Hello all,
New to the forum. I have a work van with an onboard air compressor that has an elec. Start motor. I recently installed an automotive 12 volt battery to independently power the electrical starter of the air compressor from the vehicles 12v battery/alternator.
The battery is installed at the rear most of the vehicle with the air compressor. The air compressor does have an onboard charger but after about 15 min of run time, I measured a mere 12.56 volts I don't beleive this us enough to keep the battery in a healthy state of charge, as most alternators on 12v vehicles put out about 13.6 to 14 volts.
There is a 12V cigarette lighter style outlet right next to the battery that I would like to tap into to help maintain the charge of the battery, but think if I run wires straight from the outlet to the battery I risk the potential of back feeding and blowing a fuse or worse damaging the vehicle wiring. Almost need a diode of sorts to keep that feom happening so I came across these products via Google search.
I'm basically looking for a DC to DC battery maintainer/tender. what product would best suite this application? Can I use the wires from the cigarette lighter outlet to power said product I imagine they are 14 or 12 gauge and supply maybe a max of 15 amps (fused) sorry for not researching the exact amps of the fuse. It is a Ford Transit 250 van.
Please advise, and thanks in advance.
-Plans36