Charging more than one bettery at a time??? (1 Viewer)

[Degnol]

A guy just gave me two nearly new lawn tractor sized lead/acid batteries and I'd like to keep them on a trickle charger, but don't want to buy another charger. Can I just make some cables to hook them up in parallel and charge them as one big 12v battery? Don't really want to BLOW anything up.
Aly 'Lectical Engineers out there?
Ed Long ???

 

[hammerhead]

No prob. Thats how our loader works.

 

[Landpimp]

well they won't blow up(prolly) but they will fight against each other untill one or both are dead. Unless both at the same batt, the same age, the same condition, what will happen is the weaker one will suck the life out of the better one. It's the same as running 2 batts in a truck joined togehter without an selnoid or isolator. Your doing the same thing by hooking them togther and trickel charging them.

I would trickle charge them seperate, run one for a few weeks then the other, if one looses it charge in 2 weeks then it's toast anyway.

that my opinion........

John

 

[Degnol]

Thanks, John...Will you call me and remind me to change them every so often?
A guy with my brain ought to only be allowed one battery and one charger.
The guy I got these from works for an alarm company that does BIG stuff. They'll have a whole bank of these lawn tractor sized batts and if the thing ever goes to battery backup, they replace them all! No matter the age or condition. They are all the same size as my JD tractor.
Ed

 

[Rice]

It sounds like I could use a couple of those dudes.

Stick 'em in parallel and plug it in. Charging in parallel is both common and practical.