Vintage Motor Scooter Battery Charging and options

[motoretro]

Gotcha,
Due to our very cold weather(MI) I usually bring my sealed 12V units inside and store them in the basement, charging them once a month with a 2 amp charger, this has worked well for me through the years. With the un-sealed 6V, I'd rather not hook up a tender to it while in the basement. The bench in the garage is the closest spot to a wall outlet, plus I'm concerned it may freeze if taken off a tender in colder temps.
Motoretro

Originally Posted by redprimo

The 6v batteries I get are shipped to me dry and then I add the acid and charge them up. I pull the caps off for the initial charge and after that for maintenance charging I leave the caps on and let it vent through the vent tube. Ive not had any problems doing this, but I also don't have my batteries charging below my welding bench.

[S/W]

When I was just out of High School in the late sixties, my first job was in an auto electric shop. There were still a lot of cars running around with 6 volt systems left over from the 50's. The boss made sure I understood that I had to use heavier gauge battery cable for the six volt systems,as the lower voltage needs more conductor because the amperage is higher for the same power.

[fullmetalscooter]

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-LC-R...ges/B009DKCX62

will one of these unit do? I had 12 volt one and there was no issues beyond making up a leads to the battery . seal units.

[motoretro]

Juice wise, it should do the job although I've not been able to determine the current draw on this scooter's strange starting system. I think you have to look at the intended purpose of these batteries and if the connectors or imbedded wiring are sufficient to withstand the current draw of the starting system. At this point, I picked up a old school non-sealed battery and will duplicate the factory wiring to at least do some trouble shooting. An adapter for the battery box would be very easy on this scooter and I have LOTS of room under the sheet metal. If I can determine if the battery from your link or something similar with the spade connectors or imbedded wiring would suffice, I would definitely utilize one.
thanks,
Motoretro

Originally Posted by fullmetalscooter

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-LC-R...ges/B009DKCX62

will one of these unit do? I had 12 volt one and there was no issues beyond making up a leads to the battery . seal units.

[JerryH]

That is a beautiful old scooter. I don't think I have ever seen one of those before. If it has no electric starter, it should be easy to convert it to 12V and keep the 6V electrics with a step down transformer. It most likely will need to be a motorcycle/scooter battery, the headlight can still draw quite a bit of current.

But, you can charge an old style flooded battery without removing the caps, as long as you don't try to charge it to fast, which can damage the battery anyway, they do have a vent. My Genuine Stella is 12V, but it came with an old fashioned flooded battery. It is still holding up, so I have not replaced it. I keep it in my living room with a Deltran battery tender hooked to it, with the battery in the scooter, and all the covers on. I have a pigtail wired to the battery, and just unplug it and plug it back in when I ride it. I have 2 other scooters in the same room hooked up the same way, but with sealed batteries. I would only charge it outside or in the garage, but a battery tender does not have enough power to hurt anything, even if the battery shorts out. They automatically shut off if that happens.