Would a trickle charger light a fog light or brake light?

[Ken Styles]

Hi All,

I know this is an off-the-wall question. But would a trickle charger like a Battery Tender Junior light a fog light or a brake light if I touch the pos wire to the pos clamp and the neg wire to the neg clamp?

The reason why I ask is I got some fog lights and wanted to test them to see how bright and it didn't work

but I'm not sure if it's because the battery tender doesn't work or the light doesn't work or this whole idea is not supposed to work.

I also have a circuit tester and I put the negative clamps together and touched the pos clamp with the tip of the circuit tester and it didn't light up.

[chrisz]

I would suggest to get a 9V battery (the kind you use in the smoke alarm) and use that to test the light. The light won't be as bright as with a full 12-13 V battery, but it will show you if the bulb works or not...

[Ken Styles]

oohh didnt know that!

I still want to figure out if the trickle charge is working on not. the light is on when I plug it in and my battery is on the bike which is at the mechanic.

[redial]

The trickle charger is probably only putting out around 0.9 amps, at around 12 volts. That means that anything over 12 watts would not work.

Use the same technique of putting red to red (positive) on the battery, and finding an earth on the machine or the negative post of the battery.

A car battery will also work, if your mc is at the mechanics.

[FM-USA]

Could take a very-very thin strip of alum-foil and hook the trickle charger to the ends. The strip will act like a fuse and blow even at a low .9 Amps.
I remember back when tinsel fell on our HO train tracks.... BEVVVVVVT! with a little spark action.

[AZgl1800]

Most trickle chargers will refuse to output any current if there is No Voltage presented, ie a battery is connected.

I have tried what you are asking about, and on 3 different brands of trickle chargers, none of them will output any voltage/current unless connected to a battery.

as for keeping up with that much draw?
I was working on my 1800 for the last week, and put the key in the Accessory position and listened to the FM radio all day and had the 2 amp trickle charger plugged in.

At the end of the day, the battery had lost about 1.0 volt. that told me that the amount of current being pulled from the battery on the 1800 is in excess of 2.0 amps

Took that trickle charger all night to bring the battery back up to 13.6
but, it is a slow charger, and meant for long term maintenance, not a fast charger.
it did what it is supposed to do. It restored the battery to full charge by the next morning.

[Ken Styles]

You all are the best. Thanks!!!