Trickle charger questions Options

[bandjoey]

I've used this HF battery trickle charger for several years. Plug it in and forget it for weeks at a time. Very low and slow charge.rate. Then one day my battery, coil, and pertronics all fried at the same time while out on the road.

The shop said never use a trickle charger for more than 6 hours a day. They said no one really knows why everything went out at once and the long term use of this charger was possibly the cause.

Sometimes the car sits up to 2 weeks without driving it.

If I pick up a new charger do you think it should it be used for just a few hours at a time?
Will a different brand be better for our cars and how long should it be connected to the battery?

If I don't use a trickle charger how long do I need to drive the car to top off the battery?

[Mark Henry]

If you want to leave it on all the time you need a smart charger.

For winter storage I take all of my batteries out, summer cars, lawn tractor, boat, etc. and put them on a bench (never on concrete floor) and I charge them once a month at 2amps only.