16 volt battery?

June 03, 2025, 08:34 PM

50fordsst

Thanks Larry. My question is "if 2-16 volt batteries where charged at your pit and you went to staging lanes and started again to move forward and then the next time it wouldn't. Now we know somethings wrong with batteries or a battery, but too late to fix. Could you start the motor with a 12 volt jump starter? I know it would start your bubble and my ford, but we only have 12 volt systems. They do not make a 16 volt jump starter

June 03, 2025, 08:44 PM

wideopen231

I have a quick connect at my cut off switch and wired so if I cut swiitch off and battery could be connected and crank the car with main battery basically disconected.

Now a 12v boosting 16v battery not sure that would work,It should be able to, but a 16v battery will not start if down to 16v. A 12v at 14 will spin same car great. Nev er under stod why unless amps are too lpow when battery is on bottom of power out put. Hopefully stated that so understandable.

June 03, 2025, 08:54 PM

green1

To answer your question you can jumpstart a car equipped with 16 volt battery with a 12volt jump box, been there done that

June 04, 2025, 11:44 AM

Al Alguire

Featherlite sells a 16V jumper pack. I am sure it is one of their 16V lithium's in a housing but they do exist. Tesla also has one but it is not sold to the public only authorized repair facilities.

https://www.feather-litebatter...ace-car-jump-starter

June 04, 2025, 11:44 AM

Al Alguire

quote:
Originally posted by Al Alguire:
Featherlite sells a 16V jumper pack. I am sure it is one of their 16V lithium's in a housing but they do exist. Tesla also has one but it is not sold to the public only authorized repair facilities. If you buy a good jumper box thats is 12V then it will work usually.

https://www.feather-litebatter...ace-car-jump-starter

June 04, 2025, 07:07 PM

Larry Scarth

Ya, the Featherlite is cheap to!

June 05, 2025, 07:40 AM

Curly1

Two of the four 16 volt batteries I have had were defective from the start. (XS Power S1600)

One was really frustrating because battery would charge and it would start car a few times then just dead.

After using 16 volt systems for years I would not recommend them. The 16 volt does spin it over faster when everything is good but it will let you down faster if it is not. One of my cars now has 2 of the 16 volt batteries and when they are done I will probably replace them with one 12 volt. By the way I run an alternator and keep the batteries on a trickle charger which in my opinion is best way to go. As long as they are still working I do not see a need to waste money getting rid of them now.

I do not know if a 12 volt jump box will start a 16 volt system but I do know you will not have as many problems with a 12 volt system. We are drag racers we all think more is better but with batteries more voltage is not necessarily better.

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June 05, 2025, 09:32 AM

BP758

Good input here. 12 volt jumper will not start it. We’ve had those issues and like stated; a bad battery will drag the others down too.

June 05, 2025, 12:05 PM

green1

quote:
Originally posted by BP758:
Good input here. 12 volt jumper will not start it. We’ve had those issues and like stated; a bad battery will drag the others down too.

I don’t think anything will jump start a bad battery but I have jumpstarted my 16 volt setup car with 12volt jump pack before when I left waterpump and tan on when fixing a broken tab but my battery was just dead not bad or shorted.

June 05, 2025, 02:19 PM

50fordsst

Thanks everyone for your input. This post was not a hypothetical scenario. It actually happened to a friend. Yes, the batteries are bad and being replaced, but I agree that a 12 volt with an alternator is the way to go, but he likes the way it spins the motor. They do make a 12/24 volt truck jumper that could work, but he's going to change his charging habits and pay better attention to those 16 volters with hopes it won't happen again.

June 05, 2025, 04:40 PM

Alaskaracer

I can't crank my stuff fast enough to start it with a 12v battery, which is why I went 16v. My daughters car has the same battery I do, a XS Power D1600. Almost new, got to the track and it was dead. Tried charging and still not helping. What I found was the alternator was killing it. It's a one wire East Coast Alternator, 16v, and while it's connected directly to the battery, it still pulls from it even when the engine is shut off. So we're installing a new cutoff switch that has terminals to kill the alternator connection as well. I've had mine for almost six years now and zero issues.....I'll never run a 12v in my stuff again. 16v all the way. I will be getting a new battery at the end of this season to keep on hand as a spare for mine, but I'll continue to run mine until it won't cut it anymore.

