Can someone please tell me which is best for feeder timers and spinners, 6 or 12 volt? I want something that the battery will last on also. Im looking at buying a HCR Timer and you have a choice on voltage. Im running 6 volt timers now and they seem to be ok. but looking for Something maybe better. Thanks

i'll be running a 6v..... man.. just pick you up one of these.. works great... cheap too..

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templa...rset=ISO-8859-1


good luck!

Agreed..Put a solar panel on it and a good battery will last several years.

The whole 6 volt vs 12volt debate is kinda moot if you think a little bit about electricity (ohm's law). No real benefit either way (all other things being equal). It's all personal preference.

Jay

Either way with a solar panel and you will be fine. I prefer 6 volt with a high amp/hour, like a 6 volt with a 5 amp/hr rating vs. a 6 volt 4 or 4.5 amp/hr rating.

Take a look at Texas Hunter timers. Best I have seen so far.
^ or 12 volt doesn't matter much. Just use a solar panel to keep the battery charged.

www.texashunterproducts.com

Here is the way I would look at it . . . make note of what timers / motors the other hunters on your lease use, and then use the same or similar equipment. My reasoning is this - if you have something fail (e.g. battery, motor, etc.), you have a better chance of borrowing something from another (e.g. spare part, extra battery, etc.), while you are in the field.

I originally started out with 12v many years ago, but switched to 6v. The batteries are cheaper, seem to last just as long or longer and I can tell very little difference, if any, in performance of feeder. I am very happy with my Remington digital timers, all of which are 6V. I have 6 of them and they work like a charm.

i prefer to run a 12 volt motor on the high rpm setting. the reason is that it spreads the corn more, which makes the deer/hogs move a little more to get all of it, an makes it more likely that they will give me the shot I want. Also when there is a group of animals around the feeder, they will be more likely to spread out if the corn is thrown farther, than if it is all right close to the feeder legs. If you have hogs the fewer of them around the feeder legs the better I think.

This year I will be running 4 HCR 12 volts!

I wouldnt own anything else!!!!!

Imo, the biggest difference is in the motors, not the timers. I've seen more 6V motors fail than 12V motors. But, that might just be me. A solar panel though, should be a must have.

The 6 volt motors seem to be sluggish when it gets real cold. I have not tried a twelve to compare.

Ohm's law, or part of it anyway.

When you double the voltage you divide the amps in half, given the motor being driven is the same HP rating and doing the same amount of work. So when you cut the voltage in half, the amps double. Either way the same HP rating can be achieved with either voltage.

And as long as the battery has enough current flow to sufficiently drive said motor, the only difference in battery life is the amp/hr rating.

In a nutshell, the battery voltage has nothing to do with overall hp rating or RPM rating of the motor. It's all in how the motor is designed. And if designed equally on both sides, there is no difference in performance.

So all other things being equal, there is zero benefit from using one voltage rating over the other. Unless of course all other things are not equal. And this is often the case. A lot of manufacturers will use higher HP and/or RPM motors in their 12 volt offerings to give the illusion of a more powerful unit, thus being able to charge the customer more $. Why exactly I do not know. And don't really care. If it slings corn, it slings corn. So in a way, 12 volt feeders can be better, bt it's not the voltage itself that makes it so. I had an American Hunter mechanism for many many year that was 6 volt. The motor was about the diameter of a beer can. That thing was a corn throwing dude. it would sling corn just as far as my BIL's 12 volt model AH mechanism with the same diameter motor. Most of the cheap mechanisms out there today use little weenie looking R/C car type motors. My Remington mech (6v) uses one too. I doubt it will come close to giving me the ten years of faithful service the larger 6volt it replaced did. But given the cost, I can replace it 2-3 times before I've spent more money than I did on the big'un.

I too like a wide broadcasting feeder. A lot of that can be manipulated with the spin plate to funnel gap, and run times. Set it to have a wide gap and the corn just sort of pours out, thus using a shorter run time to throw a given amount of feed. But you'll get less plug-ups with not so clean corn. Using a tighter gap will throw the feed farther but require a longer run time to throw the same amount. But cleaner corn is needed to avoid plug-ups. Spin plate designs also play a role. But I ain't goin' there. It's past my bedtime.


Jay

That is not completely accurate. If given the same source of power it is true, but when you compare a 6 volt batter to a 12 volt battery it doesn't work that way. A 6 volt battery with 5 amp hour and a 12 volt batter with a 5 amp hour you will get twice the power out of the 12 volt. It has twice as many cells in the battery. Now if you have two 6 volt batteries in parallel running 6 volts that is different. In parallel you still maintain 6 volts, but you double the amps. If you run them in series you get 12 volts, but half the amps. But you can do the same with 12 volts.

I like 6 volt. It's what everyone else on my lease uses. For whatever reason, my backup battery was still dead after 15 hours on the charger, my regular battery was dead in my feeder, but luckily my buddy had an extra 6 volt latern battery we used at my feeder. If it would have been 12, I would have been screwed.

Jay - Nice post.

I have six volt but my friends twelve volt seems to sling the corn twice as far.

All depends on the current. Voltage is just a potential. Like I saw in here earlier ohms law. The more watts you use the faster your batteries will pull down.