I want to rig up a permanent socket for a battery charger on a car.

Obviously, I’m keen to avoid having a plug with several hundred amps on the end of it just dangling around in the boot. It’ll be fused, but still!

Anderson connectors seem to come up via google but seem to be overkill for charging at an amp or two and don’t come with decent weatherproofing kits.

The other option I can think of is something like a Tamiya RC battery connector. Is it possible to get caps for these or are the pins on the female socket so recessed that you’ve got no risk of shorts?

Or should I just buy a set of Superseal conectors?

And if anyone knows of a good solution with weatherproof caps for the plug, that would be awesome. That would mean the cable could be left outside all year round so that you can just pull up and plug the car in.

There are plenty of options with stuff from the likes of Optimate

http://www.amazon.co.uk/OPTIMATE-WATERPROOF-EYELET-CONNECTOR-NUMBER/dp/B001O1WOOY

Anderson all the way.

We have them on our vehicle crane things at work, the AA run them in the front grill of their vans with the simple rubber cap you can buy for them, and I use them on the leisure batteries under the bonnet of my van.

Loads of different sizes but make sure you get same colours as they are keyed different. At work they use the sb50 which is fairly compact, I’ve used one with some silly thin wires for a 12v cigar adaptor so I can run it off the feed for the crane, I used the 175s for the camper and to be honest they are silly big!

The great thing about them is they are genderless, and easy to terminate as all you do is heat the contact with a torch and fill with solder, and then plunge the cable in. If you use an old set of jump leads or welding cables to the battery you can use it to connect jump leads as well.

Bump! Has anyone got any other ideas? SAE or Tamiya connectors are looking like the current favourites, as waterproof boots for Anderson plugs cost an arm and a leg.

Got a towbar? Fit an ‘S’ socket and there is a permanent live pin. You can then wire the battery charger to a caravan plug and charge it via the grey towing socket.

One of these connected to your car and the appropriate plug to connect?

Powercon. 12 – 240 volts . like speakon but for power.

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1.2 Gigawatts ?

nullAs Spooky has said above, Anderson sockets are pretty damn good, have over 300 machines with them fitted on at work, all are external and not one has a cover on it and never once have we had a short or problem with them. And we have some 350 amp (capacity) units for some of our bigger stuff…

If you really want to avoid the possible moisture problem and still have a sizeable plug you could go down the NATO plug route as per link below:

http://marcusglenn.com/inter-vehicle-jump-start-socket-nato

Sunday

For trickle charging? AMP Superseals. Cheap, waterproof and you’ll find them littering the engine bay already. Easily sourced from ebay.

You can make a weatherproof cap with some silicone and a spare connector.

IME optimate connectors disappear at the slightest hint of moisture. Anderson connectors are great for high current but probably a bit overkill for what you want.

On my KTM: