We recently bought a Jayco based on the Sprinter chassis. Since it is now quite cold we will not be using the vehicle for a number of months. The vehicle will be stored inside with power available. My question is that the chassis manual says to use a Mercedes battery maintainer or charger. The cost of these is $150. Anyone have any idea if they are just trying to sell an overpriced charger? Has anyone used some other charger priced much less and not disconnected the battery? I understand that the chassis battery is not that easy to access so I would prefer not to disconnect the battery terminals. Also does disconnecting the terminals cause the computer to loose its memory? Would I have issues in the spring starting the vehicle? One other thing is that disconnecting the battery is not desirable since the vehicle may (but probably not) have to be moved to let other vehicle by in unusual circumstances. The house battery I will disconnect and fully charge it before storage.
A small 2AMP trickle charger should maintain the battery with no problems. Someone mentioned a few days ago that Costco has a good one that is currently discounted.
Some owners would recommend fully charging and then disconnecting it, and in some area bringing it indoors for the season.
No need for it to be mercedes branded. A low amperage "smart" charger will work well. There's a lot of different brands, and even more opinions on those brands, but as long as the packaging clearly states that it has "charge logic" or that it's changing voltages and amperage based on feedback from the battery you are going to be fine.
As others have said no need for a fancy priced OEM charger. I use the Battery Tender Junior on my F350 which sits for months on end and it keeps a now 7 year old battery charged. I also bought the quick disconnect cable which allowed me to unplug the charger but the cord end is still attached to the terminals, makes for a nice tight connection.
I used to have a vehicle with a small parasitic draw I could never chase down. Use that same 750 mA Battery tender Jr whenever it was parked for a longer period and it was flawless. I also have a larger 15A intelligent charger that I use when I need to actually recharge a battery.
The Schumacher and CTEK brands seem common and popular, although I'd just use whatever you can get a reasonable deal on. I haven't seen anything compelling to say any one brand is better than the other.
Hey, thanks everyone for the reply. Seems like a smart type battery charger is really all that is needed especially if it can supply a low charging rate. No need to by the chassis manufacturer's over priced charger.
I appreciate the helpful information that is tried and tested.
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