Comments on the RLN4884B travel charger ?

[MT2000 man]

Good day all,

I just purchased a Jedi / XTS travel charger ( model number RLN4884B ) from a board member, and just wanted some feedback from the rest of you guys on how you like it ?

I plan on mounting it in my CVPI and keeping my XTS5000 in there on a constant basis ( well, at least when not in use ). I figure the travel charger is MUCH better then those cheap E-Bay battery eliminators because:

1. You don't have to worry about taking the battery off the radio and attaching the eliminator.
2. The travel charger fits both the XTS AND Jedi radios
3. It charges the battery AND you can use the radio as well.

So, those that have one, how do you like them ? Do they hold up well ? When I go on trips insted of keeping extra batteries laying around, I figure I'll just throw my radio on the Travel Charger and not have to worry about running out of juice.

Also, when we in CT lost power for over 9 days, it was a REAL PITA to charge the radios. So instead of going somewhere WITH power, I can just run out to my car and throw the radio in the car charger

[smartso]

Sorry, I can not comment on that particular model, but having a travel charger is definitely the way to go. Keeping your battery topped off AND monitoring is an awesome situation for when those times of emergency rear their ugly heads. Good pick, I hope it treats you well.

[Will]

Do not forget most desktop single unit chargers will work fine on 12 volts.

Our vehicle chargers are made in Canada and use the delta v technology. Never have a overcharge problem with them.

[MSS-Dave]

I have 10 or so in the field for 2+ years and haven't had any fail. Couple of the guys had mobiles removed from the vehicles because this worked better for them (cheap jerk and pull...). I'd recommend though if you use impress batteries that you cycle through the impress charger occassionaly.

Dave

[escomm]

I have 10 or so in the field for 2+ years and haven't had any fail. Couple of the guys had mobiles removed from the vehicles because this worked better for them (cheap jerk and pull...). I'd recommend though if you use impress batteries that you cycle through the impress charger occassionaly.

Dave

Definitely this. I would recommend going no more than 5-7 charge cycles on an Impres battery in this charger before putting it back in the Impres charger. There is a good chance the Impres battery will lose its calibration (and possibly all Impres charging benefits) by having too many cycles on the non-Impres charger

[MT2000 man]

That was a concern of mine, since my XTS5000R runs primarily on Impres batteries. However, my MTS2000 will also be in this charger a lot of the time as well, and I don't have any Impres batteries for the MTS, so I should be set there.

Also I found very odd, I JUST got the charger in today, and ( it is BNIB ) I mounted it in my CVPI, and I noticed that the charging cup has a VERY tight fit with both my XTS5000, and MTS2000. You almost have to JAM the radio all the way down the charging cup to get the battery contacts to hit the charging contacts on the bottom of the cup. Is this normal, do these chargers "break in" the more you take the radios in / out of them ? I noticed those rubber stoppers at the bottom of the charging cup tend to cause the radio to JUST fit in there.

I also noticed that where I mounted the medal base after I put the radio in the charging cradle I couldn't fit that nylon strap around the radio lol So, I just left the radio in the charger without the nylon strap, and it worked great ! The radio was so tight in the charger that it didn't move at ALL in the cradle, no matter how many curbs / potholes I managed to hit lol

Any thoughts on this ? Does your chargers fit the radios tight as well, or are they designed like that purposely ? Also, the nylon strap, I would assume it's OK to NOT use it. Hell, it's such a PITA to get on I would spend more time getting the strap on / off then it would take to just pull the radio / charging base off the cradle lol

[MSS-Dave]

Yep, jam in tight. Never had any of my users tell me it fell out. No uses the strap either. This is with XTS2500i with the slim LI-Ion batteries too.

Dave

[MT2000 man]

Well that's good to know that I'm not the only one "jamming it in there".


Ok, that just sounded wrong.