Battery maintainers...

[Uncle Gump]

I've been through all of that and have drawn my conclusion.

My minimum use and history of short trips... coupled with the questionable quality of current day batteries... has me replacing my battery annually.

I'm gonna give a maintainer a try and see if i can get a battery to last close to its warranty period.

 

[Shran]

I've kept my crawler rig on a maintainer all the time for many years. The battery that's in it now is a Duralast Platinum AGM that I bought in 2012... have a couple of other normal lead acid batteries that are nearing 10 years old too. Maintainers flat out work.

 

[Blmpkn]

I've been through all of that and have drawn my conclusion.

My minimum use and history of short trips... coupled with the questionable quality of current day batteries... has me replacing my battery annually.

I'm gonna give a maintainer a try and see if i can get a battery to last close to its warranty period.

Walmart has some decent battery warranty stuff going on.. super cheap batteries too. The fancier the battery the longer the warranty is... But I bought their bottom of the barrel 70$ battery for an old Cadillac I owned a couple years ago and it came with a year warranty..

Not that great of a warranty no... But well under half the price of the same group size battery from crapa

 

[Uncle Gump]

Well after two amazon failed to deliver my stuff... the Battery Tender charger showed up yesterday. The battery pigtail and extension came today.

So yesterday afternoon I went out and started the truck. Plenty of battery to fire right up. Then I hooked up the Battery Tender and started topping off the battery. It took from 3pm to 5:30am for the green charge indicator to start flashing. I checked again at 9am and had a steady green light. So it took about 18 hours to bring that battery to full and switch to maintenance mode.

I have a good feeling this will fix my battery issues in this truck. But time will tell I guess.

Gonna head out and wire in the pigtail with the SAE connector.

So the fun begins with me remembering not only to unhook it but to hook it up in the first place.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Its too bad no one makes magnetic connections.

 

[Curious Hound]

Its too bad no one makes magnetic connections.

Ooh. That would be cool. Might not be good for 120vac. But for 12volts dc, low current things like this, a magnetic connector would be awesome.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Its too bad no one makes magnetic connections.

SHOP

www.voltsafewinter.com

 

[Uncle Gump]

That one appears to be a 120v plug.

I need just 2 wires... 12v positive a 12v negative.

Would sure help to not pull wires and cause a mess.

Really needs to be a covered connector too...

My battery pigtail is too short. Was going to take more time then I had today.

 

[Curious Hound]

Here we go. This stuff is awesome

Amazon.com: Werks Gruppe ChargeSafe - Magnetic Trickle Charger Adapter | 6V - 12V Quick Connect and Disconnect Method for Any Charger, Black, WG-MCA-002 : Automotive

Amazon.com: Werks Gruppe ChargeSafe - Magnetic Trickle Charger Adapter | 6V - 12V Quick Connect and Disconnect Method for Any Charger, Black, WG-MCA-002 : Automotive

www.amazon.com

 

[Uncle Gump]

Here we go. This stuff is awesome

Amazon.com: Werks Gruppe ChargeSafe - Magnetic Trickle Charger Adapter | 6V - 12V Quick Connect and Disconnect Method for Any Charger, Black, WG-MCA-002 : Automotive

Amazon.com: Werks Gruppe ChargeSafe - Magnetic Trickle Charger Adapter | 6V - 12V Quick Connect and Disconnect Method for Any Charger, Black, WG-MCA-002 : Automotive

www.amazon.com

Dang...

There went @alwaysFlOoReD million dollar idea.

They sure are proud of that thing.

Probably gonna extend what I have but that gizmo looks pretty good.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

@Uncle Gump
I was assuming that the battery maintainer was permanent in your truck, and that it was plugged into shore power. That's why I looked for 120V connector. There are magnetic 12V as well.

 

[Uncle Gump]

I think I like the battery tender...

Last time I drove my truck was last Thursday afternoon. Short trip to the store and back. Didn't reconnect the tender... but I did look at it before disconnect and it had my battery at what it had deemed peak (green light). Was out doing some fall clean up stuff and noticed I hadn't connected it back up. Normally... my truck would have been a no start... especially with the cold we've had for a couple days. Got my keys and it had great cranking speed and fired right up.

So at least for my test case... occasional use and mainly short trip.... I'm sold on these things.