Automotive Tires Used To Be White...It's True !

In the beginning, all automotive tires were an off white, almost a light gray in color. That is because early automotive tires were made from the milky white juice of the rubber plant. Common dandelions also produce this same juice called latex... if you snap off their stems, you can see the same milky white latex.

In theory, you could manufacture rubber by growing and harvesting dandelions, though you'd need a bunch of them. There are about 200 plants in the world that produce the same milky white colored latex used to manufacture rubber. Because of efficiency nearly all of the worlds rubber is made from the latex that comes from a tree species called Hevea Brasiliensis, which is most often referred to as a rubber tree.

The latex collected from the rubber tree is about one third water and one third latex particles held in a form known as a colloidal suspension.

Early tires made of natural rubber had thin soft sidewalls and with little to no tread pattern were subject to multiple punctures. Also traction was limited with a nearly smooth driving surface.

Along about 1910 zinc oxide was added to the natural rubber formula to give the tires more overall strength. It also took away the gray color resulting in a brighter white tire. All was good until 1914 at the start of World War I when zinc oxide was needed in the munitions industry where it was used as a propellant. The US Government required that all zinc oxide be available for the war.

Carbon Black Under A Microscope

The tire manufactures had to find a replacement, and that turned out to be carbon black. The true rubber-strengthening benefits of carbon black were discovered in 1910 by S.C. Mote, a chemist for the Silvertown, England-based India Rubber, Company.

“It wasn’t until 1912, that this ingredient was used in the manufacturing of automobile tires by the Diamond Rubber Co. of Akron, Ohio, which had acquired the rights to the use of the material from Mote’s company.

Tires without carbon black in the formula would typically last no more than 5,000 miles, while a tire with carbon black would last between 12,000 and 15,000 miles. The carbon black strengthened the sidewalls to help prevent punctures, extended the tread life by providing greater wear resistance, offered better traction, and protection from ultraviolet light damage.

By 1917 most all automobile tires were manufactured using carbon black in the formula, which changed the color of automobile tires from white to black.That of course created a huge demand for carbon black, which resulted in an unlikely alliance between two companies the B.F. Goodrich Company and the Binney and Smith Company founder of the Crayola Crayons.

B. F. Goodrich put out an order for a company that could deliver  one million pounds of carbon black annually. Who answered the call...none other than the Binney and Smith Company the maker of Crayola crayons.

The Binney and Smith Company was, named after Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith. These two, were the son and nephew, respectively, of Joseph Binney, founder of New York-based Peekskill Chemical Works, which sold charcoal and lamp black, a deep black powder obtained by collecting soot deposits from burning oil. It was used to make pigments for paint and printing inks.

After Joseph retired, the company became known for it's red oxide barn paint, which became popular all across the United States. After the turn of the century, Binney & Smith introduced innovations like dustless chalk for classrooms and affordable crayons branded “Crayola.” that we all grew up with. By now Binney & Smith had also become a world leader in the production of natural gas-based carbon black, (which replaced lamp black) mainly used to manufacture printing ink for newspapers. That was about to change.

Binney and Smith even made improvements to the carbon black manufacturing processes via patents including Edwin Binney’s 1890 “apparatus for the manufacture of carbon-black.” These improvements in the production process, made the production of carbon black more efficient and cost effective. The timing couldn't have been better as it matched the huge discovery of natural gas and oil in Pennsylvania.

What Is Carbon Black Anyway...?

Carbon black is the result of a hydrocarbon that has gone through incomplete combustion, and whose “smoke” has been captured as fine black particles consisting almost entirely of the element carbon. An automotive tire rubber formula is made up of 25 to 30 percent carbon black, even today. Because of demand which exceeds the natural rubber production manufactured from plants...much of the carbon black used in tire formula's today is petroleum based.

Carbon black has been manufactured in a number of different ways over the years.  One of the oldest processes involves allowing a flame from an oil lamp to impinge upon a cool surface, and for the resulting powdery soot from that surface to be scraped off. That powdery soot was called lamp black, and was used in the manufacturing of paint and  printing ink.

