I want to be able, when the cars in the garage, to plug a charger into the car cigarette lighter 12v, to charge the main 12v battery of the car.

The reasons for this are a bit obscure, but i believe if this product exists it’ll save me grief.

Help please 😥

I’m assuming you are referring to the car running at the time as if not then the 12V feed would be coming off the battery you’re trying to charge…

If the car is running then you would be pulling load from the alternator which I’m guessing is not charging your battery so may be faulty and not able to provide the load?

Might be worth investing in one of the jump start units that charge off mains power or a trickle charger run off mains power.

LMGTFY.

http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk/ctek/cigarette-lighter-adapter-xs800-xs3600-and-xs7000.aspx

If you explain your obscure reasoning, we might be able to muster a better solution?

My guess is no. I doubt the relays and whatnot will allow current to flow the other direction to charge the battery.

It only takes a few seconds to lift the bonnet though eh?

You just need a battery charger eg Optimate and a cigarette lighter adapter (I fitted one to my motorbike to keep the battery charged up over winter).

NB Some cars disengage the cigarette lighter when the ignition is off, in which case you’ll need to connect the charger directly to the battery.

Yes you can.

Try google.

(Or click cougar’s link obviously)

Ok the reason is this, my wife has a heavily adapted drive from wheelchair car, if not used for more than 3 days because of the adaptations the battery discharges enough for the car not to start. I have put a new Bosch battery on and we’ve had the car checked out and the battery drain is normal.

Some people use a small solar trickle charger but ass the car is kept in the garage it wont work.

It only takes a few seconds to lift the bonnet though eh?

My wife cant do this if i’m not around.

LMGTFY.

http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk/ctek/cigarette-lighter-adapter-xs800-xs3600-and-xs7000.aspx

If you explain your obscure reasoning, we might be able to muster a better solution?

Looks good, but which charger would i need?

Sounds like what you need is some sort of isolation switch to disconnect the battery (from the draining devices) when not in use.

I know nothing of disability modifications, but I’d question “normal” battery drain that flattens the battery in three days. If nothing else, that’s piss poor design surely? What needs to be running continually that’s draining the battery?

Get an auto electrician to rig up an isolation switch that your wife can reach once she’s opened the door?

If you don’t tell Motability and the switch is discreet it shouldn’t be a problem.

If you have high current loads, you ‘normally’ install a secondary battery with the loads connected to that and a relay to disconnect the secondary from the primary battery and alternator, so that when the ignition is off the load can flatten the secondary, but not the primary.

heavily adapted drive from wheelchair car, if not used for more than 3 days because of the adaptations the battery discharges enough for the car not to start.

I’m not an expert but that doesn’t sound right to me, I would take the car back to whoever modified the car and let them fix it, car batteries shouldn’t go flat after 3 days

If you have high current loads, you ‘normally’ install a secondary battery with the loads connected to that and a relay to disconnect the secondary from the primary battery and alternator, so that when the ignition is off the load can flatten the secondary, but not the primary.

This

I had this in one of my old VW campers so I could light the van for a weekends worth of camping without worrying about draining the main battery.

+1 for footflaps,it’s how you rig boat elecrics so you can’t flatten the starter battery using the radio etc with the engine off.You’d be best with a large leisure battery for the secondary.

Does strike me that there’s something wrong with the install tbh.

Anyway- I charged my Focus using my Ultimate connected into the cigarette lighter, no problem. Only drawback was that the window or door had to be open to do it. Possible with all cars? Couldn’t say, wouldn’t surprise me if some don’t work. If the lighter stays live with the ignition off, that’s a good start.

If I had a constant need to do it, I’d probably fit an external connector somewhere unobtrusive (did the same on the motorbike for charging and fitting accessories) On mine I reckon i could squeeze it in behind the bonnet badge, failing that rear bumper probably.

we’ve had the car checked out and the battery drain is normal

Or the garage couldn’t be arsed to figure it out.

+1 for it not being normal. I can’t imagine every wheelchair car has this problem, otherwise it’d have some kind of built in charging socket as part of the conversion surely.

the ctek chargers are very good.

but +1 on something wrong

The installation sounds very wrong.

Batteries can supply quite a lot of energy before running out – left my ipad charging in the car all weekend after forgetting I left it in there. Nonissue starting at this morning.

I would suggest that the installation is wrong, to flatten a battery in 3 days would require quite a high drain. All the wheel chair adapted vehicles I’ve seen/used (not drive from wheelchair) would quite happily start after 14 days of sitting there.
I’m guessing that the only thing that needs to be live with the ignition off are the door opener(if used) the ramp and if using a manual chair the winch, should be easy to run an isolator for all the adaptions that don’t need power to get into the vehicle, with a bit of thought should be easy enough to rig an external isolator for everything else as well.

Failing that use a permament live 12v accessory socket (lighter socket) and an optimate battery charger or similar

SM

On all the wheelchair ones I’ve seen if the switch that engages and disengages the inertia belts is left on then the battery can flatten really quickly, are there any switches anywhere that are left on? If not then +1 on there being a fault somewhere.
And find the person who told you it was normal for the battery to die in three days, and poke him in the eye for being a tit…

As the others have said, this is wrong.

I’m asuming there are various electrical gadgets which are used to help drive the car from a wheelchair?

I reckon these should be either isolated when the ignition is off, or powered via a secondary battery, charged via a VSR (voltage sensing relay) which will join both batteries together for charging, then disconnect the second battery when the voltage drops below a certain level (when parked up)
Boats/caravans/fire engines/ambulances use this system.
Using a plug-in charger will put a sticking plaster over the problem, rather than solving it.

A good auto electrician should be able to cure this for less than the cost of the charger. The guy who told you this is okay is not a good auto electrician.

Deffo something wrong could be a install problem as mentioned but could also be as simple as the battery is actually knakered or a loose terminal on it.