I just got a Battery Tender Plus to go with the new battery for our truck which sits in the garage most of the time and is driven infrequently. The old battery went dead a few times from sitting and I'd been planning to get a maintenance charger once we had to replace it both to ensure the new battery lasts as long as it can and so we didn't have to worry about taking shorter trips in the vehicle from time to time.
The charger comes with a short cable with ring connectors and a rubber cap on the plug at the other end, and I'm planning to put the ring connectors on the [side post] battery and just leave it there tied up so it doesn't get into trouble. If that doesn't work out it also comes with an alligator clip cable but that'll be more of a pain on the side post battery I think.
At any rate the instructions say to hook up the positive end to the positive terminal on the battery and the negative end to a chassis ground. They specifically say NOT to plug the unit into the wall until all other connections have been made so I would not expect sparks. Why would you have to connect it to a chassis ground instead of the negative battery terminal? There is a chassis ground spot close enough I think, but the negative terminal would be more convenient. Is there an important reason for this?
The charger comes with a short cable with ring connectors and a rubber cap on the plug at the other end, and I'm planning to put the ring connectors on the [side post] battery and just leave it there tied up so it doesn't get into trouble. If that doesn't work out it also comes with an alligator clip cable but that'll be more of a pain on the side post battery I think.
At any rate the instructions say to hook up the positive end to the positive terminal on the battery and the negative end to a chassis ground. They specifically say NOT to plug the unit into the wall until all other connections have been made so I would not expect sparks. Why would you have to connect it to a chassis ground instead of the negative battery terminal? There is a chassis ground spot close enough I think, but the negative terminal would be more convenient. Is there an important reason for this?