How does the solar powered trickle charger work for car batteries. How do you hook it up? My VW battery went dead last week from sitting. I drive my roadster most of the time and the poor VW suffers. It's outside so can't use a plug in solution.
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How does the solar powered trickle charger work for car batteries. How do you hook it up? My VW battery went dead last week from sitting. I drive my roadster most of the time and the poor VW suffers. It's outside so can't use a plug in solution.
2010 Tesla Roadster #992 - Electric Blue
Might I suggest that you buy one and read the instructions. It's not that much money and your ROI is half a car battery.
In some ads you see the device inside the car, behind the windshield. I guess they connect to the cigarette lighter socket.
Wouldn't work for me. My stinker sits in the sunless garage. I have a regular battery minder that I bought at the Toyota dealership.Originally Posted by ElSupreme
I have 3 of these. Amazon.com: Coleman 50005 5-Watt Solar Powered Trickle Charger: Patio, Lawn Garden
It is all the solar generation that I own.
I wouldn't recommend them at the $75 price here (I paid 50 for all 3). But they work pretty well.
I'll be getting close this fall, when the Model S replaces my G37, but I'll still have a gas lawnmower (although a robotic electric mower does 90% of the job), anda track car.
Roadster #919, Model S #2006
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My Coleman trickle chargers have about a 10 foot lead on the wires. You can always wire nut on longer wires, it is really low current. You hook the leads straight to the battery terminals. I have set it on the roof or straight on the ground.
I bought the originally to put on my roof rack and run some led x-mas lights from a separate battery in my car. I am lazy and never got around to doing that.
I used one of those solar powered trickle chargers that plugs into the lighter socket, and it actually killed my battery.
How??
Well it turned out that the lighter socket only got power with the ignition switch in the ACC or ON positions, not when OFF. The solar charger plugged into the lighter socket had the effect of randomly turning the radio on (even though the car was off). And whenever the radio turned on or off, the power telescoping antenna (which was connected directly to the battery) would go up or down, respectively. So the antenna motor drained the battery.
I had left my car parked at a friends place while I was overseas for a couple months, and he said the car seemed possessed with the antenna randomly going up and down.
I use one of these trickle chargers for my sailboat's battery. Works like a charm. Of course, I don't keep my sailboat in a sunless garage.
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