| 
Get Your
ATV & UTV Battery Ready for the Winter Months
::Continued::
Once you have chosen an appropriate model, you can
get yourself squared away and deal no more with
that awful “click click click” on that
first sunny day of spring! The applications for
these chargers are well received for not just the
ATV and Bike markets, but do a great job of keeping
your riding mowers battery ready for spring as well.
The two models that we have had here for review
are the CTEK Multi 3300 and the Xtreme Charge
which is designated as a motorcycle battery charger
only. The CTEK is a well known and respected brand
that will charge most 12 volt batteries regardless
of size within reason.
| |
|
CTEK Multi
US 3300 Battery Charger
|
Xtreme
Charge 12 Volt Battery Charger |
The CTEK is the unit I would recommend if you
have batteries other then just an ATV battery
that may need charging as it is designed to handle
anything from a Marine battery to your ATV. It
also features a waterproof charging housing and
allows you to select which battery size you intend
on charging. This worked out well for me as I
have had to use it on everything from my Camping
trailers house battery to my farm tractor and
it handled its duties well. When used on the occasional
ATV it preformed as intended and was very easy
to set up.
The Xtreme unit was primarily used on the battery
sizes it was manufactured to charge. On one particular
unit, the battery would discharge in a week and
the Xtreme charger was applied to this unit. The
low state of charge issue was a thing of the past
and it too preformed as it is supposed to.
The technology that is on the market is commonly
shared and both units tested feature different
charging rates based on what the internal technology
is collecting. Usually a 4 or 5 step process is
used by the charger to help prevent or revive
a battery that has sulfated. While these claims
can be proven effective, once a battery has reached
a certain level of sulfation, charging the unit
may prove futile. The responsibility still remains
with the proper maintenance of any vehicle and
one can not assume that just because the claims
on the box will fix a bigger issue related to
the charging system or that any charger will completely
revive and restore a heavily sulfated battery
to a working state.
|
|
Both Chargers
feature standard alligator clamps that
easily attach to your battery
|
Both models also featured the standard clamps
to attach the charging leads to the battery as
well as the quick connects to allow you to have
the lead wires pre-attached to the battery for
quick connect and disconnect which works very
well as some of the batteries are very hard to
access when installed in an ATV, UTV or Motorcycle.
As with any product, please read the instruction
manual and refer to it when charging any battery.
Certain models offer blinking lights that send
out codes that can help you decide if more intensive
diagnosis of the battery is needed or to alert
the user to a potential issue.
|
