Best method for maintaining engine batteries.

Kayteg1 wrote:

Bobbo wrote:
Ultra Trik-L-Start

Start reading long list of features till I come to "no power cord"
Takes salesman language to call " charger" something that is not charging anything.
Looks like that small gizmo is doing the same what my 200 amp "Battery combiner" does.

The Trik-L-Start is a DC powered battery charger. It very much does charge the chassis battery, with power from the house side when that's over 13 volts (or somewhere in that vicinity)—that is, when connected to shore power or charged by solar power. The big advantage that it has over most battery maintainers is that it can be left in place all the time and won't significantly wear down the chassis battery when it's not working and won't be damaged by the engine running.

A battery combiner does not limit current (not that that's a particularly important consideration here) and often has rather different control logic. (Some, quite possibly including yours, are bidirectional and will keep the chassis battery charged when on shore power. Many isolators/combiners, including mine and apparently the OP's, are switched on only when the motorhome engine is running or the emergency start switch is pressed and don't allow the chassis battery to be charged from shore power.) A combiner typically consumes more power since it has a rather heavy duty relay coil to energize. That said, it's certainly possible for some combiners to do the work that the Trik-L-Start would do, and do it perfectly effectively.

For many users, the Trik-L-Start is a useful, reliable, and reasonably priced gizmo.