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.

[BailOut]

Originally Posted by 1stToyota

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?

Every solar trickle charger that I've seen uses a voltage-sensitive diode to prevent overcharging.

[1stToyota]

Originally Posted by BailOut

Every solar trickle charger that I've seen uses a voltage-sensitive diode to prevent overcharging.

Then it's probably not taking enough charge to get all goosed out about. You can charge a battery all day long at 15.5 volts but soon as you kill the power it'll drop back off to around 13 volts or less, so I can't imagine a solar powered battery minder being able to do much with an already fully charged battery...I assume the battery is in good condition, the charging system is working properly and no parasitic drainage.