SCBJ -
Good questions all. I think you have made a truly excellent choice for a battery, and you are aware of the 6300 charger problems. So you're on the road to battery happiness.
1. "Going through the Bargman connector" for what purpose? I assume you mean that you would have an external charger, and feed the charge to the battery through the Bargman while the TM is in storage, right? If I've misinterpreted your question, please let me know and we'll hit it again. My answer is that a better action is simply to disconnect the battery before you close the TM. A fully charged battery will go several months without much self-discharge if you remove all external loads. On the other hand, if you would prefer not to disconnect the battery, and if you are really more comfortable keeping a charger on it (nothing wrong with that), then the Bargman is an excellent way to feed it.
2. How long without a charger, but with the parasitic loads? Answer - not long. Let's ball-park it. Your battery is probably rated at something like 80 amp-hours (AH). The parasitic load is something like 1/2 amp if you have a radio installed. Therefore, to discharge the battery to 50% of charge (and you don't want to go much lower than that) would take 40 AH / 0.5amp = 80 hours. About 3 days. It could be longer, maybe a week - but that is still pretty short. That's why it is so nice to disconnect the battery.
3. How to connect the charger via the Bargman. The easiest answer is to buy a Bargman mating connector, and hook the charger into that. The connector will be called "the car half" or something like that, and it makes the trailer think it is plugged into a car. Available from WalMart, etc.
4. Bargman is through the 6300? No. The 6300 (or any trailer converter's battery charger) converts AC power (house or shore power) into 12-volt power to charge the battery. If you don't connect the trailer to AC power / shore power, then the 6300 just sits there like an anchor, doing nothing. The connection from the Bargman to the battery is direct. The 6300 plays no part.
4a) Smart charger - yes, a smart charger (3-stage, they're called) would connect nicely through the Bargman, and would be kind to your battery. Remember, though, that many el cheapo manufacturers use the term "smart", but unless the unit costs $60-$100 or more, it ain't.
4b) The best answer, for storage times of a few months, is to simply disconnect the battery.
Hope this helps.
Bill
|