Use ring terminal boat battery charger on SAE car battery?

[Tele 'til You're Smelly]

I have a Marinco "Charge Pro" battery charger that I use for my boat battery- the charger has ring terminals and so does the boat battery so it works great. I want to use it on a car battery that doesn't have ring terminals, only the standard car battery SAE terminals. I tried taping the ring terminals of the charger to the top of the battery SAE terminals and it didn't work (I sanded the top of the terminals clean)- the lights indicate the connection isn't good enough.

Can I use this charger with a regular car battery? How- can I buy SAE connectors for it? Not finding that on the interwebz. Thanks-

[El Chupacabra]

Is this a car battery with regular posts, and there's nothing on the posts? (it's not in a car with clamps covering the posts?) If so, something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Termi...35310397&psc=1

If the battery is in a car and the posts are in use, can you attach the ring terminals under the nuts on the clamps?

[Touring_Sedan]

The positive cable on the battery will run to a bus bar in the underhood fuse box. Attach your ring terminal there.

[Tele 'til You're Smelly]

Thanks. I have pulled the battery out of the car because the charger won't reach to where the car is (puts aside jumper cable starting for now- I did that but battery didn't stay charged, would like to put a full charge on it). So needs to work out of the car.

(or, I guess I can jump it, move closer to an outlet, then do as per one of the ways above if that's the best way?)

[gravitylover]

Go get a couple of replacement battery cable ends and clamp the ring into them then put the clamp on the battery.

[jono]

Thanks. I have pulled the battery out of the car because the charger won't reach to where the car is (puts aside jumper cable starting for now- I did that but battery didn't stay charged, would like to put a full charge on it). So needs to work out of the car.

(or, I guess I can jump it, move closer to an outlet, then do as per one of the ways above if that's the best way?)

You could jump it, meaning you have jumper cables with big strong clamps on the ends? Attach jumper cables to terminals. Secure so they don't flop into each other while charging.

[adrenalated]

Any particular reason that you need to use that specific charger instead of just buying a $20-30 trickle charger with alligator clamps and putting it on an extension cord to wherever your car is parked?

[Tele 'til You're Smelly]

Any particular reason that you need to use that specific charger instead of just buying a $20-30 trickle charger with alligator clamps and putting it on an extension cord to wherever your car is parked?

extension cord will make the fuse in the charger blow (tried that once) (and don't want to own 2 chargers). Sounds like the SAE clips will work, thanks all.

[adrenalated]

extension cord will make the fuse in the charger blow (tried that once)

Lol what? Your extension cord is damaged then.
No reason the fuse in a charger should blow because of an extension cord. An extension cord is just wires, you know, same thing that's running in your walls, just packaged differently.

[Tele 'til You're Smelly]

Lol what? Your extension cord is damaged then.
No reason the fuse in a charger should blow because of an extension cord. An extension cord is just wires, you know, same thing that's running in your walls, just packaged differently.

maybe- see https://vehq.com/can-i-use-an-extens...ttery-charger/ I probably could get away with a large-gauge short extension cord, but the time I tried it it was a long cord and it blew the fuse. I'm no electrical engineer but the longer the cord the more resistance, and certain things won't work well unless the cord is thick and/or short enough. I once tried to cook pancakes on an electric griddle with an extension cord and it didn't get hot enough- it is more than just "wires are wires"

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

A 14 gauge extension cord is exactly like the wires in 90% of homes.

If a battery is really dead, cheap trickle chargers will read it as a battery fault and will not normally charge it. If it's too dead to jump start with decent jumper cables, chances are, the battery is toast. They do not last forever.

[MakersTeleMark]