Battery Charger recommendations

[Shore2Shore]

Hi,

Wanting to keep our starting battery in tip top condition and charged.
With so many available what ones do you use,any particular recommendations for a particular model?

Our current starting battery is a red top Optima battery (AGM) thats kind of well drained! Not 100% sure what type our next battery will be or if our existing one is totally fried!!

Looking at rvupgrade there's a couple that look promising,they are :

The Ultra Trik-L start
The Noco G7200 multipurpose charger
Battery Minder with 15 watt solar panel/controller

Ultra Trik-L-Start 5 Amp Starting Battery Charger/Maintainer

Noco Genius G7200 Multi-Purpose Battery Charger

BatteryMINDer 15 Watt Solar Charger Controller

Thanks for any info or advice

[jfran304]

I've been partial to the Battery Tender. I have been using one on my motorcycle for over 10 years and haven't had any problems with it. If I was going to hook one up to the Motor Home and leave it this is the one I would purchase.

Battery Tender Waterproof 800

Jon

[DAN L]

i like my schumacher charger-battery maintainer model # sc6500a. i believe that model is no longer available, but other similar models are available such as their sc10030a.

Schumacher:

[Jackm]

I would suggest using the Trik-L-Start since it is the only product that uses your RV's existing charging system to keep the chassis battery charged. In short, the product links your chassis battery to your house batteries. As a result, every time your RV is plugged into a 120-volt power source, all your batteries are being charged. That's why this product is currently installed on every new Winnebago sold today. Very simple to install and works like a charm.

Jack

[Gary RVRoamer]

Quote:

I would suggest using the Trik-L-Start since it is the only product that uses your RV's existing charging system to keep the chassis battery charged.

Not so - the Xantrex Echo Charge does that as well.

I'm kind of surprised your Bounder doesn't charge the chassis battery from shore power on its own - all later Fleetwood RVs do so. Not sure if they had added the charge controller yet in 1987, but I thought so. Maybe yours isn't working right. Even so, it may be easier/cheaper to add the Trik-L-Start or Echo Charge than to find and fix the problem.

You could also add any decent portable automotive charger and simply plug it in, either to the coach 120v system or an external extension cord when at home. Most modern car battery chargers have a decent float charge mode.

[BichonLover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary RVRoamer Not so - the Xantrex Echo Charge does that as well. I'm kind of surprised your Bounder doesn't charge the chassis battery from shore power on its own - all later Fleetwood RVs do so. Not sure if they had added the charge controller yet in 1987, but I thought so.......

Shore power does not charge the chassis battery in my 1992 Fleetwood motorhome. The generator does, however.

[Shore2Shore]

Our bounder only charges the house batteries while on shore power,although I think it charges house & chassis batteries while driving. Thankyou for the recommendations,took the battery back to the store where we got it from.

Oreillys tested it & at first was looking like just a low battery & our current charger just wasn't cutting the mustard trying to raise it up. But further into the charge & load test it was getting very hot & gassing so was dead for sure.

One good thing it was still within optima's 3 year warranty,so got a replacement for free! Will now look at a new charger whether trickle,plug in or permanent connection etc to keep this one topped up & ready to go.

Will replace a lot of the battery cables & connectors on both chassis & house cells just to make sure everything is as good as it can be.