Hi Richard.Yes do it!  You must keep that battery in shape until the frame and straightening has happened.  Be sure to look under the vehicle to check no leakage (from crash) in the battery area.  There are trickle chargers that can just hookup to your power outlet (cigarette lighter), but no big voltage.
Good luck with all the work.
Dave B.the Boston one

    On Saturday, July 15, 2023 at 10:54:57 AM EDT, Richard Koerner <rjkinpb@sbcglobal.net> wrote:  
 
 My Vanagon got T-boned on passenger door, hard ($15K damage); step-in area crumpled, seat pedestal compressed such that Passenger seat is immovable, so no access to battery.  It has taken months to arrange frame straightening & body work, and still might take a while longer until work begins.  Meantime, Vanagon has been sitting in my garage; I drive it about every 2 weeks (windshield is buckled and smashed about 1/3....so am always on lookout for cops).  If I have more bad luck and battery discharges to the point of no-start, what would I do?  I have a small trickle charger available.  Could I just hook the positive onto the junction of big red cable at starter (I presume big red cable goes directly to starter battery) and charge battery that way?