Battery disconnect

[SteveL]

Growing tired of having to jump start and or killing batteries on my broncos and suburban. Was looking to get some battery disconnects and noticed Amazon has some that work off a remote so no need to pop the hood. Anyone had experience with these? Recommendations.?

 

[DirtDonk]

Got a link? Never heard of them, but with so many remote things done with your phone these days, I'm not surprised.
How long are your rigs sitting before the battery is dead?

Paul

 

[Oleguy 74]

just looked at those.might be fine.they open the ground.

 

[Apogee]

What about a battery tender instead? I like my NOCO GENIUS2D / GCP1 trickle charger for my tractor so much, I put one on my forklift and I think I'm going to put one on my EB as well.

 

[1969]

+1 for a NOCO trickle charger with a quick disconnect on it

 

[bmc69]

+2. We have NOCO Genius chargers on 5 trucks and two motorcycles. Make the batteries last a LOT longer too.

 

[SteveL]

What about a battery tender instead? I like my NOCO GENIUS2D / GCP1 trickle charger for my tractor so much, I put one on my forklift and I think I'm going to put one on my EB as well.

I'm trying to avoid having extention cords all over the driveway. My 66 I try and drive every month or so along with the suburban. My 72 I try to start when I jump the others but haven't driven as much due to sketchy brakes. I think the rod from the brake pedal to hb unit is too long. Whenever I get those brakes working right I have a c-4 to put in so I can drive it more. Also need to swap an arb for the rear spool to make it more street friendly. Back to the batteries I thought those remote cut-offs might be a simple solution. I tried the solar battery tenders without much luck. Also the broncos have red top optimas and the ch*vy has an interstate battery.

 

[DirtDonk]

I’ve always liked the idea of quick disconnects, at least on the negative terminal. Reason being I could always think of a scenario where I needed to disconnect the battery quickly, but wasn’t able to because I have always put my terminals on tight.
And though I usually have a wrench close to hand, it’s not always that close!
Quick cut off would be desirable. Then again, there isn’t a whole lot of extra room under the hood, when using big batteries.

 

[56f100bbw]

+1 for a NOCO trickle charger with a quick disconnect on it

Noco are great got 1 on my back up generator and my tractor and my 77 bronco driver

 

[OX1]

May not be a good location on an EB, but this is where I put it on the 79 crawler.

 

[Broncobowsher]

The little radio receiver will always have a little drain looking for the remote.
What do you have that is doing the draw? Radio memory? EFI memory? I've had stuff that could sit for 6 months or more, no tender, and still start without issue. My boat doesn't care how long it sits. My old Kubota didn't care either. For a Bronco, there should not be any need for a disconnect to keep the battery from being drained. Now if you added a continous draw, that would be different.

Another option would be solar. The key to a good solar maintainer is the charge controller. It takes amazingly little solar to keep a battery topped off, even if there is a little parasitic draw. I've given up on chargers that are overly complex, that feel they have to desulfate the battery on every charge cycle. I have put a few Sunkeeper SK6 charger controllers and some small (20W?) panels on some stuff at work after running the same setup for over a decade on my own stuff. It has been working great. The SK6 has extremely minimal dark current and can survive higher operating temps than anything else I have found. So simple it actually works right. I've kept batteries alive for over 7 years when normally they are dead in 2 years. With no extension cords, and not that good of light either.

 

[ba123]

Bowsher is onto something there….design a solar bikini top!

Other than that, another vote for the trickle. It really doesn't help maintain your batteries as well. I have one from Ctek, which I got for my Porsche which has CONSTANT drain, and Ctek makes the Porsche branded one, which is what turned me onto them.

It’s a tender, charger, conditioner with modes for different battery types. I'm sure there are other good ones, but that's the one I know. Can connect to battery, can install a quick connector anywhere you want, or even into your cigarette lighter I think…at least for tending.

 

[Johnnyb]

I like the idea of a remote disconnect for all kinds of reasons: security, fire, long-term battery drain, etc..
Right now I have a couple of knife switches on the ground side of both batteries, but that requires opening the hood.
I looked at the radio disconnects on Amazon but was concerned that none of them had the amp capacity to handle a big winch.
Let me know what you come up with n

-JB

 

[nvrstuk]

What about a battery tender instead? I like my NOCO GENIUS2D / GCP1 trickle charger for my tractor so much, I put one on my forklift and I think I'm going to put one on my EB as well.

Warn 8K # and 9600# winches draw over 500 amps.

I put my 500amp marine battery disconnect within reach of the front drivers seat in case somehow a battery or pos. cable shorts out.

I use 5 Battery Tenders on all my equip. Small lawn mower batteries don't last a winter here w/o a battery tenders I tried bringing them inside, charging them on a trickle charger for two days, then disconnect and they would die. On a battery tender now they last 3-4 yr.

I have 4 tenders now that have lasted 5 yrs or longer. Still have to physically connect/disconnect but no overcharging issues to deal with. Some of the stuff like mowers and boats don't get used for months at a time and if you use a trickle charger you will destroy the batteries if you leave it for too long- just mentioning that because I have no idea how often you use your Bronco even tho it should not drain your battery just sitting there. You have a drain in a circuit somewhere it seems like. Easier to trace it than to put in a 500 amp disconnect that is easily reachable.