But in the 1870s, came a breakthrough called the channel process. Essentially, it involved burning natural gas up against water-cooled H-shaped metal channels, and collecting the carbon deposits. This new process, and specifically the finer particles it yielded, was an important step in yielding stronger tires for the auto industry.

Today, the primary method of obtaining carbon black is called the “furnace process,” which involves taking a heavy oil or natural gas feedstock, and injecting it into a furnace wherein natural gas and pre-heated air have combusted. The high temperatures of this reaction cause the feedstock to “crack” and turn into smoke, which is cooled by water and filtered out as tiny carbon black particles from the gas. The resulting fine powder is then formed into pellets via water and a binding agent for easier handling and transport.

The White Wall Tire...

A short time after the B. F. Goodrich Company introduced their modern up to date "Black Tire" made with the new carbon black rubber formula, a competing tire company also jumped on the carbon black bandwagon, but only added the carbon black to the tread surface, resulting in a considerable cost savings. The result? Black tread and white sidewalls.

While the white wall tire wasn't intended to be a style enhancer, it quickly caught on and other tire companies began producing purpose-built white wall tires. By the 1920's, white wall tires became a popular accessory on high end luxury cars. More conservative car manufacturers didn't adopt white wall tires as a factory option until the 1930's with Ford introducing the white wall tire option in 1934.

White walls continued to be a popular option for passenger cars, only pausing briefly for World War II and the Korean War, due to materials shortage. White walls were offered by most all of the major tire companies as an option, so you could be in style even if you didn't drive a new car, and that lead to Porta Walls...

Porta Walls...

If your budget was a little tight and you could not afford to go and buy a new set of white wall tires, but you still wanted to be in style you could order a set of Porta Walls.

Porta Walls were white  rubber rings that fit under the tire bead and were glued onto the sidewall to give the appearance of a white wall tire a minimal cost. They worked... with a few minor details... the biggest one being that if you went around a corner to fast the tire would flex and the Porta Wall would come loose from under the tire bead of the tire rim...and roll out ahead of you.

Therefore it was common to buy more than one set of Porta Walls at a time, so when you lost one you had a replacement. It was not "cool" to drive around with three white wall tires and one black  wall tire because everybody then knew your white walls were fake!  The J. C. Whitney Company offered Porta Walls, as did most of the  automotive aftermarket accessory companies of the day.

Porta Walls were a cost effective option if you were on a budget. You could get a set of Porta Walls for $3.95 vs $175.00 for a new set of White Wall tires.

The width of white walls changed over the years from the skinny half inch wide to the four inch white wall, and everything in between. Most any width is now available to match the width of white wall that was popular when your antique vehicle was new.

 Your whitewall tire combination was not complete until you went by the local Standard Oil Station and got a set of the Red Crown valve stem caps, (which you can still buy today, in the "parts" section of the Fifth Avenue website). Then life was good!

You Can by these in the "parts" section of the Fifth Avenue website.




So...What Happened To All Of The Tire Manufacturers...?

Fisk - failed during the depression, was then bought by US Rubber  also known as Uniroyal, which was then bought by Michelin in 1990.

Kelly Springfield was started in 1884, sold in 1935 to Goodyear, which dissolved the entity of Kelly Springfield around 1990.

Lee Tire and Rubber lasted from 1909 to 1987, bought by Kelly.

Firestone opened for business in 1900; Firestone bought Dayton Tires in 1961,  the Dayco Corporation, later sued both Firestone and Goodyear, alleging that the two companies conspired to monopolize the tire industry in the United States. Firestone sold out to Bridgestone in 1988.

General Tire expanded and diversified into cold war era military subcontracting, until it was forced to sell what by now were no longer their core functions. General tire sold the tire division to German tire manufacturer Continental in the 1960's.

BF Goodrich was a subsidy of Goodrich, and was sold to Michelin in 1990. BF Goodrich was the first American tire manufacturer to make radial tires.

