Rockin Ronnie

I bought an automatic charger/maintainer for my 82 Coupe as I do not run it in the winter. The car is in an unheated but well ventilated garage.

In the instructions it says: "determine which post of battery is grounded (connected) to the chassis. If Negative post is grounded to the chassis (as in most cases) connect negative clamp to vehicle chassis or engine block away from battery." Why can't I just connect the clamps to both posts on the battery? If not where is a good place to put the negative clamp?

Ron

Evilclown

I've never had a problem just using the battery posts.

stevenmurray

spark at battery - could cause an explosion - so they're lawyers made them say it.
It is safer to make connection on engine block.

'81 tic-tac

"could" cause an explosion... meh... although i never have had a problem using the terminals either

JeromeS.

Uh, you don't have to do anything. Just disconnect it.

delquattro

it is a good idea to clamp the negative cable to a good ground rather than the negative post of a battery.


Since you are talking about leaving your charger hooked up to maintain your battery, you stand a higher risk of outgassing. Outgassing occurs when a battery is fed more voltage than it can store and it becomes a hydrogen generator.


Outgassing is why it is recommended that you hook up the battery of the car being jumped first. (You might notice that when completing the circuit with jumper cables, sparks are generated.) I rarely use a ground when jumping a vehicle, but I always put the jumper cables on the dead battery vehicle, first.


Anti-rice has the simplest solution, though and that is what I would do. I would pull the battery and store it in a warm place, too. (That is what I do with my motorcycle battery when putting it up for the winter.)

Rockin Ronnie

and will be stored in the basement.

Ron