"Too_Many_Tools" wrote in message
...
On Oct 11, 9:52 pm, "RogerN" wrote:
"Too_Many_Tools" wrote in message

...
On Oct 11, 2:41 pm, "RogerN" wrote:
snip

I'm not far from St Louis, it's warmer than Chicago but it's not
unusual
to
get a few 4WD snow days a year. That's the problem I had last year, my
1
ton 4WD truck doesn't get driven much unless I have to haul something
or
need the 4WD. We had a snow day and I needed to take the truck and had
to
charge the trucks (F350 diesel with 2 batteries) for a couple of hours
before it would start. This year I'm wanting to keep the truck ready to
go
plus try to keep the seasonal batteries in shape for next year. I
already
have a few bad batteries but I'd like to have automatic charging
working
before buying new batteries. The backhoe is handy year around but only
using it every couple of months keeps the batteries dying.

RogerN

/
/Okay...much more adverse environment than we have here in southern CA.
/
/Anything that NEEDS to run during the winter should have a trickle
/charger and engine heater.
/
/Anything else you can charge on a regular basis...just keep the charge
/topped off or the batteries will freeze.
/
/Be careful enclosing any charger...they do need ventilaton. I came
/very close to burning a van up by closing the hood on the van with a
/charger inside...I caught it as it was smoking.
/
/It is better to run a 110v extension cord than to run long 12v
/lines...low voltage lines drop too much voltage and give the charger
/an errorous indication as to its charge.
/
/A comment on trickle chargers...I have had several batteries killed by
/chargers that overcharged the batteries.
/
/Also in my experience smart chargers are not so smart...I have seen
/them not charge batteries or overcharge them....always watch them.
/
/TMT

I've also been disappointed with some of the smart chargers and that is
at
least part of the reason for my post here, thought maybe someone here
found
one to recommend. I'm not sure I understand the difficulty a "Smart"
charger would have with batteries. Seems my auto voltage regulators keep
my
batteries happy for years on the car I drive daily. So, maybe if I had a
charger that automatically started charging when the power was on, I
could
set a time to charge the battery for maybe an hour a day, to simulate
driving the car an hour a day.

RogerN


Smart chargers are based on a chip that have the lead acid charge/
decay curves telling it how to act. I suspect it monitors the voltage
of the battery and if that info is faulty then the charger works
erractically.

I too am a believer in settng chargers up on a timer.

How long to charge? Good question. I just do it a hour a day with 2
amp chargers and it seems to work. YMMV

TMT

How long does it take to charge up those battery operated dildos for your
two mommies TMT?