Trickle Charger...

[Garandman]

Thanks All...

Looks like on of those Battery Tenders is in my near future...

Do you just hook to the battery terminals without disconnecting anything?...

Then remove when ready to start the tractor?...

BCBSLICK

They come with clips, or a cable that has battery connectors on one end and an SAE connector on the other. You live the "pigtail" in place and unplug it from the charger when in use.

I have them on three motorcycles, two snowmobiles, a generator and the tractor.

 

[Walkin Horse]

I have 2 questions. I have a trickle charger but the part hooked to the battery melted on a hot exhaust on my bike. Is there a way to tell which is hot and which is ground coming out of the charger itself. I could cut the plug and put clips on it.

Second question is. I'm thinking about bringing in all the batteries that don't get used during the winter. ZT motorcycles backhoe generator. I could keep them in the heated house garage on a shelf. Keep the char hers hooked up and rotate them. Would it be worthwhile.

 

[Garandman]

Harbor Freight has a multimeter for $10 and gives them away free with purchase at times. That will tell you +/-.

I've done what you talk about: put a reminder on my calendar and monthly I went out and charged each of the batteries.

 

[Msamt]

I do the genius as well, have the bikes on, the lawn tractor battery, and the DK.

 

[PILOON]

Just be sure you get INTELLIGENT chargers as they monitor and only put out charge when top up is needed.
For a while, locally, they sold 1 amp units that were a mere transformer with a diode ($10.) and those would always put out power and actually boiled out all my acid ruining my generator battery.

 

[Garandman]

Just be sure you get INTELLIGENT chargers as they monitor and only put out charge when top up is needed..

Before I had Battery Tenders, I used those on a timer that only turned them on for 10 minutes per day. I've done the same thing with larger automatic chargers in a pinch as well.

 

[DocDryden]

I use the Deltran Battery Tender Plus. Costco has for about $40.

 

[Msamt]

This one has an AGM / cold weather mode, which helps preserve the bikes expensive batteries, and is pretty cool looking in the garage, as if that mattered...

 

[JRobyn]

I've had perfectly good performance out of the inexpensive Harbor Freight trickle chargers on a variety of batteries. Sometimes on sale for $6 ea. I have about 5 of them.

- Jay

 

[445A]

I use a HF tender on the battery that runs my automatic chicken door opener. It's a U1, or lawn and garden mower battery. It runs a repurposed cordless drill motor about 40 seconds, 2 times a day. It seems to be quite happy with the work load, as the battery stays charged all the time and never even gets warm. These tenders are designed to keep the "surface charge" at 100% without overcharging/boiling. This extends battery life. It will be interesting to see if the tender or the battery gives up first, but this will probably be 5 or more years from now! :cool2: 445A