i've several 12volt, 11Ah batteries here that i'm wanting to charge and load test...

can i charge them with a standard car battery charger? what settings should i use?

what's the best way to load test them to see if they are still good?

what does the 11Ah (Amp hours) really signify?

how can i tell how much load time i should get on the batteries?

if i connect these batteries in parallel, the voltage stays the same and
the amperage capability of the set is increased... are the Ahs just added
together? ie: three of these would give me 33Ahs

i've also two "speciality" packs... they are 6 2volt 25Ah all
tied in series to give a single 12volt unit but i don't remember (as above)
which way the Ahs go... i'm wanting to charge these as well and ensure that
they are all up to snuff...

when it all comes down to the end, i'm wanting to tie these all together in
parallel to go for 12volt, ??Ah so as to boost my uptime on my UPS' when
commercial power is off...

lastly, what guage wire should i use to connect these? the last time i did
this, several months ago, i was using some (supposedly) "heavy
duty" two wise extension cord (like the brown ones we use in the house
but heavier, definitely not the outside orange ones) and melted the
insulation on the wire between the battery pack and the UPS due to the
load... i'm just now looking at it and it appears to be 18ga stranded ;-( 
i'm thinking that i need something more substantial... like 12ga or 10ga...
the problem is being able to connect "stay-cons" to the wire to
connect to the battery terminals...

somewhere, i've got my electronics book that should have the answers to
some of the above questions, however, locating them is worse than finding a
needle in a haystack ;-(

ADVthanksANCE...

)\/(ark