Source of 6 Volt Battery

[DontKnowMuch]

I would like to buy a 6 volt battery for my 26 Roadster and I am having trouble finding one. I have been looking online and calling various stores (Walmart, Autozone, O''Reillys, Tractor Supply, Amazon, Advanced Autoparts) and they no longer sell them or the person I talked to had no idea that 6 volt car batteries even existed. Tractor Supply still sells them but all nearby stores are out of stock and don't know when they will receive them. Searching online for 6 volt batteries yields a lot of batteries for children's riding toys and game cameras.

Any suggestions where to look (in these times of social distancing) or what search criteria I should be using?

Thanks

[CudaMan]

Just ask for a Group 1 6V battery. I got the one I have now at Auto Zone. The one before that I got at CarQuest.

I believe that Tractor Supply also carries them.

[walber]

NAPA usually has them, I've also seen them at Batteries+Bulbs.

[Erik Johnson]

Looks like your local O'Reilly Auto Parts carries what you need. If they don't have it in stock, you can probably order one.

For example, it shows as being in stock at the Wylie location.

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/b/fl ... 2454?pos=1

[Marty Bufalini]

Tractor Supply usually has them.

[Tim Rogers]

It's a myth that group 1 six volt batteries are hard to come by- any place that sells batteries have them.

group1.jpg (11.07 KiB) Viewed 7469 times

[TRDxB2]

Just did a search Tractor Supply around LUCAS TX they have one in stock I believe. Also the price there is $15 more than the nearest Tractor Supply to me 40 miles away - You may need to ask for SKU#132347299 maybe order on-line for pick up

[John kuehn]

Wow! Somebody at the battery store doesn’t know what their talking about not knowing about 6 volt batteries. The TSC where I buy my farm batteries has them all the time. Orileys has them and Auto Zone usually does. I just buy the 6 volt batteries I need for my T’s and Ford tractor at TSC because the always have them.

If you ask the store for a battery for a Model T they won’t know what your talking about or it will make their head spin.

As others have said ask for a 6 volt Group 1 battery. Hopefully they can understand that.

[BobShirleyAtlantaTx]

If you buy an Optima 6 volt battery you’ll be set for years. I’ve got some that are from 2012 and work like new.

[Norman Kling]

I have bought them at NAPA. They usually have to order them and I have to wait a day or two. More recently I have used Auto Zone and they have them in stock. I can walk right in and buy one.
Norm

[Steve Jelf]

...or the person I talked to had no idea that 6 volt car batteries even existed.

Bingo! The kid at the local Orscheln farm supply told me six volt batteries are only for tractors, not cars or trucks. So I bought a six volt "tractor" battery and put it in my car.

[DHort]

You can get an Optima battery at Walmart, Oreily, Amazon, or Batteries plus. I know they are about $200, but you can lay them sideways, straight up, upside down, or carry it on your head. They do not leak. They should last longer than a regular battery. I have had mine only about 3 years, so do not know how long they last. I have never put a charger on them thru the winter and car starts right up.

[Tim Moore]

Yes they are usually available but this last weekend I also needed one for my Ford Jubilee tractor. For some reason it was hard to find a 6volt as none were available. I bought an 8 volt at Family Farm.

I don't know how it will charge or how the lights will work but my tractor buddies all swear by them. The store told me if I need to change it just hook up the 6 volt charger on low amps. Maybe somebody here can explain it to me.

I was in a time pinch as the tractor went off on a flat bed yesterday. It has no brakes and bad seals and bearing in the rear end. When younger I would have done this but with new and loaded rear tires (and not so good back) not interested. I already had a Farmall fall on me while putting on rear weights and pinned me to the ground.

6 volts seem to be hard to find right now locally. I really hate the empty space where the tractor sits, it is a "Golden Jubilee", 50th anniversary of Ford Motor Company and serial number 00018, the earliest know Jubilee. Not quite a 2 lever 1909 T but I like it.

[Tim Moore]

Charge it not change it, damn phone.

[Steve Jelf]

Tim, you can edit your post and make corrections.

Just click on the pencil at the top of the post.

[StanHowe]

Well, this is farm country Montana and the girl at Batteries Plus when I called them quoted me $110 + a core for a group 1 6 volt that two or 3 years ago when I bought a bunch of them for some equipment of mine as well as a bunch of old tractors, pickups and cars we had in an auction were 62 bucks. She actually was pretty sharp, told me they had two small six volt batteries, group 1 and group 2 and that the group 2 was larger physically and had more cold crank amps and was an additional 7 bucks. I told her I had an account, she looked me up and said my cost was $85 and 92. But they only had 2 group 1 and no group 2 in stock so I checked with North 40 outfitters in Great Falls, they carry Deka which are pretty good batteries, probably made by Johnson Control since they say Made in USA in big letters.

