I was looking on surpluscenter.com and came across this battery charger for lawnmowers. Its 24VDC, would this be a cheap alternative to a battery tender? It only puts out 32 watts, which is only .75 amps. That would be good enough to keep batterys charged up in the winter months. I know it would take forever to charge the batterys up if they were down, but just a trickle to keep them warm. For under $10, seems like its worth a try.
I have a 24 volt charger for an electric wheelchair. It makes a great 24 volt trickle charger. When I get home, I will try to get the manufacturer and model number.
Last edited by armytruck63; 05-04-2011 at 15:14.
Reason: spelling :-(
Here's report on this unit. I bought two of these $8.95 24 volt battery chargers or maintainers as I use them. Very happy with them. After sitting for a month, on the M818 with two large 8D batteries with 1155 cranking amps each, the unit brought the static voltage up from 23.7 volts to 26.9 overnight. Voltage stayed above 25 for almost a week after disconnecting the unit. It appears they will work very well as a maintainer. Probably not a charger for MV's but works good to keep the batteries up for a strong start next time you need to go cruising. They come with a 1/8" round female plug which I cut off and soldered color coded alligator clips to. I checked the link wildchild467 posted above and it shows hundreds still available.
__________________
US Navy 1976-1996
MVCC Treasurer & Webmaster "mvcconline.org"
1972 M818 "Optimus Prime"
38' M971 van trailer
1970 M35A2 "Snake Eyes"
1951 M37
M105A2 trailer
M101 trailer
Rated output is 32W @ 24V, which is about 1.3 amps. Great for charging a motorcycle or lawn tractor battery string, great for charging up smallish gel-cells (which is what it's for). Probably would keep 4TLs or 6TLs topped up OK, but you'd die of old age waiting for them to charge up - assuming 50% charge efficiency and an 80% charged 6TL you're talking about a 40 hour charge time.
But it should do just great as a maintainer, especially if you put it on a timer (see my other post).
I'll be getting one of these - just exactly what I want for the two garden tractor battery solution I have in mind for the MEP-002A.
Here's report on this unit. I bought two of these $8.95 24 volt battery chargers or maintainers as I use them. Very happy with them. After sitting for a month, on the M818 with two large 8D batteries with 1155 cranking amps each, the unit brought the static voltage up from 23.7 volts to 26.9 overnight. Voltage stayed above 25 for almost a week after disconnecting the unit. It appears they will work very well as a maintainer. Probably not a charger for MV's but works good to keep the batteries up for a strong start next time you need to go cruising. They come with a 1/8" round female plug which I cut off and soldered color coded alligator clips to. I checked the link wildchild467 posted above and it shows hundreds still available.
If you just immediately checked voltage after taking the batts off the charger, that was probably surface charge.
To get a more accurate reading, measure voltage after it's been off the charger a few hours.
In his defense, he did say "It stayed over 25 volts for a week" - so it did do SOME charging. I agree that you'd be waiting forever to actually charge a large battery with that thing, but 1.3 amps would be a good battery maintainer - nice find.
My two large 8D batteries did in fact stay above 25 volts for some time. Again this unit is not going charge 24 volt batteries as used in MVs. As used by me the unit did a good job of maintaining the charge even during the cold periods of Colorado winters. Just a note, after driving the truck for sometime I would put the unit back on the batteries and it showed it was charging (red light) for a few hours and then go green. So it brought whatever charge level that was on the batteries after driving the truck up to a higher level. Bottom line the unit works for me as a maintainer.
__________________
US Navy 1976-1996
MVCC Treasurer & Webmaster "mvcconline.org"
1972 M818 "Optimus Prime"
38' M971 van trailer
1970 M35A2 "Snake Eyes"
1951 M37
M105A2 trailer
M101 trailer
I have the wheelchair charger. I figure I can always use it for my wheelchair when I get too old to drive my MV. Actually, it will charge four dead 6tl's overnight.
Cheap 24VDC Battery Tender?
