solar trickle charger and alternator

[1stToyota]

Originally Posted by wingdood

hi,

I was thinking about buying a solar trickle charger to increase my FE, but then I realized that it wouldn't make a difference if the alternator for the Yaris was not load sensitive (alternator still runs when the battery is fully charged).

Does anyone know for sure if the alternator for the Yaris is load sensitive?

Is it a smart charger that knows to not overcharge the battery and shut off the charging cycle when it senses a fully charged battery? Unless you have a parasitic drain I wouldn't worry about it because most batteries I test show a surface charge on the battery even though they've been sitting for hours. If I connected a battery minder charger to the battery it'd just shut off because it'd see a fully-charged battery.