Yes you do **not** want any such imbalances in normal cycling usage, it will have a huge impact over time, likely greatly reduce longevity.Guess I could use one cell to drive the dc-dc charger @ 40v which would lower the complexities and cost of the charger.
Problem is that one cell would drain quicker than the others in series.
Yeah could do, although the 12v car battery is pretty heavily used. Mainly the power steering is fully electric and run off the 12v battery. Really need to keep it topped up otherwise within a few miles it does start to struggle.How much power from the 12v battery do you use between charges of the traction battery? You could just put a $25 12v tender on it when charging the traction pack...