Goodyear was founded in 1898, and in 1999 Goodyear announced a $1-billion global alliance with Japan's Sumitomo Rubber Industries, which has rights to the Dunlop tire brand.

Cooper tires was formed around 1920, and bought Avon in 1997, then Mickey Thompson tires in 2003, and merged with Mexican tire manufacturer Corporación de Occidente SA de CV soon after.

Cooper Tire owns Avon, Dean, Eldorado, Mastercraft, Mentor Starfire, Definity, Roadmaster, Mickey Thompson, Dick Cepek, Chengshan, Austone, Fortune, Hercules and Ironman.

Hoosier tires was the last independent tire maker... but sold out to Continental tire for 140 million dollars in 2016.

As Paul Harvey used to say...." and now you know the rest of the story...."


More Tire Trivia....

Did you know that the Gates Corporation of belt and hose fame got their start making a tire accessory...? From the company's 100th anniversary book we learn...

Gates Corporation History

On October 1, 1911, Charles Gates, Sr. purchased the Colorado Tire and Leather Company located in southern Denver beside the South Platte River. Little did he know at the time that his small shop would one day become the world’s largest manufacturer of power transmission belts and a leader in hydraulic and fluid power products for industrial and automotive applications.

The Colorado Tire and Leather Company made a single product, the Durable Tread, a steel-studded band of leather that motorists attached to tires to extend their mileage. In 1917, the Company began phasing out leather in favor of rubber, and Charles Gates changed its name to the International Rubber Company.

That same year, John Gates, Charles’ brother, developed a belt made of rubber and woven threading. It was called a V-belt, due to the shape it sat in on an engine block. It replaced the standard hemp and rope belt found in automobiles and on industrial machinery, and was a model for the common serpentine belt. The belt’s success propelled the company to become the world's largest manufacturer of V-belts, a title it still holds.

And Still More....

Ohio and New Jersey were the two states were most of the tires were manufactured prior to 1925. Much like car manufacturers during the early years of the automobile, there were plenty of tire manufacturers, many who were in business for just a few years. Eventually the little companies disappeared... as they either were bought up by the larger manufacturers,  or failed due to the depression or being under capitalized and not able to keep up with the technology.  So here is the list...see how many you recognize.

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What Kind Of Antifreeze To Use In Your Antique Vehicle...

It used to be simple in the old days...all of the antifreeze coolant was basically the same and varied little in price. It usually came down to what was available or what brand was on sale. Not Any More.

Now there are literally dozens of formula's and multiple colors to choose from. So what kind of modern antifreeze should you be using in you antique and more important what kind of antifreeze should you NOT be using in your antique vehicle.

First the Basics...

There are three basic antifreeze technologies in use today, they are as follows....

IAT: Inorganic Acid Technology is the traditional green colored antifreeze that is the closest formula to what antifreeze was prior to the 1980's. The lifespan of traditional coolant is about three to five years. This formula is the antifreeze we want to use in our antique vehicles.

 OAT: Organic Acid Technology is used today because it offers silicate-free protection of all metals, and for a longer period of time: it’s the long life (LLC) or extended life (ELC) coolant and has a service life of five years or 150,000 miles.

Colors in the United States are mostly red and orange, but also green, pink and blue. (modern cooling systems are made up of a variety of different metals and alloys and this formula is designed to not damage the various metal alloys that make up a modern cooling system. This formula has some aggressive cleaning properties that will damage our antique vehicle cooling systems. DO NOT use an OAT formula antifreeze in your antique vehicle.

HOAT: Hybrid Organic Acid Technology. This formula is usually orange, but can also be red or yellow. This formula is a mixture of IAT and OAT, the orange cocktail – and only the orange color -- contains 10 percent recycled coolant. We need to stay away from this formula because is basically a diluted version of the OAT formula.

