Using a battery maintainer
I'm going to store my Ram diesel truck for about 5 months and want to keep the batteries charged with a battery maintainer. Will I need to disconnect the batteries to do this? ryoung
Forum Discussion
I got an LED display that plugs into the cigarette lighter that shows voltage. My phantom load on my Dodge diesel 2006 truck is 35ma and that I confirmed from the factory to be correct. I keep a battery maintainer velcroed to the side of the battery with it's power cord dangling out the front grill. When I leave the truck long enough that the LED display drops to 12.6 volts, I plug in the maintainer and let it run. Usually within a day or 3, the voltage is back to 13.6 or what ever the float voltage is.
A good tip is to check battery water levels and the specific gravity of each cell. Loosing water and low SP are strong indicators the battery is on it's way out and no amount of conditioning or maintaining is really gonna help. Cold weather is harder on these batteries than warmer as well.
A good tip is to check battery water levels and the specific gravity of each cell. Loosing water and low SP are strong indicators the battery is on it's way out and no amount of conditioning or maintaining is really gonna help. Cold weather is harder on these batteries than warmer as well.
