[philworrall]

I want to keep my testarossa battery charged during the winter period when the car is essentially garaged and has little running.

I have seen solar powered trickle chargers for sale on the internet.

Do any of you have experience of this type of trickle charger? If so what are your thoughts?

Also is it safe or even possible to charge the battery via the cigar lighter socket? I will have the battery compartment open to allow gasses to escape if necessary.

Any help or advice much appreciated.

Phil :drive:

[Pete04222]

I know car dealers use solar chargers to keep the batteries of the hundred or so cars the've got topped off.

You can charge the battery through the cigarette lighter, it is a direct line to the battery with 12 gauge wire, you just can't pump more than 10 amps through it. Also the lighter can't be on the ignition switch. Test it by making sure the lighter works when the key is in the off position.

I wouldn't worry about leaving the battery compartment open. These chargers generally only put out about 0.2 amps. Enough to keep up with the electrical drain of the clock and keep the battery topped off. You won't have any gassing issues.

The problem with the solar chargers is that they must be exposed to direct sunlight. My Ferrari is in a garage and under a cover. I'd have to stick the thing on the garage window with suction cups and run the wire up under the cover and through the car window.

I'm getting tired of pulling my battery out in the winter and was thinking about getting an electric battery maintainer and wiring up an electrical connection to a plug in the grill of the Ferrari. Pull the car into the garage, plug it in, cover it up, done. Next time I want to use it, simply remove the cover, unplug it and drive away.

Here's one of the ones I'm looking at: http://www.pacificbattery.com/jac0512.html simply cut off the alligator clips and put on the plug that matches whatever I install on the car.

[Boxer]

I keep both the 550 and the 308 on Airflow trickle chargers all the time. They work great and once you get a plug run directly off the battery terminals, it only takes a minute to connect.

[Granucci]

Originally Posted by Pete04222

I know car dealers use solar chargers to keep the batteries of the hundred or so cars the've got topped off.

You can charge the battery through the cigarette lighter, it is a direct line to the battery with 12 gauge wire, you just can't pump more than 10 amps through it. Also the lighter can't be on the ignition switch. Test it by making sure the lighter works when the key is in the off position.

I wouldn't worry about leaving the battery compartment open. These chargers generally only put out about 0.2 amps. Enough to keep up with the electrical drain of the clock and keep the battery topped off. You won't have any gassing issues.

The problem with the solar chargers is that they must be exposed to direct sunlight. My Ferrari is in a garage and under a cover. I'd have to stick the thing on the garage window with suction cups and run the wire up under the cover and through the car window.

I'm getting tired of pulling my battery out in the winter and was thinking about getting an electric battery maintainer and wiring up an electrical connection to a plug in the grill of the Ferrari. Pull the car into the garage, plug it in, cover it up, done. Next time I want to use it, simply remove the cover, unplug it and drive away.

Here's one of the ones I'm looking at: http://www.pacificbattery.com/jac0512.html simply cut off the alligator clips and put on the plug that matches whatever I install on the car.

and as most Ferraris and some US cars seem to have seperate circuits from ignition for the lighter, this would be a good thing....

[archiegibbs]

I used an Airflow charger that went into the cigar lighter for two years when I had the 328. Never had ay problems with it, even when the car was resting for months during the winter. It only cost me about £60 and was money well spent.

Now I'm using a Banner Accu-Gard Car 1800 on the 308. A previous owner installed a plug socket for it inside the hood, I just lift the hood, plug straight in and leave it. So far so good.

[Saint Bastage]

Since this was bumped I'd like to remind readers that Pete DID get a reasonably priced tender and generated a thread detailing his installation procedure. I think you'll find it in the 308 section.

yup...here it is

308 Battery maintainer installation

[Magnum6464]

I use Battery Tender from http://www.batterytender.com/

It is the official factory authorized manufacturer of Harley Davidson and BMW. I figured I might as well use something that was tested by a few dealers.

I have the "Battery Tender Jr" and last year I bought the 4 bank charger and couldn’t be happier as I get different confirmation lights as to what status the battery is in at all times.

And, they provide a permanent battery attachment as well as a alligator clip to use on something else.

There are also cool video's at the bottom left of the page from the TV channel Speed.



