"Graeme Eldred" wrote in message
...
Having enjoyed the thread about topping up batteries, I thought I'd
start one of my own :-)

We recently bought a second hand battery driven car for our son, and
find that there are two 6v batteries, wired in series, to give 12v.
I'm
fairly sure they are motorcycle batteries. They are described as
sealed, so presumably don't require any further attention.

Two questions.

We have to turn the car on to one side, i.e. through ninety degrees,
to
get it in and out of the house (yes, every morning, and every
evening!),
and always remove the batteries first. Is that necessary? Being
sealed, can they safely be turned on their sides?

Without knowing the exact make and battery code this is an impossible
question to answer, some batteries are sealed and un vented, some are
sealed but have a vent via a plastic tube, some are nominally sealed
(the lid or stoppers are just designed not to be removed but are still
present and have vent holes), either of the latter two / could / leak
acid when turned onto their side.


Should we trickle charge it every night, irrespective of the use it
has
had that day? I'm thinking more in terms of overall battery life,
than
the amount of power available the following day.


If they are lead acid then trickle charging then won't do any harm,
I'm more worried about the fact that are being (sort of) deep cycled -
normally you should use leisure or traction batteries for such
applications.