June 17, 2025, 12:14 PM

ski_dwn_it

Tried 16v and it did not have enough reserve for me. I enter pro and super pro ever race and or double enter a single class for money races. Most times I am hot lapping the car and need to cool trans with Jones Trans pump. The 16v couldn't get me past the 3rd round - making sure it was also connected to a charger as much as possible and running an alternator. Burned me several times before I put two red top 12v and car cranks just as fast, maybe faster. And the two red tops dont ever drop below 12.2V with water pump, fan, trans cooler and trans fan on. Got to the quarters in pro, and finals of super pro last weekend and they were rushing the race due to incoming weather - those two batteries had no problem.

As for the 12v jumper pack. I have one of those golu (sp?) small jumper packs and it started my car no problem - see above is how I know. LOL. I dont think anything was wrong with my 16v battery it just didnt have enough reserve. If something is wrong with it - it might not work then. Try it. It wont hurt anything.

Last thought - if you have a 16v they are hard to find to replace at the track. If you have a 12v you can run to autozone and find one.

June 17, 2025, 03:13 PM

Jonesz

Last thought - if you have a 16v they are hard to find to replace at the track. If you have a 12v you can run to autozone and find one.[/QUOTE]

I have heard people say this for years and cant wrap my head around what they are thinking. My 16 volt battery goes dead, i can put a 12volt in its place at the track the same as you can replace your 12v with another....

June 17, 2025, 03:43 PM

RPROGAS

Maybe I'm doing this wrong but I keep my 16 volt battery on the (XS) battery tender/charger 7/24 @5 amps, plus I have a 16 volt alternator. We ran the car two weeks ago, made 9 runs on Saturday and another 5 or 6 on Sunday and didn't have any problems. This ancient XS 1600 is at least 6 years old, and like the old Timex Watch commercial, "It keeps on tickin'".

Bob

June 17, 2025, 04:29 PM

Lenny5160

quote:
Originally posted by Jonesz:
I have heard people say this for years and cant wrap my head around what they are thinking. My 16 volt battery goes dead, i can put a 12volt in its place at the track the same as you can replace your 12v with another....

Absolutely. (if you are running a 16v alternator, you would need to disable that.)

Also, you don't switch to a special 16 volt starter, so a fully charged 12v jump pack should work just fine to spin it.

June 17, 2025, 05:55 PM

green1

quote:
Originally posted by ski_dwn_it:
Tried 16v and it did not have enough reserve for me. I enter pro and super pro ever race and or double enter a single class for money races. Most times I am hot lapping the car and need to cool trans with Jones Trans pump. The 16v couldn't get me past the 3rd round - making sure it was also connected to a charger as much as possible and running an alternator. Burned me several times before I put two red top 12v and car cranks just as fast, maybe faster. And the two red tops dont ever drop below 12.2V with water pump, fan, trans cooler and trans fan on. Got to the quarters in pro, and finals of super pro last weekend and they were rushing the race due to incoming weather - those two batteries had no problem.

As for the 12v jumper pack. I have one of those golu (sp?) small jumper packs and it started my car no problem - see above is how I know. LOL. I dont think anything was wrong with my 16v battery it just didnt have enough reserve. If something is wrong with it - it might not work then. Try it. It wont hurt anything.

Last thought - if you have a 16v they are hard to find to replace at the track. If you have a 12v you can run to autozone and find one.

So when you tried 16 volt was it one battery or two and was the alternator the same ampacity as the 12 volt one?? Just wondering if you are comparing apples to apples here. I have doubled up running one battery and only 55 amp alternator and haven’t gotten bit yet.

June 23, 2025, 09:23 PM

Alaskaracer

I've run five rounds back to back with no charging, no alternator, and ZERO issues with my XS D1600. I let it sit for over a year without seeing a charger and zero issues again. Battery is now 6 years old and going strong.

June 25, 2025, 04:03 PM

183N

The problem with 16v batteries going dead is that by design they use more of the battery’s capacity every time the car gets started, that’s why they spin over so much faster. Same for every other device for that matter. For the short time that we run our cars the alternator may not be able to replenish this especially if it’s a small one.

In general most slow cranking issues on 12 volts are due to not a large enough wire to the starter or insufficient grounds causing too much voltage drop between the battery and starter. 16 volts is a bandaid for this.

It also appears as though 12v might give more of a warning when it’s getting depleted - a slow crank, but it still might start it one more time. Guys that I’ve seen had a 16v go dead go from happily cranking to dead without much warning.