Battery Charging

[J Stemler]

I have a 2004 Adventurer 38G. I wanted to put a battery charger on my vehicle battery. I discovered that that battery has side terminals, if I disconnect the battery, I have nothing to clamp the charger to. Is it OK to charge the battery while it is still connected

[cannon man]

should be ok. battery threads are like 1/4-20. disconect n put some bolts in there.
good luck, dave

[dirko]

Hi Ho: The answer is: It depends on the condition of the batteries and what charger is being used. If the batteries are good it is very hard to raise the voltage high enough to cause damage unless the charger is really out to lunch.
On the other hand a brute force charger/starter can put out voltages well over 20 volts, so if the batteries are bad (an open or high-resistance cell for instance) it could be possible to hurt some electronics.
If you are using a common 10-30 amp charger I doubt that you could hurt anything even if you left it connected. I don't think twice about using a charger with stuff connected. I even do an equalization charge with them connected.
Dirk