OK I finally got tired of opening up the trunk and plugging in my smart charger. So I made this hook up after thinking it out and now regardless of what smart charger you use/have all you need is the cigarette lighter attachment. Also I ran the wire through the water drain tube in the spare tire area. There are no holes that needed to be drilled and the marine adapter is held on by the same fasteners as the trim uses (press on clips). I'll see how it holds up and report in the future. Here's pictures.

 

Coincidentally, I'm plan on checking with my local West Marine store for a 120V charger adapter. I like that they have a cover. Where did you get yours?

 

e-bay for $4 including shipping. It is plastic with a plastic L bracket. I used a piece of alumin. angle to attach it to the rear. I did a test run today because I wanted to see how hot is gets and so far not bad but I may want to add a small heat shield. We'll see. Up until now I have been opening the trunk and plugging in the connector but now all I do is pull the rubber plug and plug in the cig. attachment.

 

I was peeking around my trunk while waiting for other parts to arrive. I saw potential areas. The plug I'm looking at is UV resistant and has a nut on it. Appears to be water resistant too. I'm thinking it will fit in place of one of two plugs located near the taillight panel. (pic) There is one like this on the driver's side, as well.
I'm looking at this plug on Amazon. It is a bit more money, but, I like the mounting and see just how big it is. Will check with my local marine supply first. All of this can be hidden under the liner, I'm thinking.

 

Redrider (I had a RR bb gun when I was a kid) as you can see my main intention was to get the plug in a place where I didn't have to open the trunk after every ride. The unit looks waterproof but as I don't drive to much when I know it's raining it's no big deal. FYI

 

You did a nice job with your installation too....
Yeah, we should take a poll as to how many cowboys we have here?

 

While not arguing the sense of putting your car on charge when not in use, was there a bad batch of batteries issued to warrant the need. I am only going on my experience so far and have never found the need to to put the car on charge and so far it has not given me any problems. I only drive the car once or twice a week for short journey. This is not a criticism of the practise, more an observation.
I suppose the problem with forums is that most people are looking for solutions to problems and it gives the impression the cars are unreliable, when so far mine has been very reliable. I may live to the have to swallow my words on reliability but so far the car has not missed a beat.

 

JT I have no history of problems with the electrical system specifically the battery. I purchased my car used with 6600 miles on it in early 2014. Because of it's low usage the battery was replaced during the CPO inspection. Having owned an old Ferrari we always used a smart charger due to low usage (2500 miles a year) . This is our fun car as we have 4 vehicles for the 2 of us so usage is low. Is there a need to put it on charge every night . I would say no but it won't hurt. If I drove it every day or 3-4 times a week I wouldn't believe you would need to. So I don't look at this as a reliability issue but more of a comfort concern . The comfort features in the car keep the electronics hot for a fair amount of time after you shut down the car. A point I learned from the form was to lock the doors on shut down to turn off the features. I have never locked a car in my garage in 55 years of driving but now I do. Just a change of the times. I'm sure there are others on the form who have your same thoughts and that's OK. So enjoy the ride and I also think these cars are pretty reliable.

 

Nice installation of the power adapter plug. Very professional, and non-visible.

I own 5 cars, 4 of them are on all CTEK Smartchargers all the time. Yes, it's a "comfort" issue.

 

Very good, how will it stand up to wet conditions. Have you to get down under the rear a bit to plug it in. Would be a bit of a hassle after a days wet driving with drips and grime from the bumper while putting your hand under there. Still think it is easier to pop the boot.

 

OK I usually don't drive the car when it's raining or predicted to rain unless it happens while I'm on the road. The plug is a waterproof marine unit so the connection is sealed and with the rubber cap on it is sealed. As I continue to drive I'll see if there is any adverse affects having it mounted where it is. I am also going to see how the heat from the muffler affects it so it's an experiment in process. As to reach and location it seems to me it is not a problem and all I do is reach under pull the attached plug and plug in the adapter plug. Time will tell during the evaluation .

 

I agree, and that's how I hooked up my XKR and XJ:

Quick connect leads connected together in my XKR's trunk:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Trunk lid closes over the wire with no problems. For installation details, see my posts ##20 and 21: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...s-73471/page2/

Quick connect leads connected together in my XJ's trunk:

For installation details, see my post #1: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...lation-130801/

I keep both of them plugged in whenever they are parked at home. I haven't had any electrical gremlins in either one and credit that to always locking the doors and keeping them on their battery maintainers.

Stuart

 

I'm baaaacck!
Finished the charger install to day. In two words, works great!
Was able to sneak the power side beneath the trunk side floor (under the vent) into the trunk. Here, it connects to the CTEK attached (via command adhesive) to the side above the tow hook. The power ca is snaked along the taillight panel beneath the trunk trim to the right side. I did this to, purposely, keep the entire length, in case I needed to add a plug to the ca. Anyway, conveniently located just in front of the inflator pack in the floor, is a weep grommet. I used this to exit the floor and into the charging plug directly below.
Now, I know many of me mates cannot stomach drilling a 2" hole through the valance panel, but, I weighed that against locating the plug in other locations that were more difficult to reach. However, I think the installation is such that it looks neat, clean, and looks like a dealer installed accessory.

 

Nice job, sure beats having to open and close the trunk.

 

Looks really good. I thought you had a typo in your earlier post, when you said you were looking for a 120V connector!
I'm not sure I'd want to run 120V into the back of my car, so I kind of like jagtoes solution a little better.
But yours does have 2 advantages:
1) you can 'plug in' anywhere, as you've always got your maintainer with you, and
2) if some prankster opens up the socket cover, they can't drain or short out your battery (at least I don't think you'll get reverse flow through your maintainer), unlike the jagtoes solution, where the contacts are 'live' connections to your battery.

 

I see no difference of running 120V into the trunk this way or with an extension into the trunk for the plug-in. In fact, This might be safer, as overtime isn't there half a chance of the extension being cut in some way by the closing of the trunk lid? In reality, I don't think this possible no more than this direct connect going bad, as the receptacle, if shorted, is in the non-conductive plastic trim diffuser panel.
If any inconvenience be perceived, I need to pull the trunk well liner out to insure the CTEK is still operational? the plug when capped is, pretty much, hidden, as well.

 

OK nice job and I can see the advantage is that you leave the Ctek in the spare tire well so when you are away all you need is an extension cord. I also notice that the panel you drilled through is a signal thickness. I was considering that but my 2012 has 2 panels I would have to drill through. 1 is plastic and the other is metal and part of the bumper system. That is why I mounted mine the way I did. Good show

 

If you look at my pictures the one on the lower right you can see the 2 panels I'm talking about. The bottom one is plastic and the one I attached my outlet to was metal. Must be a change in the bumper set up.

 

Yeah, a definite change there. But, you mastered the change well.
Happy Trails......