We need to avoid using both OAT and HOAT type antifreeze.  Even though it is designed for a "longer service life" we shouldn’t use it. The OAT formula includes an inhibitor that attacks silicone compounds that are frequently used in gasket sealants.  In addition, this formula also goes after lead based products like solder and Babbitt material (used in early connecting rod bearings), some yellow metals that may be in cam bearings and radiators, and conventional gasket and seal type packing materials used in some early water pumps.  Your antique vehicle likely contains some, or all of these materials, so using OAT formula antifreeze will eventually result in an expensive headache down the road.  You want to be using only an IAT formula antifreeze in your antique vehicle.

Many early antique vehicles have “open” cooling systems, where the radiator cap doesn’t completely seal the system. This allows for water evaporation, slowly decreasing the amount of water in the cooling system and increasing the amount of antifreeze coolant in the cooling system. The water that is mixed with the antifreeze is what evaporates which can cause you to end up with a higher concentration of antifreeze than the original 50/50 mix. That can cause engine over heating.

Around World War II, automakers began manufacturing cars with a sealed, pressurized cooling system. Not only did that stop evaporation, but for every pound of pressure built into the cooling system the boiling point of the coolant was raised by three degrees (F). As manufacturing quality improved, higher pressures became more common. By the late fifties a seven pound radiator pressure cap was common, which raised the boiling point of the coolant inside the radiator twenty one degrees.

With the addition of coolant recovery tanks in the 1960's life got even better. Now the cooling system was completely sealed from the outside air and dirt and any coolant that boiled over was caught in the coolant over flow tank, which was then drawn back into the radiator as the engine cooled. That solved the problem of air being trapped in the cooling system, and stopped the loss of coolant completely.

Cars and trucks built prior to 1950 were designed to use plain water as the coolant in the summer months and antifreeze only in the winter, in part because there was no such thing as permanent anti freeze in those days. Wood alcohol (methyl alcohol) was the first commercially available antifreeze formula, but its high rate of evaporation (if you did not drain it out in the summer months and replace it with water it would simply evaporate away...) and it's corrosive qualities led to it's eventual replacement by ethylene glycol, which was a year around antifreeze that became the standard up thru the 1980's.

Keep in mind...the antifreeze itself provides no direct cooling benefit. It is there to prevent the water from freezing, and to keep the inside of the cooling system clean so it can work at its most efficient.

That is why using plain distilled water along with a pint of rust inhibitor / water pump lubricant works so well in cars built before 1950. Most early cooling systems were designed to use plain water during the summer and antifreeze in the winter months (hence the name). Typically a early pre 1950's antique vehicle with plain water in the cooling system will run fifteen to twenty degrees cooler that the same antique vehicle with a 50/50 mix of antifreeze and water. Now you know why.

The radiator tubes in antique vehicles built prior to the 1940's are smaller in diameter as are the water passages in the engine block. That is why when you add a 50/50 mixture of modern antifreeze and water to an antique vehicle it often times will run hotter compared to using straight water. The circulation of coolant is slowed down with the addition of the thicker antifreeze.

When shopping for antifreeze, begin by reading the label to make sure it’s an IAT  formula for older cars. You’ll likely find it to be green, the original color for traditional antifreeze. So when you look inside the radiator of your antique vehicle if you see green, chances are your antifreeze is of the IAT formula.

The next question is whether the antifreeze in your classic vehicle is still able to do its job, which is keep the inside of the cooling system clean. Color is a good starting indicator. Remember.... green is good, brown is bad. Brown means some of the the corrosion inhibitors  in your antifreeze formula have broken down and are no longer able to keep the inside of your cooling system clean. Its time for a flush, and fresh antifreeze.

Next up you need to check your freeze protection. You can buy an inexpensive antifreeze tester (at any local auto parts store) and test the antifreeze in your cooling system to determine whether it’s still appropriately diluted for the protection you need. Generally, the best dilution is 50 percent water and 50 percent antifreeze will give you freeze protection down to minus 40 degrees. By taking a sample of the antifreeze from your cooling system you will know for certain what your freeze protection is.

                           

Examples Of Inexpensive Antifreeze Coolant Testers...

