Onboard battery charger

[tjjones68]

Anyone else install an onboard battery charger and get improved mileage? My starting battery (12V AGM, not 48V Lithium) seemed to always have a low charge. My drive to work is only 10 miles, all highway, three days a week, so I suspect the accessories were draining it while parked the rest of the week. My MPG rarely got above 17. When I would go on a longer trip, my highway MPG would slowly climb to 21MPG after 50 miles or so. I suspected this was because the generator was charging the battery from near death for that first 50 miles. I added a 100W solar panel to my tonneau cover and a Battery Minder solar charger under the hood keeping that AGM battery charged. My 10 mile trips to work suddenly got MPG of 19.5 with the same route, same weather conditions, and same load. I wanted to do a more thorough analysis, but I have since added a Westin grill guard which lowered my mileage overall.

 

[tjjones68]

I am wondering now if a second solar charger at 48V on the lithium eTorque battery would make any improvement, or if it would interfere with the eTorque electronics, as it would still be physically connected while driving. I'm not planning to try this myself anytime soon as I am still under factory warranty. I am curious though if anyone else has played with this. Some extra "free" bottom end torque on those 10 mile trips would be nice. More lithium batteries and an inverter would be handy too.