Battery tender / terminal rings

[InvalidUserID]

Now that gas is making it hurt again, my camaro is seeing less and less driving so I'm wanting to hook it up to a battery tender. One that I'm looking at has terminal rings that I can just attach and leave on.

The situation is that I have two other terminal rings on the side post bolts already (one for stereo, one for HID ballasts). Will having too many terminal rings be a problem?

Also, I've never used a battery tender before. Can I leave the battery hooked up to the car and use the tender or do I have to unhook it from the car? It's a pain to have to redo all the radio settings but if thats the only/better option, I'll do it.

Thanks guys.

 

[UNC197]

I have one on the Rx7. I just left the battery in and connected it. No worries.

 

[bullwinkle]

Me too, I leave my Battery Minder on the F-450 (since it's not completely fixed nor driven yet) for a week at a time, it just gets up to around 13 V or so, then starts the pulsing/grid cleaning mode after that.

 

[InvalidUserID]

Thanks for your experiences guys. Glad to know I can leave everything hooked up and don't have to disconnect any battery cables.

Any one have thoughts on the battery ring terminals being an issue?

 

[The_Jeff]

You could stack rings on the positive terminal but it's ghetto and causes lots of failure points for corrosion etc to seep in. And if the rings take up thickness on the side terminals you should make sure you still get enough bolt in to the battery or you'll strip the soft battery threads.

If you follow your positive lead it usually splits off with a smaller 10 gauge lead going off to a fusebox and big lug there. I would do my positive tap there and negative on any convenient clean ground.

 

[Drew2000]

I hooked up the Battery Tender Plus with the ring terminals and 2-prong plug on my Mustang. I plug it in whenever the car will sit for a while during the week. As was said, you should be able to find

Since I think the Camaro battery is in the trunk and harder to get to, the permanent set-up would be ideal. Don't you have a positive jump-start post under the hood? Look around there and you might find a good place to attach the rings.

If it's a real Battery Tender (or similar properly regulated tender), there is no problem with leaving it plugged in indefinitely and having the battery connected to the car.

--> Just remember to unplug it before moving the car!

http://batterytender.com/battery-tender-plus-12v-at-1-25a.html

 

[Stu_Rock]

The Battery Tender is designed to be left plugged in.

It does sound like the OP is in need of a better power distribution scheme.

On my Park Avenue, there is an 8-position Maxi Fuse block that had only three positions used. I bought packages of the terminals and retaining clips that fit inside the fuse block cavities. Now I have two new positions--one is for my relay-controlled headlights (fat wires) and the other is a feed for my Battery Tender. It's a really elegant setup.

Maybe there is something similar in your Camaro. If there's an underhood fuse block with open positions, you can buy Delphi-Packard terminals to populate them. Mouser Electronics is where I got mine.

 

[Stu_Rock]

Originally Posted By: Drew2000
--> Just remember to unplug it before moving the car!
One time, I forgot to unplug my BT. I leave my BT in the garage and use a 50 ft cord to plug in whichever car I am charging outside. I back my cars into the driveway, so I pull straight out when I leave. I drove two blocks before I realized what I had done! The connectors separated so nothing got broken--I was lucky.

 

[paulo57509]

Here's the setup for my '87 IROC. Simple. Nothing but the Battery Minder plugged into the supplied trailer connector/ring terminals. I did have to put larger ring terminals on the trailer connector to get them over the double-ended terminal bolts.

I'm slowly killing this car; it's gone 1400 miles in the last 7 years.

It's about how old the battery and the tender setup is. It gets plugged in whenever the car is parked, which is all the time.

 

[InvalidUserID]

Thanks for all the suggestions and posts guys. I ended up just "stacking" them to the terminal posts and its working fine, battery still connected to the car. Might look at little funky but it works and I like how the terminal ring plug has a cover to protect from corrosion and the elements.

$25 on Amazon, a steal!

 

[The_Jeff]

That's a nice looking setup; I thought you were monkeying with the too-short stock bolts.

Is there a "cork" or cover you can put on the positive terminal though? Might make a decent short in an accident in its current state.

 

[paulo57509]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Is there a "cork" or cover you can put on the positive terminal though? Might make a decent short in an accident in its current state.

This happened when I was disconnecting the ring terminals from the extended terminal bolts; the wrench slipped out of my hand and landed on the POS terminal bolt.

I'm still looking for a suitable bolt cover.

Thanks for the compliments, too.