Is this a bad idea?

[BigBalledOX]

Without going too deep in to details, I need to have the stereo on in my Lincoln for an extended period of time without driving the car.

Obviously doing that will eventually kill the battery. If I hook a trickle charger to the the battery, will this prevent me from killing the battery, and am I risking any potential harm to the car by doing that?

[PREDATOR]

Turn the car on every so often to recharge the battery

[nadthomas]

How long is an extended period. I think I recall see a thread mentioning that you have a sub or two now in the Lincoln so that will make a difference as well.

I ran the setup I had in the red cougar (single 12" and 400W RMS Amp) for a couple of hours at Fest one year. Of course it eventually drained my battery down to about 9V and couldn't properly drive the amp, sub, or start the car, but after letting the car just sit off for about 30 minutes the voltage on my voltage gauge climbed back up to about 11V and I was able to start the car backup, let the alt charge up the battery for about 15 minutes and I was fine. The battery was pretty new at that point and I continued to run that battery for the next 3 years without any problems until I sold the car. YMMV

[BigBalledOX]

Yeah, I pulled the sub since its so easy to disconnect. I'd rather not run the car any more than I have to with gas at $4.50 a gallon. I didn't think the battery would last that long though, thats impressive.

[Phantom]

yeah, how long is extended? I've been to drive-ins where I had the car in accessory with the radio going for the length of two movies and was fine...

[BigBalledOX]

Its gonna be awhile, I don't know exactly how long. However long it takes to rip 20 gigs of music to the hard drive in my head unit I suppose.