Onboard battery maintainer / trickle charger / solar charger

[2018GMC]

I have a short commute to work and have other vechiles to drive. 

 

I remember a post post of someone installing an on board battery maintainer in the engine bay. Are there non plug in (capicator) versions?

 

reason I ask is: I have a battery tender jr I occasionally throw on my other vechiles when they’ve been sitting for a few days. Battery tender usually has my other vechiles topped off in 1 - 3 hrs. 

 

The k2xx, I throw battery tender on after sitting for a day or a short trip and it takes 4 - 6 hrs to top off. 

 

K2xx Truck has been charging via alternator fine and starts no prob. 

 

Ive read a few dead battery posts about batteries in these trucks only lasting 3 years, etc

 

Besides putting a solar charger on the dash, any other options y’all are using? Or am I overthinking this ;-)

[aseibel]

Even if you only drive it weekly, I'm not sure you need to worry about a trickle charger. I thought those are only needed for long-term storage, ie. months of inactivity. I have a lawn mower and snowmobile and I only put the trickle charger on them a couple times a year, maybe 2 times in the off-season and again right before I intend to use it.

 

I think your Arizona heat is the only risk factor for short battery life. Seems most of the 3 year old dead batteries come from hot climates. I recently sold my wife's car which was going on 9 years old. The original battery just died, spent its life in MN and WI.

 

Maybe I'm wrong, so I'm subscribing to see what others have to say. But I've always had more than 1 vehicle over the past 12 years, so one of them is often sitting idle for days at a time, still never had a problem with short battery life.

[2018GMC]

I’m thankfully in cooler climate where we get snow and average summer temps are 60 - 85. Will hit 90 a few days a year. 

 

Ive had friends that made a trip to Phoenix and suddenly that’s when their old battery dies due to being cooked. 

 

I have a 15 year old optima yellow top in my 79 k10 that I have been occasionally putting maintainer on since it sits a lot. I’m sure the parasitic loss is much less on that non computer truck than trucks today.  

 

Seems like those snowmobile & motorcycle batteries die an early death if they sit a season hooked up without a maintainer. 

[diyer2]

Keeping a standard battery charged up is the best way to prolong it's life. 

The standard battery is designed to be charged as the state of charge declines unlike a deep cycle battery that is designed to be discharged and then recharged.

The lead plates are different designs.

 

 

[wforrest08]

I don’t drive my 1500 in the winter 3 times since new I’ve gone to drive it and found a completely dead batt even though GM says the truck won’t discharge the batt to that point. My only advice is DON’T buy a Black & Decker battery maintainer. I bought model # BM3B from Amazon (lightning deal) as a back up/spare as it’s dual voltage 6/12 and does AGMs. On the Silverado if the voltage is low after hooking up the B&D it will charge for a short time then it trips the overcharging, reverse polarity or short circuit feature repeatedly, tried several different times. I don’t believe the charger is junk as it works fine with all my small engine stuff batteries and older vehicles. I think it just don’t like the Silverados electrical system for whatever reason. Maybe pulls to much amperage?

 

I seen somewhere there is a onboard Schumacher but if I remember right it might have been a plug-in? I am a huge fan of the Schumacher chargers/maintainers own 3 of them and a 120 to 12v converter. I had a low mileage Trans Am GTA years ago that lived on a maintainer and had a Cteck that took a dump shortly after the return/warranty period was up, those things are 65+ bucks and are supposed to be the best (yeah right). I replaced it with a Schumacher  SEM-1562A-CA for 20 bucks from the local farm store (Theisens) it does everything the Cteck did only with less lights/buttons and unlike the Cteck it still works years later. I’ve found that I can usually find the Schumacher stuff on sale locally on sale a couple times a year for cheaper than I can order them for online. Only thing with the Schumachers is make sure you get a automatic as they still offer manual models (which is surprising to me) which will make for a bad day if you hook up a manual and walk away.

[aseibel]

22 hours ago, 2009GMC said:

I’m sure the parasitic loss is much less on that non computer truck than trucks today.  

That is exactly the problem. If there is no draw on the battery, it should be able to sit for weeks or a couple months with no issues. But you never know if there is a parasitic draw until your battery is dead.

 

I learned that on my old truck 1998 K1500, when I left my snowplow on with the power and lights plugged in, after about 2 weeks of inactivity, it would drain my battery down. I had to jump it a couple times. There was probably a bad wire somewhere. It didn't cause me any issues when leaving it for even a week, so I just unplugged the plow wiring if I knew it would be sitting. But I agree that the newer vehicles shouldn't be wasting battery current as long as you have nothing powered on, like phone chargers, or any aftermarket items plugged into the OBDII port. That's why most of the DC power outlets are not powered unless the key is on.

 

So for me, I would only use the battery tender on a stored vehicle that will be sitting for more than a month or 2.