Mods for flashlights that use 6V lantern batteries

Greetings Everyone,

I was looking at a lantern battery specification sheet recently and noticed that these batteries are approximately 65 mm x 65 mm x 96 mm (not including the terminals). One could easily fill the same space with 15 18650 lithium-ion cells, enabling a 3S5P or a 5S3P configuration. Seems to me that one could make a heck of a flashlight with that kind of power.

I cannot be the first to think of this, but I haven't been able to find any threads on this topic.

I am interested in knowing if anyone has tried this, and what lantern battery lights might lend themselves toward modding.

Cheers,
BG

i,ve moded 6v lanterns, click on my sig, to see them.
but only 1 still uses 6v battery, i also gutted 6v packs and put 6 sub c cellls,(the most you could put is 14 sub c cells) i use that battery in my dolphin light with rop lo bulb.
but for the most part lights that use those 6v batteries are cheap plastic lanterns, with few exseptions, that are not really able to handle or dissapate heat, for anything really bright it need entire redesign of the shel, or at least internals, but it takes away the room , and reqiers use of smalle pack, or differently shaped one.

alpg88 said:

i,ve moded 6v lanterns, click on my sig, to see them.

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Whoa, that is a really beautiful collection. Nice work!

alpg88 said:

but for the most part lights that use those 6v batteries are cheap plastic lanterns, with few exseptions, that are not really able to handle or dissapate heat, for anything really bright it need entire redesign of the shel, or at least internals, but it takes away the room , and reqiers use of smalle pack, or differently shaped one.

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Understood. That was why I was hoping someone might be able to point me to a moddable lantern with a metal shell. Any thoughts?

Check out the Big Beam and Big Jim lanterns. Do a CPF search on Juggernaut's lantern work. Also check out the JM-PhD-X1 regulator for lanterns.

Battery Guy said:

Understood. That was why I was hoping someone might be able to point me to a moddable lantern with a metal shell. Any thoughts?

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thanks.

big beam\ jim use different 6v battery, bigger one, with screws as terminals. on some battery is exposed, on some is in the box.
they use par36 bulbs, in theory you could use landing light 28v 250w, and pack made of imr or a123 cells. but i think this will be a bit costly.
or for those 6v batteries you mentioned (4lr25 is official name), navy battle lantern, it uses par 36 and and is made of a lot better quality plastic than regular 6v lantern, but i doubt it too will take much heat, plus batteries are right behind the lamp, if lamps gets hot so will the batteries (plus there is no airflow inside, it is sealed\waterproof), so that one is also not ideal host for really high power mod.
can't really think of any, than can be used for high heat mod. afaik there ae no mettal body lanten that uses 4lr25.
the only usefull way of using stuffed 6v batteies, is in regular lanterns, moded for runtime, and a little more brightness. imo rop lo bulb is the max of what those lanterns can handle heat wise. but not for all, some are so bad, it ain't worth spending time to mod them.

the bigbeam 166/266/211 use spring term batteries inside the case

Nice collection there! Does anyone know of a battery case with the spring terminals to replace a standard 6v lantern battery? Would be nice to not have to gut one and replace the cells with either NiMH or Li-ion cells. Thinking of building a low temperature lantern using a spare Visionx S1100 head. That would be cool eh!

H-nu said:

Does anyone know of a battery case with the spring terminals to replace a standard 6v lantern battery?

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I have seen some at my local grocery store. Maybe there some near you. If not try here. This works with 4D's.

Sorry, I had a brain cramp. I meant to say a case with the screw terminals! I've got some of the spring type battery caddies but never found anything for the screw terminals. I've already ordered some NiMH and Li-ion packs and if I can't find anything I'll have to make it up from scrap.