Battery Tender Questions???

This should answer your questions and more. Hope this helps.

Battery Tender Manual...LINK

Battery Tender is a brand name and is very good.

http://www.batterytender.com/Chargers/

I would get the 1.25 or 3 amp version for what you describe.

Shop around for lower price.

The other brand I recommend is Battery Minder. This one has temperature compensation that could be important if your truck will be below freezing at times.

http://www.batteryminders.com/batteryminder-model-15cec1b-12volt-1-5-amp-maintenance-charger-desulfator-with-push-button-battery-indicator/

Not to say the BM is not a good idea, it is, but my advice would be to start that Ford every week, two weeks at the most, and take it our for a run.

There are a lot of good automatic tender type chargers out there today.

WalMart carries Schumacher (sp?) and they have worked good for me.
A "trickle charger" won't do but there is no need to spend a lot of money either.

A good one can be had for less than $30; often around $20.

And concerning yourself with temperature compensation on a small battery tender is just being silly. EXACTLY where you connect the clips isn't important either.

I have no power near mine when stored so I run truck and generator once a month and move it 6 inches or so.

golf_bears wrote:
Want to get a battery tender for my truck which has two 12v batteries hooked in parallel. Want to keep them hooked up and charged over the winter.

What brand and model number would you recommend?

Do you hook it up on + of battery one to - on battery two? Or do you hook it up on + of battery one to - on battery one and battery two will charge also? Or is there another type of hook up?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Not a Ford guy, but my GM has a large GND strap to clamp to for jumping and it's right over a POS terminal in a red snap-close protective housing. When I jump or put a charger on, I simply clamp to those 2 places and don't worry about the batteries.

Lyle

I use Granite digital battery maintainers on both the 5h wheel and the Freightliner when in storage. They do not usually spend much time there but if there for an extended period, I take them out onto the highway for a few miles at least once a month. ( Possible in West Texas )

The Granite units are not the cheapest, but I have found them to be very reliable and are used by a lot of car and truck collectors that I know.

http://www.granitedigital.com/saveabattery.aspx

I use a Noco genius G3500 for the same purpose and it has worked great for years.