6 volt or 12 volt?

[rubyman]

I am working through my Ruby to make it as standard and as good if not better than the day it came out of the factory so its staying on 6 volt, 

[phillips]

Hi All, I fitted LED lights to our Ruby. Stop and tail, side, and indicators, in my opinion they are as good as 12v now. S&P

[Ian Williams]

Lots of common sense advice on this subject, I am another long time advocate for 6V

["Slack Alice" Simon]

Lots of people are put off by wiring.

Take it one wire at a time, do it first with an odd bit, or string.

Collect all the little items you need like terminal ends and cable clips before you start.

Spend quite a lot on over-rated (in terms of amps) cable, and a bit more on earth wire, so every component has live back to the switch and earth back to battery.

It is quite relaxing, once you get the hang of it.

And satisfying when it all works.

[Bob Culver]

There are endless posts on the topic. The simplest conversions are very simple and easily reverted but without a basic understanding of things electrical and 3 brush dynamos it can all get confusing.

I dont know what modern auto electricans make of the standard system esp if no info other then the handbook wiring diagram. (All later cars should carry the Cornforth diagram) Undocumented conversions must be quite a challenge. The safe dynamo amps is not directly emphasised.

The fundamental problem arises because original headlamps were only 18w each. The dynamo could safely maintain these and with a large battery allowed very extensive night running (with care at traffic stops etc, even with a low battery). The lamps could be sharp focussed so gave reasonable illumination.

With 6v 36w lamps the drain is 6 amps which still gives hours of running on a fully charged battery. If chance to be stranded at night hundreds of miles from home, can remove one bulb.

(A characteristic of the dynamo is that with very low system volts as with a flat battery and lights on, the dynamo output reduces, so cannot recover and easily stranded. If run for a while with lights off charging will occur. Can then proceed on one lamp)

[Steve kay]

My Ruby does quite a bit of motoring in the dark, nav rally and similar activities. The availability of LED lights have transformed this, original 6 volt easily keeps up with the needs of ignition and lights. Thus everything under the bonnet can stay and look original.

[Charles Levien]

We ran through Europe couple of years ago with 6v and LEDs all round 
 including heads. It’s being seen in daytime that matters — we often ran  with all lights on and always had a charge showing on the ammeter.


Charles — on Yorkshire Experience

[Nick Turley]

Sounds a wise decision not to buy.

With modern batteries and the kind of use austin sevens get, I personally would keep it all standard.
All the  clever modifications that are made by many are for the most part to please themselves and are not always necessary.

I have and still use my austin seven on the standard electrics and am happy with that, easy to fix, parts on the shelf.

Although I have not fitted them to my seven, indicators are worth considering - just for safety.

A lot of our drivers do not know what hand signals mean !

[Ivor Hawkins]

With advent of LEDs, here’s another vote for six volts, in fact I converted my seven before last from 12 back to six and used it a lot in the hours of darkness.