Trickle Charger Question

[ghetto fireman]

Hello All:

Can I apply my trickle charger to the jump lug on a 2006 6 liter with frame mounted starter batteries? If not how ?


Best

Mike

[Bbasso]

They are connected so you should have no problem applying a trickle charger to both batteries at the same time

[daveb]

The jump lug is a good place to use a low amp charger on provided all the batteries are in good shape. I'm guessing you want to store the vehicle? As long as the charger can keep up with the load you should be OK. Make sure you clean the connection points.

[Botchan]

Originally Posted by daveb

The jump lug is a good place to use a low amp charger on provided all the batteries are in good shape. I'm guessing you want to store the vehicle? As long as the charger can keep up with the load you should be OK. Make sure you clean the connection points.

DaveB

Is it better to run a trickle charger or plug into shore power? I have my van covered so the solar panels cannot charge the house battery. Any thought of preferences on what's better?

[86Scotty]

That's what I would do. That's what it's there for, partly.

What kind of converter/charger do you have? 3 stage?

[ghetto fireman]

Yes, Optimate 3 charger. I think my batteries are toast however.

[daveb]

Originally Posted by Botchan

DaveB

Is it better to run a trickle charger or plug into shore power? I have my van covered so the solar panels cannot charge the house battery. Any thought of preferences on what's better?

Some chargers can produce high amps and if a battery shorts you could see the charger ramp up. This rarely happens but if it does it can cause the bad battery to off gas or possibly catch fire. Using a low amp charger is fine unless a battery fails. The bad battery won't get hot but the load will overwhelm the chargers limit. You end up with dead batteries. I'd go with a good maintenance charger and just monitor it from time to time. That's just me. There needs to be enough positive current to keep the separator closed. If using the vehicles jump stud or starting battery, the separator must see a charge voltage and maintain it or it will open. Some separators can be manually locked closed but I wouldn't do that. If the starting battery fails the separator protects the house battery from deep discharge and those are much more expensive than a starting battery. Make sure everything is turned off. If there is no load at all, a AGM battery can sit w/o a charge for a month and hold at 12.8v or more.

I still hit my battery system with a heavy charge on a regular basis. I can tell if the batteries are full by the inverter's control panel.