I loaded up my S-10 with cores, went to Great Falls and got 7 of them; they must be pretty popular because they were all made within the last 30 days. Warranty is replacement for a year, you own it after that. $60 each, I bought 7. $420. Nice kid marked a date on them, went to the parking lot and brought my pickup to the door, loaded the cores on his cart, loaded the batteries in the pickup, asked me what I had for tractors or old trucks, said his grampa has a 51 Ford pickup and a Model T along with an 8N Ford tractor that use those. Asked him his grampa's name because this is Montana where everybody knows every body. He told me and I said to tell him hello, I sold him the 8N at an auction several years ago or at least one like it. Kid said "Yeah, I thought that's who you were, I'll tell Grampa I told you hello."

Then I told him the batteries were: One for my 27 Coupe, one for Savanna's 48 CJ2A, one for a 47 CJ2A, one for my 52 Chevy truck, one for my Earthmaster, one for a 9N, one for a 641 Ford and they all have a home. I still have a couple other tractors that need them but $420 was enough for one day.

Told him to come down to our haying/old trucks/old tractors/old cars/hotdogs and Lemonade day this summer and bring Grampa's T and his 51 Ford pickup and watch my Allis Chalmers Rotobaler work and see my JD116 W wire tie baler that puts the bales out the side bale hay, take some videos of the IHC 47 B that makes small square bales and join us for the tractor parade around the ranch, across the creek and up over the railroad tracks and around a couple miles of dirt roads and back. He gave me his phone number and email, I gave him a card with my info and went and got Chinese food and came home.

Farm country. Before I bought 7 of them they had 19 group 1 6 volt batteries in stock in their two huge stores in Great Falls.

[DontKnowMuch]

Thanks for all of the responses. I did find several batteries "on the shelf" at Tractor Supply stores near me but they were at least 6 months old already. Others said their batteries do not even have a manufacturing date on them. Walmart will not let you check inventory over the phone and several Walmart auto centers are still closed in our area. Several stores mentioned in posts above show them in inventory but do not actually have any in stock. Others said they are on order but they have no way of knowing when they will show up.

As mentioned, prices have increased and warranties have decreased in time since my last purchase. The sticker shock of Optima batteries has not sunk in yet.

Thanks again for the responses. I will keep checking on local supplies to arrive.

[StanHowe]

I assume you know that Deka batteries are made in East Penn, Texas. Their corporate offices are in Cleburne.

[Ron Patterson]

When buying a new 6 volt battery always take your voltmeter along and ensure the battery reads at least 6.35 volts.
If it doesn't it has been sitting on the shelf for a while and I would not buy it.

[JohnH]

The 6V Red Top Optima I bought was worth the extra cost. Not just for being maintenance free and having a low rate of self discharge, but the cranking current is noticeably higher. That is to say, it has a lower internal resistance than the usual flooded lead acid battery. Plenty of online suppliers for them too. I'm expecting to get about twice the life out of it, so in effect it isn't really costing any more.

[Duey_C]

Neat thread James. Good information.
Just be certain to clarify group 1 when ordering at some stores. I ordered a 6 volt battery at the local NAPA for the Runabout.
What was sent was a group 2. I would've ate the hundred bucks as they can't return them but the parts guy is a fireman and they needed a group 2 for the '35 Chevrolet parade truck.
I'd like to try an Optima.
Tim, as I understand it, an 8 volt works just fine in a 6 volt machine without any hoo-hah or changes. Never done it but have seen many many 4 cap batteries in tractors etc. Hope that tiny bit helps.

