Date:         Fri, 7 Oct 2011 08:47:19 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Battery Charger ?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

  Not totally Vanagon but it will be used for my Vanagon's batteries.

  Where the he** can I find a "manual" battery charger, one that is small
enough to carry in a vehicle, not a shop sized wheel around one?   I am told
I need to have a charging rate of 14volts (amps?), minimum, in order to get
my deep cycle batteries back to full charge.

  We have a camp trailer with a 'power center' that supplies a low rate (a
couple of amps, I guess) charge to the house batteries when the trailer is
plugged into shore power or connected to our Coleman generator in an
emergency.  I can't afford a new expensive inverter/charger/powercenter.

  I am told the newer 'power centers' in most RVs and trailers have
invertor/chargers that put  at least 14 volts into the house batteries when
a generator is connected or they ar plugged into the grid....and that we
need one of "these"....or alternatly, we can use a seperate battery charger
that supplies 14volts, connected right to the house batteries.

  I have about 3 of those so called "Smart Chargers" that  work seldom on a
dead battery..... when a battery is dead or actually needs a charge... (I am
being sarcastic there) the chargers won't do it.
 You clip em on and the  circuitry somehow prevents them from adding juice
to the battery that is dead.
  I also have an old style manual charger...it has a dual rate...2amps and
10 amps-It 'sort of' works but it is old and funky with bad switches and no
operating dial....So I want to replace that ,but I am told that I need at
least 14 amps(?) to get our deep cycle NAPA (almost new) house batteries up
again after an extended cloudy camping period....

  Online, I have found only one "manual" battery charger of the portable
style...Shumacher....but it only delivers 10amps..

  So can someone point me to a manual battery charger that puts out about 15
amps?  One that is portable and that is under about $75?  One that is
"On....or....off" without any 'smart programming' that 'needs to see a
certain reading before it operates or that diminishes the charging rate as
the battery gains, or any of that fancy stuff?   I want one to work, every
time.

  Last winter I was  sometimes using our vehicle to charge the batteries in
the trailer with jumper cables when my SO ran the house batteries totally
flat........Not the most efficient use of fossil fuel...  In a perfect
world, we would just go to the RV park and pay the $78/night fee to
camp....but that is not going to happen...

  Don Hanson

  Sorry for the imprecise terminology about things electrical...I hope I got
my info request across, despite being an electrical dunce.