well i have enough toys that a Good battery charger is in the works... i have been looking at "battery tender" line of chargers but was wondering what one to get... so would the JR be a good choice for my atv and motorcycle needs?

 

Didn't know there was 6 volt batteries around anymore. I use the Battery minder which is about the same thing and works well. The 3 main mfg in this area are Battery tender, Battery minder, and Battery Sentinal. You can leave any of them on indefinately like over winter without worry. All claim to desulfate your battery. All are float chargers rather than trickle.

 

workthats kinda what i was wondering about.. i was looking and they have a 6v & 12v... now thats when i got confused.. im not sure how to add a link so if this does not work please work with me here. i must have been thinking about the amps rather than volts...

 

I have eight BatteryMinders for my boat, RV, tractor, quads and old cars. They keep all batteries up and ready to go. The two batteries in my boat have been on a 'Minder' since 2001 and still crank the engines like crazy. You can get them from campingworld.com for around $36. They come with both alligator clip and permanent mount quick connect leads. When you register the charger, they will send you a free LED battery monitor too.

 

personally i owuld rather buy a battery charger/ booster so it would be more useful then justr a battery tender. you can safely charge a atv batt. w/ 2 volt. i have a 55 amp start/ 10 amp/2 amp charger so i can actually use it for more then the small batteries and it doesnt take all day to charge a car battery. batttery tenders are good if you just want to use on the wheeler or something your just wanting to maintain the battery charge.

 

to maintain / charge a atv battery you need a 12 volt 1,2 or higher amp but it must be 12 volts the lower amps the better it is suposto be better for the battery

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: stendori

personally i owuld rather buy a battery charger/ booster so it would be more useful then justr a battery tender. you can safely charge a atv batt. w/ 2 volt. i have a 55 amp start/ 10 amp/2 amp charger so i can actually use it for more then the small batteries and it doesnt take all day to charge a car battery. batttery tenders are good if you just want to use on the wheeler or something your just wanting to maintain the battery charge.</end quote></div>

This is fine if you left something on that drained the battery and now it is dead, ie headlight or something, but is a poor approach otherwise. Those charger/boosters are not meant for long term maintenance charging.

Batteries will naturally sulfate as they sit, which is one of the causes of premature failure. The Minder will prevent this from happening.

 

What you need to look for is the word "float". You can use any 12v charger that that has a float mode. I have two. the first is a little motorcycle charger that has 6 and 12 volt, at 1.5 amps. When you connect the unit, if it sees low voltage it will charge at 1.5 amps until it sees 12.6 volts (full charge), then it will automatically switch to float mode monitoring. In this mode it just monitors the batt voltage and applies a very small current when needed to maintain 12.6 volts. The second is a large computerized unit that has 2/10/50/amp charge, and 100amp start modes. When in one of the three charge modes, it will automatically drop down to float mode once a full charge is acheived. At that point it does the same thing as my little 1.5 amp charger. If I don't use a float charger, my atv batteries last 1.5 to 2 years on average. When I use a float charger after every ride, and over the winter, My atv batteries last 5 years or more. Lead acid batteries do not like to be cycled.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Oilbrnr

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: stendori



personally i owuld rather buy a battery charger/ booster so it would be more useful then justr a battery tender. you can safely charge a atv batt. w/ 2 volt. i have a 55 amp start/ 10 amp/2 amp charger so i can actually use it for more then the small batteries and it doesnt take all day to charge a car battery. batttery tenders are good if you just want to use on the wheeler or something your just wanting to maintain the battery charge.</end quote></div>



This is fine if you left something on that drained the battery and now it is dead, ie headlight or something, but is a poor approach otherwise. Those charger/boosters are not meant for long term maintenance charging.



Batteries will naturally sulfate as they sit, which is one of the causes of premature failure. The Minder will prevent this from happening.</end quote></div>

leave my batteries fully charged and filled in the winter in 0 degree weather untouched or un started and 5 to 6 months later start it up w/out any issues or need to charge. for me its a waste of money for a battery tender so a a regular charger is a better tool for me to have but not for everyone. if your battery is up to snuff the way it suppose to be and use it once in a while for more then a quick 5 minute start up then it shouldnt need a charge. the one time it would be good is when someone uses their say winch alot w/out running the bike for any lenght of time alowing the battery to recharge which takes awhile form what ive ben told w/ the limited charging systems they have. this is only what works for myself and not everyone.

 

the batery tenders are great things they automaticly go from 1 to 3 amps depending on how your battery is and if it is dead or just a lil run down you keep teh plugged in 24 7 just unplug and ride then come back in and plug in. it will make you battery last double the time and have better power. i had them on all of the race cars with batteries we used to get a ne battery every year to start the high compression montos and we are going on our 3rd year this year. and what a differense when you start it whe used to have to take a big whrench to the flywheel to crank it off of compression before turning the key not anymore.