Using a smart charger

[SouthernComfort]

Luckily I'd just done a 200km round trip on Tuesday before news of the new bloody lockdown hit, AAAARGH#!?*@#!! I'm in a totally CV-19 free area 50k's east of the CBD & hot spots, but I won't rant about that here...

Battery will be ok for now but if this goes on I'll eventually want to trickle it, has anyone hooked up a charger using the remote terminals under bonnet? Any issues? I have a Protecta smart charger.

[Barboots]

I plug a Noco into the Anderson plug on the towbar, which is wired 3B&S forward to the battery. Whilst the additional cabling is technically not ideal, it does not seem to make a significant difference to the charging.

Direct to the battery posts is best, however your charger will probably not be phased by using the posts... the cabling is quite heavy for the length.

Cheers, Steve

[drover]

Somewhere in the good book it even says to hook up a charger to the jump pegs, so all good, just make sure the charger is switched to AGM's............. If it's going to be mothballed for weeks on end I would just leave it hooked up, a good quality charger will keep the battery in good nick and its better than plugging and unplugging them.

[SouthernComfort]

I can get out and about but only on short journey's, so will use the other car. Jeep can sleep for a while. Yeah, I will just leave it on trickle.

I saw a note in the book about disconnecting the battery leads before charging but I think this could relate to charging a discharged battery. I was under the impression that the remote terminals are effectively direct 'extensions' of the battery terminals, but having to disconnect from the battery itself seems a bit unorthodox, never done that with any other car. Maybe I'm just over-thinking it!

[OLMATE]

Yeah mate that's what I use as the GC is not a every dayer.
I used the harness that it came with to permanently fix it to "Pos" & "Neg" under the hood and have the simple Plug which has a cap on it when not in use.
Smart maintainance charger remembers the setting when hooked back up to do its job, can use it indefinitely also has a setting for AGM which is in the Jeep.
Never had a problem with it, got it from JayCar years ago,used it on a few different vehicles Ive owned.
Batteries hate being discharged, it also has a recovery mode if it detects battery is starting to Sulphate

[SouthernComfort]

Sounds exactly like mine with a harness, multiple settings for battery type & CCA size, charge rate, auto recovery etc. Think I'll just give it a go.

[drover]

My boat is always plugged into a 2w solar panel on shed roof which keeps its battery up to speed and when we go away the old HiLux is plugged into one as well, no need for a regulator on them as they are only 2w, ute has been left for 4 mths on one and good as the day I left it..
A modern multi stage charger is good to leave on, just keeping a battery at its peak its not putting much of a charge at all, just imperative that its set for the correct battery AGM and GELs don't like a wet battery charge, they don't explode like the old ones but just get very hot, ooze liquid as they melt.