Battery charger

[valleyman]

I managed to flatten, not kill, my battery by two days of playing the stereo while I worked on the front door speakers. This is my first vehicle with any type of sophisticated electronics: is it OK to hook up a two amp trickle charger to the battery without disconnecting the battery ground cable? Will it cause any type of unspeakable nightmares to any of the car's electrical components to trickle charge the battery while it's still hooked up?

[RF Overlord]

Since we're all human (well, except for those who are lawyers), people are going to occasionally need a jump-start...I can't imagine that hooking a small trickle charger could do more damage than a full-sized battery booster...as long as it doesn't make a huge hum in your stereo while it's hooked up, then I don't see how it could be any harm...

[Sactown]

How about give it a jump start and drive around for a while to recharge it. I've done that with other cars but not the MM...yet.

[martyo]

People are going to occasionally need a jump-start..

Yeah that's true Bob, but it still doesn't justify you touching your tongue to the battery terminals.....

[CRUZTAKER]

I use a Sears 2A trickle charger on the MM over the course of two winters. I did nothing more than put a permanent quick disconnect attachment on my battery.

[valleyman]

Thanks for the input folks. I guess I don't need to worry about it. I just didn't want to fry anything due to gross stupidity.

[merc406]

It's been awhile, like 12 years ago, but we always disconnected the neg. cable with the shop chargers, also when welding on them ( the car).

[rookie1]

ran my battery down a couple of times messing with stereo and used the "start" setting on the charger without disconnecting the battery cable with no ill effects. You'd be amazed how quickly adding an amp can run down the battery. I've been thinking about installing one of those battery buddy things to prevent this. My Aurora has it as an OEM feature and it really works.