I want to use a "float" charger to maintain the battery on my little-used '82 245T this winter.

Harbor Freight has one for $9.95 and about $3 s/h, which appears to be a good price.

Does anybody know if their "float" charger does the job right, or is it just a junk trickle charger?

JC Whitney sells a Schumacher float charger for about $40, and the prices go up from there.

Ebay prices suck -- people selling the Harbor Freight unit for $15 and $10 s/h, etc.

Suggestions or comments?

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Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

Don,

Check with a couple of marine dealers in your area. Boaters around here keep a charger on their boat batteries all winter to prevent the battery from freezing as the specific gravity drops.

I also liked the idea suggested for the solar charger. Are you familiar with Bob Pease of National Semiconductor? I recall he published an article or two about home brew Solar battery chargers in EDN magazine. Search for pease porrige. Good chance to keep the tip of your soldering iron clean and hot.

Dan

You might consider a low power solar charger they are becoming affordable and would save running leads out to the cars.

Colin.

1990 740SE B200E/M47, remote C/Locking.

Great idea. Thanks.

--
Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

Check out the battery tender:

http://www.batterymart.com/battery.mv?p=DEL-021-0123
http://www.batterymart.com/battery.mv?p=DEL-021-0128

This is probably a dum question but whaon't cha just drive it whenever
it clears up enough and the roads are dry? I pretty much do that with the
164 (whenever Susan doesn't have it) and it does fine.
(It would get lonesome if I didn't. Been 33 years now - same length of time
Jesus walked the earth.)
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!

A good idea, George, and that's what I sometimes do -- a weekend spin. But I have 4 registered Volvos and only wife and me in the house (and wife is usually away for the workweek). So, with several daily bombers in the driveway, I generally don't have time to shuffle cars around until springtime arrives.

Anyway, my *real* question applies to a float charger for the generator.


--
Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

If it's a rust free car in the rust belt, there can still be salt on the roads for weeks after it's put down...

Lucky for me, rust isn't a problem here.
--
If you listen to the radio in Portland, OR, you may know me as 'Portland's Favorite Soul Brother!'

I use the HF charger, Don.

It seems that the current line of Interstate batteries MUST have a float charger if the car sits, else the battery will sulfate and become worthless.

The local Interstate store guy told me this as he replaced my 10-month-old battery from my 142 that had been run <10 minutes over that time. Free.

It might just be a trickle charger, I don't know. But I do know that the new battery fired the car right up after sitting another 8 months.

For the ne plus ultra of float chargers, look at the Battery Tender, or Battery Tender Jr. Common on eBay, or do some Googling for the manufacturers site.

The 12V Jr. model can be had for ~$45, delivered.
--
'73 142, '75 242, '75 245, '80 245, '86 244, '87 745T

Do they still sulfate if you disconnect the leads at the battery while in storage?

Mine wasn't even in the car!
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'73 142, '75 242, '75 245, '80 245, '86 244, '87 745T