battery charging?

[murphcbr6]

am i safe to put my battery charger straight onto the battery in-situ - or do I need to disconnect the terminals from it first? (I've got the two battery set-up btw)

with previous cars with single batteries, I've always just bunged my crocodile clips straight on to the terminals.

also - I'm assuming i need to do both batteries - i.e. charge one up for an hour - then charge the other??? - sorry I'm not quite sure how this double battery thing works...

[Bogus]

I just bunged my charger on to one of them. It didnt do any harm and it seemed to work. Probably not the " correct" way but not an issue either

Bogus

[Wild Thing]

am i safe to put my battery charger straight onto the battery in-situ - or do I need to disconnect the terminals from it first? (I've got the two battery set-up btw)

with previous cars with single batteries, I've always just bunged my crocodile clips straight on to the terminals.

also - I'm assuming i need to do both batteries - i.e. charge one up for an hour - then charge the other??? - sorry I'm not quite sure how this double battery thing works...

You only need to put the charger leads onto one set of battery terminals to charge them both as they are wired in parallel, but will take twice as long, I would recommend disconecting one of the earth terminals and charging them seperately, then if you have one of the batteries not holding or taking charge you will be able to tell which is the faulty battery and you will still be able to start the car off the good battery

[Ricksurf]

Hiya mate, the preferred way to charge batteries I believe is to disconnect them from their leads, charge them on high until they just start to fizz, and then reduce to trickle charge overnight. Doing this wont risk damage to the alternator diode pack, and yes do one at a time if poss

[Apache]

I just bunged my charger on to one of them. It didnt do any harm and it seemed to work. Probably not the " correct" way but not an issue either

Bogus

The batteries are connected in parallel so connecting to one will charge both. No problem charging them in situ.

[paulh]

Unless it's a BIG charger you won't have put much of a charge into them after 1 hour, I've had a 12amp automatic charger on mine for 3 days and it still hasn't switched to trickle.
Oh and I leave mine connected as well never had a problem.

[Vagrant No2]

I agree with Gary to charge each battery individually . If one battery is at fault it could stop the other taking charge . You need to ask yourself why the batterys are flat anyway . If one battery has failed it will hold the other back from giving a good starter current .
The rule I was taught for batterys when I was working on vehicles as a mechanic , was to slow charge the battery if the battery had been dischraged slowly ie by lights left on . Or fast charge the battery if it had been discharged quicly ie by cranking on the starter .

Best get the batterys load tested after you get the vehicle going .

[murphcbr6]

both batteries are fine

both batteries are fine, its just been stood for a while and I wanted to ensure that both batteries were fully charged up before I went away for the weekend.

I take your point about a dud battery pulling a good one down - shouldnt be an issue though.