Battery Charging Question

[scotstern]

I have a battery charger that allows me to charge automatically or manually at the rate of 2, 20 or 60 amps at 12 volts and is on wheels. Currently, I have to roll it over to whichever car in the garage that I want to charge.

Since I do not drive my cars as much as I should, I use battery tenders but I still need to charge the batteries fairly often. This means get the charger out and roll it to the car. Since I have 4 cars that this affects, this is cumbersome.

I would like to store the charger, attach it to two terminals on the wall and then use a drop down cable from the ceiling to actually charge the cars. Less chance of anyone "bumping" into the charger and scratching the paint.

I understand that for all practical purposes that the 60 amp selection is out, due to wire size, and the 20 amp might be somewhat doable with 12 gauge standard wire, but it would seem to me that the 2 amp long term charge, thru 12 gauge wire and then hooked up to the battery would work.

Any thoughts?

 

[holdover]

have you tested your batterys, if the tender will not keep them up sounds like they are weak. I have tenders on a few vehicles and atvs and they all start even after months of no use, example my 2012 Mustang GT sat from Nov till March

 

[racingtadpole]

You shouldnt be using a 20Amp bulk charge to keep a battery in shape (if you need to your battery is already fried), it will warp the plates on a good battery. An intelligent or smart charger is better for this type of task.

The 2Amp charge over that size cable will work just fine. If you want to get really trick, put a short pig tale with an Anderson connector under the bonnet and put another on the dropper. Pop the bonnet, plug it in, job done. No messing about with clips.

 

[HOTFR8]

have you tested your batterys, if the tender will not keep them up sounds like they are weak. I have tenders on a few vehicles and atvs and they all start even after months of no use, example my 2012 Mustang GT sat from Nov till March

I agree with this. A tender will have issues charging a battery that has problems.
I have tenders on every thing ( includes the ride on mower and car trailer) except the daily driver. I never user the old fashioned / conventional charger these days. have you had the batteries tested ?

 

[kamesama980]

+1 if the tenders don't keep them charged the batteries are SHOT. They should still start a car after a few weeks without any charger. Older cars without parasitic loads should last months.

My cressida hasn't been running almost 4 years (sitting at moms house while at school, apt, rented house w/o space, etc) and the battery is 9 years old. with naught but a trickle charger it still fires up just fine. 2 visits home ago I hadn't had the charger on there in 3+ months and it still fired up fine.