~

Mario

[Night Life]

Originally Posted by philworrall

I want to keep my testarossa battery charged during the winter period when the car is essentially garaged and has little running.

I have seen solar powered trickle chargers for sale on the internet.

Do any of you have experience of this type of trickle charger? If so what are your thoughts?

Also is it safe or even possible to charge the battery via the cigar lighter socket? I will have the battery compartment open to allow gasses to escape if necessary.

Any help or advice much appreciated.

Phil :drive:

This might be a silly question but where are you storing the TR?

If you are using solar please don't tell me you leave her outside.

[eloyex]

i am electronic engineer and have lot of experience on this matter.
ANY, even a $35 trickler charger will do the work perfectly.
you only need few a few current to keep the battery in perfect state.

there are great and inteligent models, but most work fine under regular conditions.

i use them in my porsche and my boats.

eloy
miami

[il Capolino]

Dear philworrall,

I use C-Tec and Otimate on my motorcycles, snowmobiles and small boats. For the cars I have left it to my Ferrari dealer to post-install on some cars and on the last car I ordered I ticked the charger installation option when ordering the car. The post-installations look just as good as the factory installed ones. The plug-in is inside the boot.

Best regards,
il Capolino

[Magnum6464]

Originally Posted by eloyex

i am electronic engineer and have lot of experience on this matter.
ANY, even a $35 trickler charger will do the work perfectly.
you only need few a few current to keep the battery in perfect state.


eloy
miami

So you are saying any battery charger (trickle charger) can be left on for a year or more non stop and never damage a battery???????

Sorry to say but that is incorrect, trickle doesn’t mean monitor, it means slow, a little bit, small amount. At one point the battery will be fully charged and then it will start to overheat then slowly boil and the water will evaporate leaving the sulfur to stick to the plate.

The sulphation (lead sulphate) hinders the chemical reaction between the acid (electrolyte) and the active mass (lead compound) in the plates and prevents the car battery from operating as normal. Therefore the battery slowly loses its capacity to be charged and keep a charge. Eventually, the plates short with the result of one or more shorted cell.

It is important that the trickle charger shuts itself off automatically when the battery is fully charged and turns itself back on when needed. This is the key to a good trickle charger. Those that don’t do this, garbage, don’t bother buying one, instead a regular charge for 10-20 mins once a week will do. But hold on, isn’t this why we buy trickle chargers??? Not to monitor them???

This is what a battery tender does, always maintaining a charge and reading voltage for optimum capacity without damaging the battery.



~

Mario

[eloyex]

Mario ...

any $35 charger has a more or less decent degree of intelligence inside it.
dont overkill. Probably a 20 years old model would overcharge the battery, i dont doubt it, but most of charges i have open and look inside has enough ability to shut down when battery is full.

An IC charger chip (i sell them) from ST Microelectronics, cost less than $1 today.
Even chinese chargers has one of those inside. Too many myths about this on the street.

[Gcalo]

These are all well oversold ! They are simple devices.

Harbor Freight has them for $8.00!

[IPF]

Originally Posted by philworrall

I want to keep my testarossa battery charged during the winter period when the car is essentially garaged and has little running.

How little is little? If you run her say once a month for 30-50 miles, you could also simply unplug the battery in the meantime. Works for me.

[Gcalo]

Can't do that on later cars with ECU's.

They need constant current or they have to relearn all the parameters. Also, newer radios have operational codes that need to be re-entered.

Makes more sense to use a tender.

[eloyex]

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=99857

look ..
$19

on-off capability,
polarity safe (usually a single diode)
do not overload.

just an example ..


regards, eloy

[Gcalo]

That's a much better unit than their earlier model.

This at least indicates full charge.

The earlier unit had a red led that stayed red all the time! No way to know when bat was fully charged.

[IPF]

Originally Posted by Gcalo

Can't do that on later cars with ECU's.

They need constant current or they have to relearn all the parameters. Also, newer radios have operational codes that need to be re-entered.

Oops, forgot about that. Too used to my simple 80s technology, only need to reset the onboard clock. My bad...

[Gcalo]

ECU's are like all electrical appliances.

They get an initail shock on turn on. So if you maintain the current there is no "shock" and the electronics are happier.

Just practical sense.