Thanks for the opinons guys. When the car gets parked, it will be on a full charge. I want to try the $10 one from harbor freight. I live in a condo complex, so the car is outside and not near a usable outlet for a normal charger. The Harbor freight charger wouldn't overcharge anything would it? The first one I mentioned listed features of automatic charger slow down when battery is full.
I did some calculating. It's a 13Ah battery, at 3 weeks it starts getting weak. I'm going to conservitivly guess it's down to 3Ah at that point. So 10Ah loss in 3weeks (504hours), makes for about a 20mA leakage. Times 12V gets .24W loss. So a 1.5W rated charger running at 25% (half time at night, half output average during daylight) outputs .37W.
I'm assuming I can charge the battery through the accesory plug that is always hot (as oppose to the cig lighter that only on during ignition)? No diodes in the way?
Jay W
505/287 Dakota
Bob Tom <"tigers@bserv.com <mailto:tigers@bserv.com?Subject=Re:%20Solar%20charging%20of%20starter%20battery&In-Reply-To=<ddiag4$775$1@bent.twistedbits.net> > wrote:
: At 03:56 PM 8/11/05, you wrote:
:>Guys, I don't daily drive the Dakota anymore. So it can sit up
:>to two months. Jay W
: Under those circumstances, it might be better to remove the battery
: from the Dak and bring it inside. Put a slow charge on the battery
: once a month.
: I personally don't know if solar charging is enough to maintain
: your type of battery over a period of time.
Harbor Freight (www.harborfreight.com) currently has a solar
battery charger for sale for $10 (44768), so if you wanted to give the
solar route a try, it wouldn't cost you much if it doesn't work. They
also have trickle/float/maintenance chargers; one of which is currently
on sale for $7.50 (42292). Or, if you've got $49.99 or more worth
of stuff to buy from Harbor Freight, enter the coupon code 982-529-643
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