninety that has a huge battery that is often dead due to sitting too long. I'm curious if an ultracap would help it start, but a little doubtful since it often takes 10 seconds or so to get her fired up on a cold day.
