As the title states, anyone have recommendations on trickle charger or battery tender? Truck will sit during winters and then hopefully be driven on the regular for the rest of the year. I was looking into the 4amp Battery Tender (brand) chager and maintainer. Anyone have any other brands they like or dont like? Thanks in advance

 

I bought an inexpensive one at Northern Tool and it works fine. I bought an even cheaper one at Harbor Freight and it also works fine. (One for the 'Vette and one for the F100).

 

Never use a trickle charger long term, all it does is charge. Battery tenders cycle the battery up and down like it's being used.

 

Bought about 20 of the 4amp battery tenders from harbor Freight and they have worked well for several years. All are permanently installed in equipment that sits long term. Avoid trickle chargers.
https://www.harborfreight.com/4a-ful...RoCgB8QAvD_BwE

 

Not the cheapest but probably the best are the ones from CTEK, I have a few of the Multi 7002's and I'm pretty sure they are the reason why I get on average 10 years + use out of a battery. I got the 7002
because of its ability to charge all battery types and I have varying battery types in stuff lead-acid, AGM, GEL etc etc. I just finally replaced the batteries in the 05 Merc after 16 years of flawless service which I'm sure is in part a result of the CTEK battery charger maintainer (and also being good batteries).

 

I have a battery minder 2012 that I have been very happy with. Have leads to put on the bronco permanently but I have just been pulling the battery as it sits most of the time. I am not using this up to its full potential but have brought several batteries back from the dead, including the 7 year old battery in one of the tractors, that sits outside exposed for its whole life. Pretty good unit overall.

 

I have a battery tender plus very happy with it, I will be buying a couple more since the mower truck and utv sit all winter. As doc said its amazing what they will bring back to life just might take a day or so. I have forgotten to bring in my backhoe battery a couple winters and it brought it back to life.

 

I kind of like the idea at least, of buying an electrical item that 1. isn't made golly knows where, and 2. isn't sold by the pound out of a shipping container for $2 bucks a pop.

Is there a UL sticker on the Horror Fright thing?

Is that even a thing anymore, or did they just throw their hands up and say "F it"?

Seriously I like Harbor Freight, but this is an application where the device will be hooked up for months at a time 24/7 and "unsupervised". If it fails, it could potentially destroy onboard vehicle electronics if any ($$$), boil the battery dry or worse, or possibly in the extreme burn the house or shop down to the ground.

 

I use an old Sears 6 amp battery charger I got at a garage sale for $5.Probably 35+ years old, weighs a lot for its size. I hook it up once or twice a month for an hour or so.

 

I have the same one, just unpluged it for the night. I do not trust it too close my eyes. So I was looking at the ninty dollar optima charger. Like the sweeping dial kinda nostalgic.

 

The unit Costco sells (Deltrans??) seems to work good. Used it on the boat for a few years and now use it for the RV . No problems.

 

An option. I've installed a marine type battery terminal (one with the wing nut) on all my trucks positive battery terminal that I store over the Winter, been doing this since 2007. Also have an old Sears 6 Amp trickle battery charger that I hook up to each battery either once a month but not more than every six weeks (a re-occurring, but an easy task) and the battery in my 95 F-150 Eddie Bauer been in it since 2009, no problems. Also disconnect the positive battery when storing each of the truck, so there isn't any constant draw particularly with the two 1995's. Each of the batteries take about ten minutes to bring back to full charge. Just not too comfortable leaving a charger or tender hooked up / plugged in long-term.

 

The choices are endless for a battery tender. Far better choice than plugging that charger in every now and then.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...ender&_sacat=0