[TRDxB2]

Putting aside Brand choices and battery technology (Flooded, AGM, Spiral, Lithium) for a minute and focus on the type of battery needed based on how the car is started and driven. For example: Starting and Cranking batteries are designed to crank over an engine to get it started. They provide a powerful short burst of energy but are not designed to provide power for a long period of time. They are also not designed to be discharged and recharged often. Typical car battery; Deep Cycle Batteries are designed to provide a small amount of power for a longer period of time. They are definitely not designed to crank over an engine. They can be charged and discharged more often. The choice for electric golf carts. RV/Marine "Deep Cycle" Battery: These are a cross between a Cranking and true Deep Cycle Battery. They can provide enough short burst energy to start the engine and to provide power to the house portion of the RV for longer periods of time than a Cranking Battery but not as long as a true Deep Cycle Battery. It can also be discharged and recharged more often than a Cranking Battery but will not last as long as a true Deep Cycle Battery.
So how you start your T (starter, on battery, mag), run it (battery, mag, generator), and electrical lights etc should influence your choice. Another factor that is most often referenced as a choice is CCA, cold cranking amps. CCA is a measure of the battery’s ability to start an engine at certain temperatures, usually ranging between 30-32 degrees Fahrenheit. So if you use your T in a cold climate its a consideration. The real measure of a battery's capacity is Ah, ampere hours, which represents the battery operation threshold, which can be used to calculate how long the battery might be able to last without recharging.
There is There is no correlation between the CCA and Ah. Therefore you can’t convert it directly to get the exact value. However, you can use a rule of thumb value for most batteries, even if it’s not an exact value, depending on the battery. The rule of thumb for converting CCA to Ah is dividing it by a 7.25 constant. example 725 CCA = 100 Ah. Now battery discharging is not linear so if you would draw 5amps of the battery it will go dead in less than 20 hours

[Steve Jelf]

When I got my 1951 Dodge truck about thirty years ago it had an eight volt battery in it. It was dead and I replaced it with a proper six volt from the local farm supply. It's had six volts ever since, and that works fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvVHSBgnaxE

[StanHowe]

Interesting. My deal is "buy the dealer."
North 40 was the only place that had 7 of them in stock (actually they had 19 in great falls + more in Havre)
They are the biggest farm stores in the state for a reason.
They have inventory, fair prices and take care of problems locally and on the spot.
Not true of a couple other places we've dealt with.
For 60 bucks I'm not expecting ten years of service, I'm expecting a couple years.
I don't care what you buy, where you buy it or anything else but these batteries were all dated either April 2020 or May 2020.
I put one in a Jeep that hadn't been started for thirty years, dumped some gas down the carb, cranked on it for probably 20 minutes today to get it started, finally fired up, the battery didn't go dead.
That's good enough for me.
My 27 coupe will get one, two Jeep's and two tractors got one, I'm busy, I don't have time to fool with things and trying to save fifty cents.

[StanHowe]

It's also true that I have at last count 23 tractors ranging from a little garden tractor built in the 50's from Model A parts to a Ford 4000 diesel, a Swather, two engine power balers, 5 or 6 motorcycles, two farm trucks, 5 pickups and two cars. I go through a lot of batteries + we put a new battery in nearly every vehicle at auctions.
My take on it is "Buy the Dealer." If they won't stand behind their batteries find one who will.
We do not do business with NAPA or Interstate.

[StanHowe]

I just bought a new Woods 7 foot disk yesterday to break up some hayfields.
I talked to Ken at Hoven Equipment, he gave me a price and it's on a truck headed this way.
I didn't even check with anybody else.
I don't have time and I don't like buying new junk.
Woods=USA made,

[D Stroud]

Tim, you can edit your post and make corrections.


Screen Shot 2020-05-06 at 9.41.01 PM.png
Just click on the pencil at the top of the post.

Stee, how do you find that "pencil"? All my screen has is the exclamation point an the "quote" thingy. Dave

[D Stroud]

Found it! dave

[TWrenn]

Steve, I sure hope the idiot at your local farm store isn't allowed to VOTE!!
Man there's a lot of stupid out there.

[StanHowe]

The edit feature only works if there have been no replies.
This site has more rules than a first grade teacher has about using the restroom.

[Steve Jelf]

Man there's a lot of stupid out there.

In this case I think it was just ignorance—a young guy who had never seen a six volt car.

The edit feature only works if there have been no replies.

I'm editing this with no replies. I can't edit other people's posts, but I can edit my own whether there are replies or not.

[John kuehn]

In defense of the younger guy he probably hasn’t been taught or been around long enough to know about older vehicles that use 6 volt battery.
You have to remember we have a upcoming generation that thinks New Mexico is another country and some of their teachers probably think the same thing.

[Steve Jelf]

You have to remember we have a[n] upcoming generation that thinks New Mexico is another country and some of their teachers probably think the same thing.

For many years New Mexico license plates had New Mexico USA on them because so many people thought it was a foreign country. New Mexico magazine had a feature called "One of Our States is Missing" that once told of an Ivy League dean (!!!) writing to the University of New Mexico asking if students attending summer school there would need visas.