6v-12volts?

[rob love]

I have never done a stright change over on a carrier;However I would offer this solution as something I have done several times in the past on mk1s. This cures the carriers of the sluggish to impossible starting, especially at hotter temperatures, or if the carrier has been shut down for a short period on a hot day.
Install a 12 volt battery (the bigger the better) into the rear battery box. Install a ground (pos) to the hull. Run the power cable (negative on a ford) to the large post on a 6 volt solenoid. Then run another cable from the other large post to the starter. Remove the 6 volt strter cable from the starter end. Use the existing 6 volt starter cable (you could extend it with a 14 guage wire) to feed the small terminal of the solenoid. Depending on what 6 volt solenoid you get, you may have to run a short ground to the frame from the second small terminal; some solenoids don't have this and get their ground from the mounting body of the solenoid. This way all the carrier electronics, like the lights, water temp, generator, coil...don't need to be changed. The 6 volt is used for everything but the actual starter motor, which now turns on 12 volts. Also, there is very little drain on the battery at just the time the coil can use the most volts; at starting.
I have found that the 12 volt battery gets taxed very little in all this and that you would only have to recharge it about once a year. Also, in this configuration, the carriers puny little 15 amp charging system is more than capable of keeping up with the electrical demands placed upon it.
This same 6/12 system can also be used on the trucks. It has the same benefit of greatly improving the starting. The 6 volt starters are more than capable of handling the 12 volt battery.