Seems the van has a drain on the power somewhere. I'm not going to spend what may be big bucks to find and fix the problem. So, I thought I'd get a charger to top up the battery weekly ( weakly ). Any brands you would recommend? Or shall I just go with Canadian Tired at about $50.

 

Sam I just use a Crappy tire charger to charge my batteries for my boat, it has worked great for years.

Ian uses a battery tender on his car when he leaves it sitting for extended periods. It just gives it a light trickle charge to keep it topped up.

 

Yeah, I figure for light use a crapy tire one will do just fine.

 

That's what I have, too.

 

i've used the crappy tires one on my motorcycle batteries for the last 4 years... and have had no problems. i'd recommend buying one with an automatic shut-off.

 

Sam I've been through a few of them over the years.
The problem with most trickle chargers is they can damage the battery over time by overcharging it.

I absolutely love the one I have now.
It has voltage monitoring that takes the charge to a safe float level.
You can plug it in and leave it.
I bought it for the BMW & use it now on the G, because it sits for extended periods in the winter.

http://batterytender.com/automotive.html

Tech info

...also available on flea-bay

 

What about this one.
http://www.canadiantire.ca/checkinve...0095931bdd60e9

I can't seem to buy the Battery Tender locally.

 

Link isn't working for me Sam, what's the sku #

 

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows...%2BCharger.jsp

 

Sam that looks pretty slick, it should do what you want.

My old battery charger is a CTC Automatic 10/2A charger with Quick start switch on it (I forget how many amps the QS is) I have had it for at least 15 years.

 

You should be able to get a battery tender at any motorcycle shop. I've sold them for years and have never had any issues. CT chargers are great oo. We have one at our cottage for the trolling motor that has to be at least 20 years old. It is completely encased in rust and internally consists of spider webs inside and never skips a beat.

 

I'm going to pick this one up tomorrow.
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows...2B8%252B2A.jsp

 

Thats a remorseless charging machine! Good pick, should do you right.

 

Trickle chargers should be connected for a day or two at the most unless your life is just way too busy to forget disconnecting. Otherwise overcharging will boil away the innards. Unless you have a float charger.

 

Sam, I had 2 chargers. One was the earlier version of this one and one more conventional type- both from CTC. The intelligent one wouldn't work on the G for some reason. It kept going into "reverse polarity" mode even though my connections were correct.

On other vehicles that had run down batteries it charged 2-3 times as fast as anything else I'd used. I sold that one along with my business.