Just set up a charging station at work to keep vehicle and ATV battery's charged over the winter or when rigs are in long term storage. The heart of the system is a Battery Tender 10 station charger, specs on this charger are 2 amp, 14.75 absorption and 13.2 float.I also have a couple 6 volts 242 ah interstate battery's that need charged. The 12/6 volt charger I have is only rated for 14ah battery's and is only putting out 6.2 volts hooked to a battery that read 5.9 volts before being hooked to the charger.I'm thinking I need a better 6 volt charger but in the mean time I was wondering if I would be better off hooking the battery's up in series and using the 12 volt charger on them?

Charge them in series.You could be overloading the little charger if the batteries are down. If they are fully charged, you should not have a problem.

First: is your 12/6 charger rated for 14 Ah batteries, or is it a 14A charger? A 14 Ah battery is a quite small battery, such as a motorcycle battery.Assuming it is for a 14 Ah battery, I would suggest getting or borrowing a more substantial battery charger (simple and dumb is fine here) to charge the golf cart batteries, and then once they're charged you can use whichever little charger is more convenient to maintain them. At 5.9 volts, they're quite substantially discharged (down to about 30%), and it will take a very, very long time to bring them back up to charge with a 2A or so charging current. A 10A charger would probably need somewhat over a day.For most chargers, you'd probably get better results with them in series as a 12V battery. Most chargers seem to have the same current output in 6V and 12V modes, and so the actual power delivered is half at the lower voltage (or, put another way, the charging current gets split two ways). Doubtless there are some exceptions to this general statement.Once charged, the battery minder probably would be sufficient to keep them topped up, though realistically letting them sit over the winter in a cool place disconnected would also be fine once they're fully charged. Self-discharge of a fully charged battery in decent condition and cool temperatures is pretty low.

Link to charger.http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TTLSFNU?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00I'm sure it says 14AH and the online info states on 6 volts its only charging at .8 amps.

DO N O T like 14.75 volts at a 2-amp rate for a larger battery.Unless the charger has a default time limit defeat to float.14.75 volts. 2 amps. Day after day after week. Too much time spent at too high of voltage.The unit must have a built-in timer there somewhere. X number of hours until reverts to float.2-amps is plenty for 200 amp hours+ of batteries. But the batteries MUST be absolutely fully charged and totally disconnected before that charger maintainer will work right.

Your link is not a ten station. This is a ten station.ten station

6 volt question | Good Sam Community

12 Replies

wa8yxm
Explorer III
Nov 20, 2015
I often say "There are no six volt batteries in RV's" People get upset cause they have 2,4,6,8 of them (heck I have an even number of them too) but the fact is they are only six volt batteries when they are OUTSIDE the RV.

once installed, you put each pair (Why they are always in even numbers) In series and like magic.. (Or assorted laws of electricity) you have a 12 volt battery,, To be specific a 4D.

For winter storage.. Do the same thing... Put 'em in series and treat them like a 4D.. One big 12 volt battery.. For that's what they become when you add that jumper wire.
BFL13
Explorer II
Nov 19, 2015
Not too clear if the 'shop' is like a car dealer's showroom, but these might do the job in that shop. I'm not clear how they do several cars at once, but some sort of jumper cables between vehicles? You could ask the company (PowerMax) how that works.

http://www.bestconverter.com/Showroom-Vehicle-DC-Power-Supply_c_168.html

http://powermaxconverters.com/product/pmbc-12-volt/
Muddydogs
Explorer
Nov 19, 2015
Well I hate using my stuff for work but maybe I will drag my Megawatt down there and charge these batteries until I can get something else.
DrewE
Explorer III
Nov 19, 2015
The little 6V charger would take about forever (well, somewhere around a month straight, if my figuring is about correct) to charge the two golf cart batteries on the 6V setting. It would take less time, but still measured in days, to do so on the 12V setting, assuming the little charger can actually supply full power continuously.

You really need a beefier charger to charge these 6V batteries. Once charged, it does sound like you have maintenance/float charging well covered.
Byrogie
Explorer
Nov 19, 2015
enblethen wrote:
Your link is not a ten station.
This is a ten station.
ten station

That's not a knife...
This is a knife...
Muddydogs
Explorer
Nov 19, 2015
No the link was for the 6/12 volt charger in question.

For what I need to do with auto battery's the 10 station will work fine. These newer rigs bleed power like crazy and I need to be able to charge and maintain a bunch of battery's with very little supervision. The 10 station will go from bulk to float charge on its own and not cook off the water if its a few days before I get back to it. $500 is cheap when purchasing 5+ battery's a year because the rig set around not being drove. Pulling the battery's and charging them in a central location is also better then running extension cords through the shop to power individual chargers for each rig.

I just happened to get a trailer in from the field and it had 2 deep cycle 6 volts on it so I pulled them and went to charging them with the 6 volt charger I have which seems way to small to charge the battery's efficiently.
MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Nov 19, 2015
Yeah right.

EACH STATION is autonomous. Has it's own personal menu. NAWWWWWWW!

Five hundred bucks. Gimme two. One to eat now, the other to save for later...
enblethen
Nomad
Nov 19, 2015
Your link is not a ten station.
This is a ten station.
ten station
MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Nov 19, 2015
DO N O T like 14.75 volts at a 2-amp rate for a larger battery.

Unless the charger has a default time limit defeat to float.

14.75 volts. 2 amps. Day after day after week. Too much time spent at too high of voltage.

The unit must have a built-in timer there somewhere. X number of hours until reverts to float.

2-amps is plenty for 200 amp hours+ of batteries. But the batteries MUST be absolutely fully charged and totally disconnected before that charger maintainer will work right.
Muddydogs
Explorer
Nov 19, 2015
Link to charger.http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TTLSFNU?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00

I'm sure it says 14AH and the online info states on 6 volts its only charging at .8 amps.