You can buy pre-diluted antifreeze for almost the same cost as regular antifreeze. It is the way to go because it is made with the distilled water and you do not have to mix anything, just open the jug and poor it in your cooling system. It will also be easier if you have to add coolant later on, you will always have the proper mixture on hand.




 A good flush at five-year intervals will keep your cooling components clean and working at their optimum potential. It is always a good idea to put a tag somewhere near your radiator cap with the date of the last flush and antifreeze replacement, and your freeze protection number. You should check your coolant level several times during a season to be sure you are not loosing any coolant.

The corrosion inhibitors in antifreeze will break down over time, which is why you should change it periodically.

If you cooling system needs a good cleaning Thermocure is what you need. It is available in the Parts section of the Fifth Avenue website under "cooling". There is also a Garage Tech "Tech Article" on this product an how it works. Just type in Thermocure in the search box on the of the Garage Tech Home page, and the article will magically appear.
 
The search box looks like this...

One other option is to upgrade to Evans Coolant which is a lifetime coolant that freezes at minus 80 and boils at 370 degrees with no pressure in the cooling  system and is non-corrosive. It is more expensive initially as compared to conventional antifreeze, but it is a lifetime coolant so in the long run you get better protection and zero maintaince for the life of the vehicle.

 Evans Coolant is what we have been using in the Great Race cars since 1993 with good success. It is a lifetime coolant you only have to put it in once and it is non-corrosive and works especially well in antique vehicle cooling systems because it requires no pressure in the cooling system to work.

In Summary
Just remember green is good... and be sure to read the back of the antifreeze container carefully.  You want only the IAT formula! 

You want to stay away from the long life formula, the OAT formula and the HOAT formula. Those are formulas for the modern vehicle with the alloy metals and have additives that will damage our early cooling systems. Follow these rules and life will be good!

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The Penalty Of Leadership

I have a confession to make. People say I am a little eccentric in my thinking, and that is likely true. But I am a product of my youth and hanging out in all of the old automotive repair garages and car dealerships may have warped my young mind. Early on... I learned to figure out exactly how a part functions and to pay little or no attention to it's assigned application. More important was how the part functioned and what it was capable of and not the application the part was built for. Let me explain...

When I was about 14 years young, I learned from an old time mechanic (who lived and worked thru the depression) that is was more important to truly understood the function of a part and how it worked, over what the original application was. He drilled that idea into my young brain and unlike many other things, it stuck.

One of my first lessons occurred in his shop. He sent me over to sharpen a drill bit after casually explaining that two hexagon nuts held together will give you the correct angle to sharpen a drill bit within a couple of degrees. That explained the two 5/8 nuts sitting beside the bench grinder.) So I go over to his bench grinder and I can't find the switch to turn it on. "Look on the floor he says...see the dimmer switch inside that electrical box...step on it!" I did and the grinder took off. Who would have thought...?

I knew that this would result in yet another lesson. It did... but it was a good one about how an automotive floor dimmer switch worked and that there were two switches, one for High Beam and one for Low Beam and if one side burns out, the other side is usually still good.

So he used the good side of the dimmer switch to turn on his grinder, so if his hands were full he could still easily turn the grinder off an on! So simple and brilliant but I would have never figured that out on my own and looking back I had thrown out plenty of dimmer switches that had one side burnt out from my old Chevy pickups. I just did what everyone else did... and threw them out when one side quit working.

I got many more lessons from him during my younger years and all my lessons were all like that, he made it seem so obvious that eventually I began to think like he did, on my own.

That came in handy when I began to work on building a 6-volt alternator.  I had experienced enough hard starting, yellowish dim headlights and dead batteries to last a lifetime. Due in part to my early education I knew how a generator charging system worked, that a generator did not charge at idle and low rpm, which was the reason for the dim headlights, hard starting, and dead batteries.
I learned that I needed to drive ten miles at highway speeds in order to give a generator charging system enough time to recharge the battery from one start.

In contrast... I knew that an alternator did charge at idle and low rpm, and that is why the lights were always bright, there was no hard starting or dead batteries with modern alternator charging systems.

