Cold weather battery

[Rudi]

A question. Do you guys remove the cables from you 6v batteries when you hook up a battery charger to the battery? I always remove mine because I suspect the Pos.-to-ground would mess up the charger; and the same with the Neg.-to-Cub.

I never disconnect the battery before I put on the charger. Always connect to the posts. Unlike a car there are no computer chips to fry so connecting to the frame is not required. With a battery maintainer it is low amperage and auto shut off as well. My old manual battery chargers are used for more important stuff - like electrolysis tanks

[DickB]

Rudi, My laziness paid off. I was going to make a special cover to the battery box so that it would take in the quick disconnects, and yet I never got to it. Now that I know that I don't need to disconnect, I'm going to get a regular, official, battery box cover. Finally ! -- took 20 years of wondering by myself, and only a few minutes on the Cub forum. So the word is out: A cover, how about that....

[Rudi]

Dick:

Good stuff

[telleed]

Yes my 6 volt was about 8 years old and it finally failed me last month, just before the blizzard. I had to use my emergency 12v jump pack to start it. Then I pulled it out and checked the cells and they were low but not exposed, filled it with distilled and charged it. The specific gravity read fine in all cells, but you could draw current for about 10 seconds. Time for a new one. "Batteries Plus" to the rescue. The only thing is this battery is slightly taller to the lugs than the other and may short out on top of the battery box (see my video) I thought about putting in a 12 volt, available in many more sizes, like I did on the "A". On the A I just swapped out the generator and voltage reg with an alternator. Given this cub is just about 100% original as can get and given the cub is much more of a challenge with the 6 volt generator in a hard to service area under the hood, I decided against it. I put a piece of leather under both lugs and a piece of neoprene tubing split in two along all edges of the bottom of the box to raise it the extra height. I do not want to take a chance of burning down the garage.

[Rudi]

The 19L 6v will fit the box nicely. They are essentially the same size as the old VW style 6v batteries. No chance of shorting. If you are concerned - use a mouse pad - it will compress yet still isolate the terminals from the box top.

[Rudi]

telleed:


SLI19L for Volkswagen Beetle 1956-to-1966