Why not just use your car battery? Unless you rode out to the desert on your horse. LOL.

yea, nitro is fun, i still like running my nitro rustler and t-maxx occasionally. i decided that after the 3gal or so of fuel that i have runs out, i wont buy more, and sell the nitros. got rid of by rc10gt yesterday.

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I wonder how long it will run until he just goes with what comes natural to him and converts it to full blown brushless?:lol::lol::lol::rofl::yipi::party:

well you can but then if your pulling 8-10 amps for an hour on your car battery it could die easily on you.

or at least mine..

I think that point will be reached when the nitro engine dies. We all know it will :diablo:

It sounds like you might have some experience on that one. :whistle:

You could always leave it running, but that would be a waste of gas. But it might be more efficient than a generator.

Is it ok to have a chrger on a car battery while its on? I could see some problems with fluctuating voltage etc.

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As long as you are not driving a piece of crap it will be fine. If the cars electrical system is operating normally then yyou should not have any issues. Just don't leave the car running with the keys in it without someone watching it. Otherwise you might come back and it will be by by:diablo:. There are a lot of mean people and wierdos in the world.:lol: If you plan to make a habit of using your car as a power source for your RC charging you might want to take a fully charged spare car battery with just in case it does get drained. A little preplanning would be a good thing.:intello:

no, you can't power a charger with the car running, in many cases it'll blow the fuse, and if you start your car and let it run 10-15 mins it'll be recharged, I can't even imagine killing a car battery with an r/c charger, but just let it run every couple hours and you'll be fine

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I charge my 6 and 7 cell nmh packs with a dual peak charger on my Dodge Grand Caravan LE while it is running and have never had an issue.:lol:

Aside from the safety aspects of charging inside the car while driving, these are the points to consider:

A typical car battery is between 40 and 60Ah. Pulling 10A for an hour will deplete it somewhat, but shouldn't keep you from starting your car unless the battery is older and/or it's cold out.

A car battery is really designed for short high current bursts (like for starting where over 500A can be pulled). If you want to pull a steady relatively low current, a marine battery is best.

While the car is running, the alternator puts out a loosely regulated 14.4v. Of course, there is some fluctuation, but it should be really close to that. This higher voltage will cause the charger to require less current than it would if the car was not running (battery at ~13.8v).

The only way you would blow a fuse is if the circuit was not designed for the current you are pulling, or the alternator voltage is higher or lower than it should be. Noise should be fairly low since the battery acts like a form of ripple filter. If you are really worried about it, a 20v 10,000uF capacitor on the charger input would suffice. Gotta remember that there are all kinds of electronic devices on board (radio, car computer, etc) that need a clean power source, so it can't be that bad, except maybe on older cars.

If you want to protect the car's battery, I'd pick up a yellow or blue top Optima battery to power the charger. They are safer and lighter (no lead and acid), but are expensive. Just charge it at home in lead-acid mode at the end of the day.

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Great Info BrianG. Thank you for clearing that up for all of us:lol: I sure hope that no one is charging while they are driving:gasp:. That could end badly:neutral:. Those Optima batteries are a work of art in technology, and from everything I have seen and heard are a great upgrade for any system.