So that is why it made perfect sense to me, to apply modern technology in reverse to fix a 6-volt electrical system.

All of the experts and engineer types I talked with, said I was crazy and to stop waisting my time and theirs. But I knew that if I could build an alternator for a 6-volt electrical system that worked as good as it did on a 12-volt system, my life and everyone else who owned a 6-volt vehicle, would have a much better life. It took about two years to figure it all out and to make my alternators manufacturing friendly. But I knew I was on the right track. There was no doubt in my mind!

Because there was no such thing as a 6-volt alternator before I came along I had two strikes against me as I began offering my 6-volt alternators for sale. First off, there was no such thing as a 6-volt alternator, till I came along, and second, the only proof I had that my 6-volt alternator actually worked... was that it worked on my 1951 Chevy Pickup.

So that is when I got involved with the Great Race. I needed some way to advertise my 6-volt alternators and I figured seeing is believing. I knew if my alternators worked in the Great Race application they would work on any other 6-volt vehicle application.

They did... and I got free advertising all across the county as antique car owners talked to the Great Race entrants who were only to happy to explain how my 6-volt alternator fixed their electrical problems. That is how I found Howard Sharp of Fairport New York which I still sponsor today, some 30 years later! Howard is my best spokesman and salesman. His three Great Race first place finishes give him plenty of credibility.

Meanwhile...despite the help from the Great Race, I truly felt like the odd man out for the first five years of selling my 6-volt alternators. I knew they worked, The Great Race teams proved they worked, and they had been featured in numerous car magazines but still it was an odd concept. It took a few more years before antique vehicle owners finally "got it."

Meanwhile...the Great Racers came back to me and said..." you did such a great job fixing our electrical issues, why don't you work on our cooling and fuel issues?" I accepted the challenge, figuring it had to be easier than the electrical.

It wasn't... but I figured out a solution to both the cooling and the fuel system issues, I knew exactly what the problems were... because I had witnessed them first hand, and I knew how to find a solution. I now manufacture over 40 specialized products to make all types of antique vehicles more reliable and fun to drive.

Today... thirty years later I am still involved in the Great Race, and still learning. I now have my 6-volt alternators in 23 foreign countries besides the United States and Canada. I remember how happy I was when I sold my first 6-volt alternator to a customer in Oklahoma...across the state line. I only sold about 40 alternators my first year, all in the state of Kansas, with that one exception. I thought I was finally on my way.  Now some 30 years and more than ten thousand 6-volt alternators later, my 6-volt alternators are recognized around the world.

Right after I got my 6-volt alternator done and into production, I found this advertisement from General Motors Cadillac division dated 1915. It kind of put things in perspective.

The Penalty of Leadership
In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the punishment are always the same. 

The reward is widespread recognition, the punishment fierce denial and detraction. When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. 

If his work is merely mediocre, he will be left severely alone. If he achieves a masterpiece it will set a million tongues wagging. Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a common-place painting. Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build; no one will strive to surpass or to slander you unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius.

Long after a great work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious continue to cry out that it cannot be done. Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistler as a mountebank, long after the big world had acclaimed him its greatest artistic genius. Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to worship at the musical shrine of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all. 

The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never build a steamboat, while the big world flocked to the river banks to see his boat steam by. The Leader is assailed because he is a Leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy, but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant. 

There is nothing new in this, it is as old as the world and as old as the human passions of envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing. If the leader truly leads, he remains the leader. Master Poet, Master Painter, Master Workman; each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. That which is great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial. That which deserves to live, Lives. ©Copyright 1915 Cadillac Motor Division.

In the end the goal that I set for myself when I was twenty, had finally been reached. My goal was to learn how to make all types of antique vehicles more reliable and fun to drive. What I have learned preparing cars entered in the Great Race every year for thirty years, has taught me just that, and what I learned, I have applied to all types of antique vehicles to make them more reliable and fun to drive.



