Solar Trickle Charger Hook-Up

[Chuhhuniban]

I just purchased a solar trickle charger capable of 4 Watts per hour, 267mA per hour. I purchased at the same time, a cigarette lighter socket with a foot or so of wire behind it.

My plan is to wire the socket into the batteries in the battery box and just leave it there. When my AS is parked, I'll plug the solar charger in, set it out from under the cover where my AS is stored, and I'll be able to quit pulling the batteries and keeping them on a shore trickle charger in the garage.

My question is the proper hook-up. Obviously, there are two batteries in the battery box, wired in parallel (based upon what I dimly remember about electrical theory in school, maybe series?).

If I put connectors on the end of the pigtail out of the socket, should I connect both to one of the batteries or the positive on one and the negative on the other battery?

[zekethebear]

If you have 2 - 12v batteries in parallel, then connecting to the + and - on one will be ok to get charge current to both.

[Castaway]

Where did you buy this solar trickle charger?

Gary

[Dingo Girl]

Originally Posted by castaway

where did you buy this solar trickle charger?

Gary

x2.

[Chuhhuniban]

From Solarforceproducts.com. Canadian company,

[Randyf22]

Love my BatteryMinder Model SCC-016. Bought off Amazon. Easy install.

[TheCabin]

Since the batteries are wired in parallel, connect to the (+) on one and the (-) on the other to make sure that both are equally subjected to the charging.

On a related note, I also thought that I could just use a solar trickle charger when in storage. So I went and purchased the ZAMP trickle charger through an AS dealer and hooked it up to the existing ZAMP side port for my other ZAMP panels. After a few weeks I found the batteries to be too low a voltage to operate anything. I believe that I had just owned the trailer for less than a year. In my case it was next to impossible to determine anything about the charging circuit since it was just a brick with no data port. I ended up recording the battery voltage over time with and without the charger and determined that while the charger was working, the batteries were bad. The AS dealer replaced them and then the solar trickle charger worked just fine. I now keep the trailer in a barn with power so I use a battery Minder (until I install a Magnum inverter) and moved the ZAMP solar trickle charger to an old Super C in building with no power.

[Barretta2]

Originally Posted by Randyf22

Love my BatteryMinder Model SCC-016. Bought off Amazon. Easy install.

Might you have purchased your Model SCC-016 a while ago? I can't find that model on Amazon or even the general web, so I can't compare its features to the current (pun intended) Battery MINDers.

Also--when you say "easy install", does that mean a blondenon-techiewhoisafraidofelectricity can do it?

[Chuhhuniban]

Error in my previous post: It's "sunforceproducts.com" not solar. Sorry.

[masseyfarm]

As stated above, if you have 2 x 12 volt batteries, on a 12 volt system, connect the + to one and the - to the other to allow the charge to pass through both batteries.

When you connect your solar feed, use some dielectric grease so that the terminals will remain clean with good conductivity.

If you have that small a panel, you don't want too long a feed line to the trailer batteries?

And yes, keep a watch on the system for a couple months to make sure it is doing what it is expected to do.

Considering where you are in the off season, your panel may hardly replace the parasitic loss that would happen overnight?

Dave