Will a battery tender top off my access. battery?

[SaltLifeCC]

I just bought a battery tender plus to keep my RV's battery fresh while not plugged into "shore power". The plus is a 1.25 amp charger/maintainer.

I'm going to be adding a dedicated 12v battery to my cart to run my accessories (lights and stereo). Does anyone have an opinion as to if the tender will be able to top off my accessory battery if I plug it in at the campground every night, when I plug the cart charger in for the night, and let them both run 10 to 12 hours?

I dropped a decent chunk of change on this tender and really don't want to go out and buy another charger if this will get the job done. Typically, the stereo would be used sparingly during the days and nights at the campground but the lights are likely to be used for a couple of hours every night.

[Scooter B]

It should be fine as long as you don't run the battery all the way down. I have one similar in the boat for the cranking battery, and it does fine....as long as I don't do something stupid and kill it all the way (which I have been know to do)

I left it on the tender for 8 hours after running it down, and she still wouldn't turn over, after 2 hours on my big charger it was back to 100%

[SaltLifeCC]

I guess it remains to be seen how much the battery will get taxed so a hard question to answer. I guess I can give it a shot on the next trip and, if it doesn't get the job done, I'll have to get another charger.

[sonicj]

do you know how many amps your lights pull?

lets says 10 for now...
so 10A × 2hours =20Ah consumed per night

the charger charges at 1.25A
1.25A × 10hours = 12.50Ah replaced

bummer!

[gaminde]

If thats all your going to do with it then get a cheep battery charger from the auto store.
you can make a maintainer for 5.00 with some radio shack parts.

Pictured are boards I have for my electronics projects, there the same except for the regulator one is 5 volt one is 12 volt the 12 volt would maintain a battery for long periods weeks months, after their charged, but would not be good for charging. You could just jump to one battery of the battery pack and use the cart charger it will not know the difference. you really do not need a separate charger.

[SaltLifeCC]

Did I mention I already purchased the maintainer and took it out of the package and have it running already? Too late to take it back.

I have a cheap charger - it's a manual charger so I hate to leave it running unattended. I guess I can bite the bullet and go get a decent one before my next camping trip.