Charge the battery from outside the car?

[Bimota fan]

Has anyone wired up either a charging pigtail or actual battery posts that are accessible from outside the car?

Thanks,
Steve

 

[onalaska]

Couldn't be simpler and the side benifit is that if you ever do run your battery down with the car locked you can bring it back to life without having to go through the trunk.

 

[GizmoQ]

Couldn't be simpler and the side benifit is that if you ever do run your battery down with the car locked you can bring it back to life without having to go through the trunk.

I beg to differ (on the simpler part

), I have one that is completely self contained in the car. So where your pigtail resides is the same place my AC plug lies. Anywhere the car may be, all I have to do is run an extension cord to that spot and plug it in.

Mid America MotorWorks has this:

I don't expect it to be as sophisticated as the Battery Tender brand, but it has served me well the last two winters as well as waiting for mods/parts in several locations around the U.S.

 

[Stella]

I also hooked a battery tender to mine like alaska the difference is mine has eyelets that hook to the batt. bolts for a solid connection. I ran along the hinge of the hood in the foam part and the power fitting has a water proof cap when unplugged can't see anything. I mounted the battery tender to a nice hanger just below garage door opener and it plugs in to the same outlet as garage door opener" the other side no one uses". Real nice tender desulfates,trickles, and selects batt. type. I use on my motorcycles and don't ever have to replace batteries.

 

[onalaska]

I tried the ring terminals on my battery first. When I put them under the nuts on the battery terminal clamps the clamps would no longer tighten up and clamp the battery terminals firmly so I went back to the alligator clamps. I am actually using a "Battery Minder" but they all do about the same thing, you just want something that will not overcharge the battery when left on it for a long time. I prefer having a DC battery connection accessable outside the car so I can put DC power back directly into the battery in case something fails. When raising the hood to take the pictures I found my hood struts are failing and it came down rather unexpectedly. Time to replace!

 

[Bimota fan]

Thanks for the responses. What about remote terminal posts for getting power to a dead battery from jumper cables? I am concerned about discovering a dead battery while away from home.

Steve

 

[airmike]

gizmo is that charger plug reachable from the outside of the car or do you have to raise the hood?

 

[Stella]

When I purchased my car it had the same unit that gizmo Showed. The terminal that hook to the batt are about a foot long. The AC plug is about 4-6 inches long. The previous owner had it screwed to the top of the fuse box cover. I didn't like that set- up had to pop hood and didn't desulfate the
batt. I had a batt minder and never have had any problems. Every batt sulfates through cycling any way to stop or slow that is good for me. If you want the set- up as gizmo showed pm me.

 

[GizmoQ]

gizmo is that charger plug reachable from the outside of the car?

Yes, just barely.