Charge!

I drove the truck to Mock Tire and Auto for some new tires. I read a little about low-rolling resistance tires. I found the topic confusing. I decided to go with an inexpensive and narrow tire. I will plan to keep them well inflated.

On my way home, the truck got a little sluggish. The truck was still running on the factory charge from over three months ago. It was time for a charge.

I got some four wire, ten gauge, weather resistant wire from Lowes. I attached the connectors and tested the charger. I heard beeping and saw a blinking red light - this did not seem good. I looked up this code in book. It means that the battery is disconnected. Since I had not connected the batteries yet, this was OK.

I disconnected the positive battery cable. I made the connection from the charger to the batteries. When attempting to connect the battery cable, I saw sparks. I checked all the connections and tried again. I saw more sparks.

I put a 20 Amp in-line fuse on the end of the battery cable and touched the fuse wire to the battery. I saw sparks again, but the fuse did not blow. It turns out that the sparks are from the sudden inrush of current charging some capacitors. If the sparks were due to a short circuit, the fuse would have blown. So, I made the connection and started charging.

UPDATE: The first charge took about 16 hours. The second charge took about 13 hours. I've driven the truck to/from work twice. I've gone up to 33 miles on one charge.