[TR] Battery charging

Fri Dec 25 17:52:31 MST 2020

I have a Battery Tender Plus (1.25 amp) that I rotate between a couple of Triumphs and several garden tractors. Since I walk past these machines at least once a day when I go to my upstairs office in the barn, there is no issue with rotating the charger around. Sometimes I use an older (1970s) Balkamp 3 amp charger. What I have not done is to monitor what the battery voltage climbs to when on the charger for more than several days. I figure a couple of days, twice per month should be plenty of maintenance charging, especially when the batteries are ungrounded from the vehicle. I also have a LaMarche 5 amp float charger that came off a standby generator from our firehouse. Those charges are left on continuously and I can’t help but think they must work well. Those are very high end machines but they appear on e-bay, etc. They are also large and are designed for permanent mounting.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=laMarche%20battery%20charger <https://www.bing.com/search?q=laMarche%20battery%20charger&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&pq=lamarche%20battery%20charger&sc=7-24&sk=&cvid=D01F2B213A14453E8D7DCFB4CAEE4736> &qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&pq=lamarche%20battery%20charger&sc=7-24&sk=&cvid=D01F2B213A14453E8D7DCFB4CAEE4736 

I know of a fellow one town away who has an antique tractor collection of at least 30 machines. Every tractor is plugged into a battery maintainer. I think he uses the brand that is the parent company of the old Solar name. Don’t know if he actually has a tractor start-up day every now and then or not.

https://cloreautomotive.com/battery-chargers/ 

Alex Thomson

From: Rye Livingston [mailto:ryel at mac.com] 
Sent: Friday, December 25, 2020 6:58 PM
To: Alex & Janet Thomson
Cc: David Friedlander; TR3 Triumphs; list Triumph
Subject: Re: [TR] Battery charging

For what it’s worth, here is an opinion from to experts I was surprised to hear.  One is a Porsche mechanic who’s been in the business for 30+ years.  The Interstate battery had died and even pumped out some white power at the end, out a breather tube from the battery.  I cleaned it all up well, worried about battery acid in the front truck.  I went to the shop, he’s an Interstate distributor as well, and bought a new battery and told him what happened, and that I’d had the battery connected to a Battery Tender Jr.  He told me that even that brand, which is good, is really not good to leave on all the time, and it will cook the battery.  He recommends putting it on for a week or two, then disconnecting for a week or two, and repeat.  Well that’s a pain.

Then in my Airstream trailer which has two 12 volt deep cycle batteries, I’ve read that the power converter that comes with the trailer also isn’t designed to leave plugged in all the time and it will cook the batteries, which did happen.  I tried using a Battery Tender Jr on that but it couldn’t deal with 2 batteries.  I was then told about an upgrade for the Airsteam power converter on Amazon, about $200 or so, which I installed and it does manage the float and it can be left plugged in for months and months no problem.

So be careful with Battery Tenders.  I have two Battery Tender Jrs and four Die Hard battery tenders for multiple cars, Kubota tractor and a boat.  Just be careful how long you leave them plugged in and check the water level if it’s not a gel battery.  I have an Optima in my Triumph and Kubota.

Good luck,

Rye

On Dec 25, 2020, at 2:21 PM, Alex & Janet Thomson <aljlthomson at charter.net> wrote:

Are the batteries still connected to their cars? Maybe there is a slight draw on the TR6. Our TR6 took the whole summer off because it needs a new wiring harness. There were some wires that had let the smoke out! After I drove it into winter storage, I disconnected the ground cable and noticed that there was a tiny spark! Something is leaking current. Another project to do!

Alex Thomson

From: Triumphs [mailto:triumphs-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of David Friedlander
Sent: Friday, December 25, 2020 3:18 PM
To: New England Triumphs; TR3 Triumphs
Subject: [TR] Battery charging

Hey all ~ Merry Christmas ...!

I have one float charger that serves both my TR3 that has an Optima red top battery and my TR6 that has a Sears Die Hard. Seems like even though each battery is only 2 -3 years old, the Die Hard seems to need more frequent “topping up” than the Optima.... Interesting....

Dave

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