Bud Melby was my first Great Race customer in 1989, and became a good friend and mentor to me. He often said... "your legacy is the only thing you will leave behind, and you will be remembered not for how much money you had, or how big of a house you lived in, or how many antique cars you collected. Your legacy will be what you did to make the world a better place.

You legacy is built on the fact that you invented something, designed something, or improved something, that had a positive impact and benefit to the people who bought and used what you have created. Bud said..." your 6-volt alternators are an example of that... you improved the electrical system of my 1936 Cord making it more reliable and fun to drive. You changed the whole personality of that car for the better. I was not prepared for that much of an improvement from your 6-volt alternator. You exceeded my expectations. That will be your legacy with me, and everyone else that buys one of your alternators..."

 I confess, I did not understand all of that legacy business when I was in my twenties, but now forty years later... it has become crystal clear. Thanks Bud!

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Battery Tenders...What Kind To Buy...

I get asked fairly often about battery tenders, and what kind we use on the cars entered in the Great Race. Well... we have used the same brand for the past 30 years simply because they work. We have tried about every brand, the cheaper to the more expensive but have always come back to the Battery Tender brand because they are simple, they are durable, and they work.

First off we need to talk about why you should use a battery tender in the first place. A battery tender will keep your battery fully charged while your antique vehicle is parked in storage. If you get a good one it will compensate for any parasitic draw such as from car radio memory or an accessory that runs in the background.  Their use is not limited to antique vehicles, they will charge and maintain any battery from your riding lawn mower to your 1950 Buick.

The difference between a battery tender and a small trickle charger comes when your battery becomes fully charged. A trickle charger or small battery charger either charges or it doesn't... so it has no way to "Float" a battery which means just enough current output to keep the battery fully charged... but not overcharged or undercharged.

A trickle charger or small conventional battery charger turn on and off as a way to try and maintain full battery voltage. The result is the battery gets over charged then sits and becomes discharged then the battery charger begins to charge again. The constant charging and discharging shortens the life of the battery, and there is no way to compensate for a parasitic electrical load.

In contrast a battery tender provides a steady voltage that is just enough to maintain proper battery voltage so the battery is always a peak charge. A battery tender will not over charge a battery. That makes the battery last at least twice as long because it is not constantly being charged and then discharged. It is kept at a steady voltage. It also prevents any damage to the electrical system of your antique vehicle while it is in storage.

The technology of how batteries are manufactured has changed a lot in recent years (mostly for the better) and now many of the batteries you buy are the AGM or absorbed glass mat type (Optima) or a Gel battery. So now we need a battery tender that will charge all three types of batteries, the old school lead acid battery, the AGM type, and the Gel batteries.

While we are at it a faster charging rate would help with the AGM and Gel batteries which take a little more current to begin charging. It makes a conventional battery charge much faster as well, Twice as fast to be exact, as compared to the previous design Battery Tender.

The new Battery Tender shown above will also charge BOTH 6-volt and 12-volt batteries...so now you no longer need two different battery tenders, one for 6-volt and one for 12-volt. A battery tender should also come with the correct accessories including...

You should expect to have the short leads in a wiring harness that you can attach to the vehicle battery that hide when not in use, then when you plug into your battery tender you do not have to open the hood  to make connections. The wiring harness that comes with this battery tender is made so it only plugs in one way so you can't get the connections backwards. 

You should also have a wiring harness available for your battery tender for temporary connections to charge a battery most anywhere.

Both types are included with the battery tender shown above. The warranty on this new Battery charger is 5 years. The AC cord is 6 feet long and the battery to charger cords are 2 feet long, which is long enough reach for most applications. If you are into the numbers game here is the physical size of the new Battery Tender

And the specifications...

I have only three of the original old school Battery Tenders left and all three are 12-volt. The 6-volt ones are all gone. So it you want a Battery Tender of the old school design you had better act fast.

If you have one of the old school design Battery Tenders, all of the wiring harnesses from your Battery Tender will work with the new design Battery Tender. If your old school Battery Tender is working fine might as well keep using it.  But... when the time comes to upgrade you now know what you need to buy, and life will be good once again.

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