That's the one I have one 3 batteries. One has to be 10 years old.
CK5
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Battery Winter storage; pull battery or battery tender.
- Thread starter beags86
- Start date
That's the one I have one 3 batteries. One has to be 10 years old.
T
tenderfoot
Guest
I accidentally left an old school trickle charger on a battery over the weekend once. Got to the shop Monday morning and you could smell it from outside the far side of the building. Battery was like a balloon.
Battery tender for 2 batteries is what I use. I found when on the tender temperature didn't matter to much. Unless it got stupid cold, like way below 0 cold.
I've used exclusively Battery Tenders, and use them on everything that sits more than a couple weeks. My 2 Optimas, which of course everybody swears are POS. are going for over 8 years now.
Fully charged batteries wont freeze,so you don't really have to remove them from the vehicle unless you want too..
But remove the ground cable at least,if using a tender or charger,if the stereo or electronics draw some power when the vehicle isn't being used the tender/charger will be powering those things too,leaving little for the battery itself..also I've seen alternator diodes not like having a charger left on for long periods,the DC they make isn't always "pure" and can damage sensitive components..
I put a 6 or 10 amp "old school" charger on my batteries that sit a lot in my garden tractors and the two spare batteries I have to jump start them or power other things during power failures about once a month or so--the chargers have an automatic tapering feature that backs off the amperage as the battery builds up a charge--one has a 0-1 amp adjustable charge feature for dinky motorcycle batteries too..
But remove the ground cable at least,if using a tender or charger,if the stereo or electronics draw some power when the vehicle isn't being used the tender/charger will be powering those things too,leaving little for the battery itself..also I've seen alternator diodes not like having a charger left on for long periods,the DC they make isn't always "pure" and can damage sensitive components..
I put a 6 or 10 amp "old school" charger on my batteries that sit a lot in my garden tractors and the two spare batteries I have to jump start them or power other things during power failures about once a month or so--the chargers have an automatic tapering feature that backs off the amperage as the battery builds up a charge--one has a 0-1 amp adjustable charge feature for dinky motorcycle batteries too..
the squares are outside on tenders and the boat battery is inside on a tender.
I pull them out and put them in my garage. Its heated...
My K5 got some used group 31 semi truck batteries installed back in like 2010. Went for 6 yrs sitting with me just hooking them up and running it up to temp and then disconnecting them once a month. Still going strong now that I've been using it for the last 2 yrs.
I use battery tenders on stuff that sits at work. I've been contemplating what to do with all my vehicles and farm stuff and ATVs that all have batteries and will sit alot all winter . I'm thinking once I have a garage I might set up a charging station to store/charge them inside all winter and the ones that will get used once in a while will get battery tenders once I have a place to plug everything into where I park them.
My c10 sits a lot year round and whenever it is going to sit for more than a couple weeks I just disconnect the battery and when I go to drive it next, hook it up and it has always still had juice in it.
FWIW, my uncle is an Electrical Engineer, and thoroughly researches EVERY single thing he buys. Super anal about this stuff, and brilliant. All the engineer jokes you hear are about him. Except the train ones. He tells me Battery MindR is THE best one.
pma4x4
AKA Yankeeroad
Look into NOCO Genius chargers. I have a dual bank charger mounted on board my Suburban and it has preserved my 3 deep cycle batteries since 2012 in Arizona. Build and mounting post here
This is the single bank unit I have on our RV. https://amzn.to/2CbIoLV
This is the single bank unit I have on our RV. https://amzn.to/2CbIoLV
I always pull my batteries out of my race cars, offroad trucks, camper, etc. and use cheap Harbor Freight battery tenders on each battery while stored on the garage floor, on a rubber floor mat. So far, they have returned better in the Spring than they did when I pulled them. I've even brought batteries back to life with this method (granted, they weren't completely screwed at that point).
I would suggest pulling the battery and leaving it in the garage with a cheap-A battery tender. Worked well for me.
I would suggest pulling the battery and leaving it in the garage with a cheap-A battery tender. Worked well for me.
Carcinogen
1/2 ton status
Careful. The cheap HF tender I bought last week already went tits up...
Thanks for the heads up. I have 4 of them and haven't had a problem...that I know of. Guess I'll find out in the Spring
If you're going to be around the equipment periodically you don't need nearly as many chargers as you have batteries. For cars, I usually try to run them once a month and that's all they need. I keep one "float charger" near the lawn equipment and rotate it between them once in a while when I go out there. For the camper batteries and the rest I put them in a row along the shop wall (I've been meaning to build a shelf for this, but it needs to be pretty strong) and swap another charger around about once a week.
I have 4 battery chargers ,so I can use one to keep my diesel pickup's batteries fully charged AND have 3 others to use on the spare batteries I keep in the garage to jump start things,and charge the batteries on my garden tractors..that way I can have all of them fully charged,rather than have to hook one charger up to each one at a time and wait for them to recharge..
I didn't pay more than $5 each for the chargers at the swap meet,they are old school ones ranging from 6 to 10 amp output with automatic charge taper as the batteries build up a charge..at first I bought more to have a "spare" in case one charger croaked,but ended up with 4 of them after tiring of only having one or two and having to rotate them among all the things needing recharging..
I didn't pay more than $5 each for the chargers at the swap meet,they are old school ones ranging from 6 to 10 amp output with automatic charge taper as the batteries build up a charge..at first I bought more to have a "spare" in case one charger croaked,but ended up with 4 of them after tiring of only having one or two and having to rotate them among all the things needing recharging..
beags86
Eastbound and Down
Was 50 degrees today, decided to get the stepper out... Found my battery drain....
With key out, everything is on, as in the key was set back to acc... So yeah I hadn't noticed that under the car cover.... So yeah.... Guess that was my problem...
With key out, everything is on, as in the key was set back to acc... So yeah I hadn't noticed that under the car cover.... So yeah.... Guess that was my problem...
FWIW, the battery tenders can be used on multiple batteries at once. I have 5 hooked up to mine now (one group 27, a couple lawn and tractor batteries, and some massive thing that is about a group 27 x 2), and it's just the little tender that looks like a power adapter plugged into an outlet. Unless they have a bad cell, the current needed to keep them topped off is minimal. Their instructions even mention that you can do this.
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Started running a tender full time on my 97 a few years ago. Chitty Walmart energizer batteries didn’t seem to last to long with out it.
Heck my old mans 06 Duramax still has the original batteries, it lives on a battery tender as it doesn’t see a ton of use during the winter.
Anything that sits outside and doesn’t see any run time at all during the winter gets the battery pulled out.
Heck my old mans 06 Duramax still has the original batteries, it lives on a battery tender as it doesn’t see a ton of use during the winter.
Anything that sits outside and doesn’t see any run time at all during the winter gets the battery pulled out.
