Disconnect Battery While on Vacation?

I left my truck untouched for 2 months and it fired right up after sitting In below 0weather

 

Nothing wrong with Battery tenders

 

I agree with the leave it alone you’ll be fine crowd. What I wouldn’t do is leave it on a trickle charger unattended for 3 weeks I just don’t trust chinese or any other battery charging electronics that much

 

I’ve got 3 spare batteries on solar battery tenders. I agree though, wouldn’t leave a plug in one that long.

 

Deltran Battery tenders have a 10yr warranty and on their FAQ's page they mention no issues leaving the Battery Tender plugged in for long periods of time

they do mention checking the battery once a month though

 

Good point about leaving the house with the tender running..

If you were in a cold weather climate maybe I'd answer different, but honestly just leave it alone.

 

I said I would report back...

And it’s confirmed, I have been away from my truck for 2 months exactly and my battery is dead.

It’s on a tender now, if it comes back to life, cool. If not, lithium baby!

Yeww!

 

I quit running a tender when the local FD had a tender on an ATV and it caught fire almost burning the fire hall down... true story. Theirs was one of those situations where the ATV stayed on the tender until it was needed and could be quite a while. I think that had to do more with the manufacturer than battery though. We have probably 30+ battery stations at work running DC control power to switchgear, these run 15 years plus depending mostly on environment.

In 2007 a guy hit me headon and I was out of commission for 3 months. I started my Ram Cummins in the middle of February after a preheat with no problems, it had last ran in October. I think it'll be fine but like T.A.C.O.M.A in the post above, your experience may vary.

 

I don't think 3 weeks is a big deal but FYI I bought a battery I wanted when it was on sale and kept it in the garage with a trickle charger for a long time until the battery in the truck died - it was fine and still using it.

 

Park and leave it alone. It will be fine in 3 weeks, unless you are in very cold temperatures.

 

The reason I need the Battery Tender for my Camaro is I've got a very high compression stroker sbc with locked out timing . If the battery is just the slightest bit weak I can experience bad starter kick back which has already destroyed two starters and a flexplate

 

Can you please go into a little more detail what a short pin is and does? Not familiar with this

 

Wonder if there is a one way clutch of some sort, so the engine can't spin the starter motor backwards when the solenoid is engaged?

 

It’s basically a jumper (thus an electrical “short”) styled like a fuse but with tabs on the sides. Removed for shipment to the dealers to avoid battery discharge due to parasitic draw (see attached pdf). The location may not be as shown in the picture below, the inside cover of your engine bay fuse box will show where it is. Also can store it with the spare fuses in the cover for 3rd gen, not sure about earlier gens. You don’t want to lose this, other threads indicate you can’t buy one without buying the fuse block!


Short pin location on my 3rd gen is the off-white one near bottom left in pictures below: