Trickle charge for 360. When to start?

Just attach them as soon as you park. It will not hurt and will just benefit in the long run.

 

I recently started using the trickle charger every time I park in the garage. My battery was sluggish one day and didn't want to risk a dead battery/non-start.

 

Many people claim many different amounts of time before dead battery. In my case, during the winter,every 4 weeks I hook up the charger until fully charged. i have been doing this for many winters and never had a battery problem. Other peoples cars may be different.

 

Anytime my car is going to sit for a week or more I hook it up to a battery tender. It maintains the battery and won't cause any harm. I have used this method for years as I travel a lot. When I lived in Colorado my cars stayed on a battery tender from the time the car went into winter storage to the time they came out with no issues.

 

I do something similar. That way, I can use the same trickle charger for the batteries of several vehicles that I need to maintain over the winter.
I'm not going to buy separate chargers for the 360, the boat, the Waverunner, the atv, and the lawn tractor.

 

Any time it's tucked away in the garage it is hooked up to the CTEK.... it's my weekend car.. sometimes Fridays.

 

CTEK tender can be left attached at all times. I would not do that with a trickle charger though as it will keep charging. When I relied on a trickle charger, for each week the car sat, I would attach the charger for 24 hrs. That always worked for me.

 

I charge mine about every 4 wks. Ctek makes an eight foot pigtail that I run out the window. that way I don't have to open the door (which wakes up all the computers) to connect the charger. And I can leave the car cover on. and remember to keep the front trunk closed and latched also so the computers will go to sleep. FWIW


Jeff Pintler
89 348, 86tr, 99 360 3-pedal, 05 S-160 Bobcat

 

Anytime I know the car is going to sit for more than a week, I will connect, which is basically every time!

I have tried to test how long before it seems "sluggish" and I usually can still start the car after 2.5 weeks but wouldn't risk anything further

 

I hook my 430 up whenever its in the garage.

 

The time varies by car. Also, depends on what type of battery you have. As others noted, just hook up CTEK tender or equivalent each time you leave car (unless you drive it everyday).

 

this

 

I've read that a car battery ran down too low on charge will not fully charge. better to keep it charged.

 

A car will put a continuous load of about 20mA or so with the ignition off. This small but insidious drain will, over time, deplete your battery. But you already knew that. In addition, the battery will deplete itself at the rate of about 3% of its capacity per month, if it is just sitting there. Now, if a battery discharges to about 85% to 80% of its capacity before being recharged, it can likely lose some of its full capacity. So, how long can you leave things without putting it on a tender? That depends on the battery capacity, the unattended current draw, etc. because of these variables, many cars come with battery tenders and it is common advice to put them on a tender if you do not drive them frequently. In my case, I put it on a tender if it is going to sit for than a week.

I wrote a paper on this topic and posted it here ...
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/technical-q/507220-parasitic-current-draw-batteries-battery-tenders.html

Regards,

Steve