Questions and Answers

Trickle Chargers And Jump Starting Q. I've got a technical question for you. I know you're supposed to remove the battery out of a stored vehicle, but I don't, because I like to start the thing up every once in a while, so as to keep things nice and lubricated. Naturally, the downside is that the battery can get too low.

So I've just bought a little battery tender device that trickles some current into a battery so as to keep it charged (but not overcharged) throughout the salty-roads season.

So far so good. I ask the dude at the desk where I bought it: "As you know, I'm Redline Phil, so of course I have more than one summer vehicle in the garage. Can I hook up this little device simultaneously to all the batteries in the four vehicles of my summer fleet?" And the dude says "No". But I don't believe him, I think he just wants to sell me four devices.

Hence my question to you: It is do-able, isn't it? All I have to do is connect the deal to one battery, say the Beemer's battery, plus to plus and minus to minus (or minus to chassis/frame?), and then find some additional cables-with-clips and hook that one battery to the second battery, and then likewise hook up the second to the third, and finally the third to the fourth, and it'll all work out nicely in a series-wiring fashion, don't you think?

Also, why the usual recommendation, when jump starting one car with another, to use the chassis of the dead car, as opposed to the booster car, rather than the negative battery terminal of the dead car? Is it to prevent the ever-so-small risk of battery emitted gases igniting? How often does that happen?

In my multiple-vehicle scenario, I don't have this dead/booster distinction, do I? Or should I consider the device to be the booster source of current, and all the batteries to be dead, and therefore never connect to the negative terminals and always to the chassis/frames?

Thanks,
Redline Phil

A. When I worked at R&S Strauss in New Jersey, we had a similar setup in the back room to slow charge customer and stock batteries. It was a fancy set up with two copper bars, one over the other, horizontally along the wall. Then there were eight sets of heavy wire with clamps that would connect to the batteries.

A 12 amp trickle charger connected to the bars that supplied the charge. The drawback is, the more batteries you have hooked up to it, the slower they will charge. After all, a trickle charger only has so much it can put out.

So I don't see why you cant do the same thing. In fact, if the cigarette lighters stay on with the key OFF, you can wire the charger to cigarette lighter fittings and just plug it into the cigarette lighters. Then you don't even have to open the hood.

As for your jump starting question, yes the reason is to prevent the hydrogen gas from the battery from exploding. How often does it happen? Not very often, but often enough for it to be a concern and to take precautions. Do you want to roll the dice on a battery exploding in your face and getting a face full of battery, sulphuric, acid?

For the sake of safety, I would put the trickle charger in an outlet that has a wall switch. Then you can turn it off, hook up the clamps to the battery terminals and then just flip it back on.