Hi Guys and Guyesses.
Let me explain something before I get to the main question. I bought my/our Jag as a 61st birthday present to myself. I can't afford to run it but at least I own it which, all by itself, gives me great pleasure. The car is Taxed, Insured and MOT'ed and gets a good wash and brush up every week. We have a Nissan Note Tekna 1.6 Auto for every day run around stuff but, seeing as how both of us are retired, there is no trip to work every day for either of us.

So what's the problem, Steve?

The problem is this. We usually go out in my Jag at week-ends. Maybe to a Carvery for Saturday or Sunday lunch. Maybe for a drive over to Blackpool or another local place of entertainment. The main point being that it is never so far away from home that you could say that the car gets a good run out. Also, there are some week-ends that we just don't feel like going out.
So what do I do with the battery for the best?
On the Monday morning, having had the car out on the week-end or not, is it a good idea to take the battery out of the car and stick it on a charger? If so, should I take it off once the light is green (meaning Fully charged) and put it back in the car or is it better to leave the battery connected to the charger until the car is going to be used again?

Any advice appreciated,
Steve

 

If you use the car every so often I would recommend leaving the battery in the car. You have two ways to ensure that your battery is fully charged and one of the best ways is to install a trickle charger. This is a link to one of many that are available Schumacher/1.5 Amps fully automatic traditional battery charger trickle/slow/maintainer (SE-1-12S) | Battery Charger | AutoZone.com The other is solar NPower 1.8 Watt Solar Battery Maintainer | Amorphous Solar Panels | Northern Tool + Equipment I hope this helps!

 

You do not need to remove the battery for charging. The various systems also object to losing power since they rely on battery power to maintain state.

What you could do is to obtain a small battery charger that is intended to maintain lead acid batteries when in storage. These are sometimes called battery tenders.

They are usually sized at 2 to 4 amp/hours and have intelligent circuitry to taper off the charge once the correct float voltage is reached. They also have desulphating circuitry.

The current generation come in fully sealed housings and can be mounted permanently in the engine bay with connections by ring connectors. You would then connect to a suitable power junction.

They also usually come with a cigar lighter adapter as well as alligator clip connections so that you can avoid permanent mounting.

Finally, your battery should be able to sustain a two week holding period. So, all of this may not be absolutely essential.

edit: Gus types faster

 

Hi Gus & thanks for the info.
This is where I need to pick your brains though.
The first link you gave I think I can discount, and here's why. I can't see for sure but it looks like the battery trickle charger would be hooked up to the car battery at one end and to an electrical wall socket at the other. This would work well if the car was in a garage or a secure compound but my car is left on a drive with another car parked in front of it to make it difficule to steal the car but not all that difficult to steal FROM it if, for example, the trunk was open to allow the wiring to go through. I realise the trunk would probably close anyway but, round here, the wires would be snipped within a couple of days.
Option 2 .... the Solar panel, looks like a good idea, especially if I knew for sure that it would be safe to have it connected to the battery 24/7, even when the car was driving along the roads of Sunny England.
I could make it so the wires ran from the battery, into the rear of the car and up behind the seats with the solar panel sat on the rear shelf.
Is that about the size of it?
Cheers,
Steve

 

Both are good options. As for the electrical I have in the past had the wire at the trunk with the lid closed. As for the solar at night and overcast days it is not charging but it is on other days so the overcharging is not a concern. The choice is yours! I do like my solar panel.

 

Update .... I think I got it wrong when reading earlier. I wasn't sure about the ability of current Solar panels and it looks like I would be able to stick one of these solar panels on the dash top and plug it into a cigarette lighter socket. This would then help to keep the battery charged and could then be unplugged easily before starting the car.
I think I'll go with that option unless anybody else knows better.
Mostly because I like the idea of it not needing to be a permanent fixture which is how I previously thought of it.

As for the idea that a decent car battery should be able to manage a 2 week lay-over, I get the point but here's a question .... When is the best time to find out that it doesn't? (insert LOL smilie)

Cheers,
Steve

 

Keep in mind that not all cigar lighters in the car are functional without the key in being installed and turned on. You may need to connect directly to the battery.

 

Good point, Gus.
I'll need to look into this a bit deeper.

 

The X-300 cigar lighter is disconnected when the key is off.

 

Cheers, Sparky. That saved me some Googling.
Over to Plan "B"