dead battery

[parabellum]

Should I use a trickle charger or a float charger? Will the trickle charger ever over charge the battery?

[SheepShagger]

Originally Posted by parabellum

Should I use a trickle charger or a float charger? Will the trickle charger ever over charge the battery?

Float if they are dead, it will take a very log time with a trickle charger, but it will work.
The idea of a trickle charger is you can never overcharge a battery, but I have used ones in the passed that will kill a battery over time.
I use the BatteryTender brand, model designed for a motorcycles, on all my cars and bikes, they seem to work very well, never over charge, and are cheap.
They do have models designed for cars, but the bike ones are cheaper / smaller and work just as well for me.

[scatter]

SheepShagger's right on here parabellum. I use 'em all the time on everything from bikes, boats, quads, cars, and the van. Only way to go if a rig is going to be left for awhile. I use the solar ones from Harbor Freight in Baja where power is a problem.

[daveb]

It might be important to factor in the standard load that your van pulls while at rest. I have found that an alarm (and other minimal loads like detectors) can pull a specific amount over what some light weight chargers can put out. Slightly larger loads as compared to what the charger can provide will produce a draw (or loss) and eventually kill your batteries even though they are connected and operating. This is where a high tech multi stage automatic charger shines. These chargers only supply what is needed; no over charging or under charging. Most high end charger/converters do this. Obviously the house and starting batteries must be tied together by some means to keep both up to par. But I have used a 1 amp charger on my Impala (that has an alarm) with good success. The SMB is another story and I use the "smart charger" that's provided with the inverter to keep things fully charged. This is not to say a trickle charger will not work, only to understand the consequences. Just monitor it.

[Cali Native]

FWIW-I have used the deltran battery tender junior 12-volt 750 ma battery charger on my 6.0 psd at home in Los Angeles as well as an Escalade and 2 ATV's I have in Northern Idaho during the winter for months on end and for the last 2 years they have all stayed perfectly charged.

[winvest]

I plug my shore power in and turn my inverter to charge when leaving my van sit for any period of time.

[parabellum]

The van is finally up and running. Since the van was under warranty I had Ford tow it to their shop. They jumped and charged the batteries for me, twice, yup it died again.

Since then I put in a trickle charger and all seems to be fine.

Everyone has been most helpful! Mahalo.