Happytrails

I would have to say yes, it is that simple. Provided the two leads in the connector are the right ones. Case in point, my TM's in the shop right now. Just two hours ago, I stopped in to have the guy show me some stuff with the wiring he's fixed. (Yeah, I do trust them on something like that....read the thread under general maintenance for a detailed discussion about this shop under front clam shell problems....lol) Anyway, one thing I observed, as my battery wasn't charged enough to push the lights and all. He simply plugged two leads into the connector cord to the TM from a "test battery" he had sitting on the ground in front of the TM. Stands to reason your TM battery gets the juice from the vehicle's charging system the same way, that should work. Another even better option is to spend 25-30 bucks on one of those solar "battery" maintainers, and mount it in the tm to where it can get light through the skylight, yet be protected from the rain and other weather. (Velcro works fine, and can be taken down easily for asthetic purposes). This will also save you some money on your electric bill from pushing the charger year round. One more option is what I have hooked to my boat. It's an automatic trickle charger that you can leave plugged in year round that maintains both of my trolling motor batteries, as well as my starter battery. When at full charge, it stops charging automatically. You would have to simply run an extention cord through the front of the closed shell. I have no clue how much one would cost as it came with my boat that I bought used, but it's self contained, and doesn't get hot or anything. That is it's EXACT purpose. (Unlike you're standard car battery charger which buzzs, has vents on it, runs warm, and generally would make me nervous about leaving in an unattended closed up TM.) :-/ It's MADE to be run in enclosed spaces where there may or may not be gas vapors. Unfortunately my boat's in the shop getting a few repairs of it's own so I don't have the name of it, or a model number or anything, but mine maintains 3 deep cycle batteries at one time, if you have an extra battery you'd like to keep charged up as well.

Bill -n- Karen