24V positive ground article in March Green Magazine

[buickanddeere]

March Green Mag came in the mail yesterday.
I see the positive ground 24V diesel starting system fantasy is still alive and well.
Over the next few days I'll sift through the truths, half truths and falsehoods.

 

[Baby Grand]

I seem to remember the old Mack trucks I drove had positive ground - this was back in the 70's - R series, I think, maybe LMs.
Can't remember if they were 12V or 24V.
I do remember 2 or 4 big bateries in the tray and the explosion that occured when one of my coworkers tried to jump it with aneven older International and got the connections reversed.
Pieces of battery were dropping out of the sky for 15 seconds.

 

[Norm W]

Many vehicles were positive ground. My '53 GMC is positive ground. My '76 White was I changed it to negative ground so I could install a trailer brake controller. It wasn't a big deal. Disconnect to batteries, swap the out put wires from the alternator, change the wires on the volt meter and hook up the batteries with the negative terminal as ground. Some trucks had a series/parallel switch so the starter would receive 24 volts, but the lights and generator could remain 12 volt.