Yes. You can charge and desulfate with the battery in the truck and connected. If you get to the point where you want to do a full reconditioning cycle, it is advisable to disconnect the battery from pos and neg cables so it is isolated from the truck's electronics. This is to protect sensitive electronic crap from the voltages generated during reconditioning. Having said that, I have run reconditioning cycles on several vehicles without disconnecting the cables, but not on anything newer than 2005. Ctek makes a DC-DC charger that seems to be well regarded, but I don't have one. I do have a couple of shore power Ctek 7002s that work great on 34/78 batteries.
Thanks.
Toyotas are notorious for low charging voltage, usually maxing at about 13.9. That is supposed to be too low for an AGM, but I have a Northstar AGM in my Tundra with a stock charging system and everything seems to be working just fine. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The advantage of the DC-DC or conditioning chargers is that they will charge at somewhere between 14.7 and 15.6 volts, depending on the charger, and that is what AGMs like. If everything else is in good order, you can probably extend the life of both batteries by running a cycle every few months.
Thanks, and I know the charging system is working fine since it was just tested at the dealership a short time ago.
Time to change that tray to something universal. What if your battery crapped out in the middle of nowhere and you couldn't get an Optima-shaped replacement?
If the new Optima I am getting tomorrow were to crap out on me, I can flip a switch in the cab with my Painless Wiring dual battery kit and the main battery would take over running the fridge and starting the rig.
As I have mentioned in the past, I use to run my old ARB fridge on the starting battery all the time up to 5 days camping with the rig off, but with a Powerfilm 60 watt solar panel hooked up to it.
Agree, short commute often results in chronic undercharging of aux battery, requiring a regular top off with a shore charger, which can be done with battery in truck and connected.
A DC-DC charger won't help with that; commute time too short. But it will make a difference on long drives.
Which might not mean anything.
It won't make much difference if you topped off with the shore charger before leaving, and it won't make much difference on the drive home where you plan to top off when you get there.
But if you move from place to place and put in a few hours on the road in between, yea it'll make a difference.
Thanks.
But if you used a cranking battery as a house battery and got seven years out of it...
Then either that was a magic battery, or you made a deal with the devil...
Or your charging system is working fine.
Yes, the charging system is fine.
Now here is something that might interest you.
As stated before, I usually see both batteries on my dual battery meter in the cab juicing around 13.9v and then floating around 13.4 to 13.6v or so on the commute home.
And, that Australian dual battery meter in the cab may not be entirely accurate.
I should use my Fluke and test both batteries with the rig off, and then with the rig started.
But here is a video I made this morning when getting ready to wax my rig.
The Redtop was saying it was 14.5v on the charge controller of the solar panel, and also inside the cab on that dual battery meter.
Now an hour after taking the solar panel off, it is sitting at 12.4v.
I am pretty confident when camping and having the Renogy 100 watt solar panel hooked up to the new Yellowtop it should be getting some good readings.
Today's reading in the Redtop was with no load on the battery, as the fridge is off right now.
Now over the weekend when I had the Renogy hooked up to the Redtop and the fridge running, the incab meter was reading it was 11.9v, not good.
I think the Redtop was so down not even the solar could bring it up higher when the fridge was running.
What about those Mean Green alternators I use to hear about years ago, that might be a good option too if they make one for the 4.0 Toyota engine?
Or is it still the Toyota wiring that does not allow enough high of a voltage to charge up an aux battery?
