Community Forums

beaverman · 06-21-2011, 05:00 PM

I have a question on how to hook up a trickle charger to charge coach batterys. Ive been told they have to be charged one at a time but not sure you would get a balanced charge that way on all the batterys.

Here are the specs.
1990 beaver 3208 cat
4 12 volt deep cycle batterys
hooked in parallel
1 big long 12 volt battery for engine.

My thought was to hook up charger at inital connection at the coach cables and charge all at once but was told I could blow one of the batterys.

RJay · 06-21-2011, 05:07 PM

Connect the charger to the same battery terminals as the coach leads are connected and you should be fine.

Bob (WA0MQE) · 06-21-2011, 06:19 PM

RJay is correct, which means you will be charging all the batteries at the same time at 12 volts. This is the only way to properly charge a multiple battery bank.

wa8yxm · 06-21-2011, 06:40 PM

Well.. if you understand the word "Battery" Then you charge them one at a time.

However.. Battery (N) A collection of cells

So if you have say 12 packages, each of which has six cells, connected in parallel, you have ONE BATTERY. Likey a very very BIG Battery, but it's still ONE battery

If you have a 13th package sitting there all by it's self.. Then you have TWO batteries.

However I will point out that what is a rapid charger for the small one, would be a trickle charger for the big one.

TQ60 · 06-21-2011, 06:51 PM

The current flowing into the battery is dependent on the state of charge in the battery, the size of the battery, the output capability of the charger and the charging voltage.

Trickle charge is better defined as "float" charging.

Here, the curent should be about 1% of the battery amp hour rating.

So if you have 4 each 100 amp hour batteries in parallel, then 1% of 100 is 1 amp, x 4 is 4 amps, so the charger needs to be able to output constant 4 amp minimum current to satisfy the needs of a normally charged battery to properly float it.

A 1.5 amp unit simply will not do.

Next we need to be sure the voltage does not exceed what the battery is happy with to avoid gassing.

A 2-4-8 batteryminder would take care of your needs.