is there a method of charging a 12v car battery without using a
charger?

(jump leads won't reach, charger gone awol)

Cheers

Jim K

Jim K wrote:
is there a method of charging a 12v car battery without using a
charger?

(jump leads won't reach, charger gone awol)

Move the batteries closer together (removing one from a vehicle if
necessary). ;-)

Tim

On Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:45:51 -0700 (PDT), Jim K wrote:

is there a method of charging a 12v car battery without using a
charger?

(jump leads won't reach, charger gone awol)

Jump leads implies that there is another car battery just out of reach.

Any sort of reasonable connection between the two batteries will do to
charge. Got a suitable length of 2.5 T&E kicking about, make that two
lengths and parallel up all the conductors in each and you'll have
6.5mm^2. I'd say that is probably more than the CSA in a set of
lightweight jump leads...

Making sound connections to the batteries might be the hard bit if you
want to try starting the vehicle with the flat battery rather than just
charge it's battery from the other one (will need the donor engine
running).

Or take the battery out and move it to within jump lead distance but that
means codes and possibly and engine management reset for the donor car
unless you have a small 12v SLA to keep the donor car alive via the ciggy
socket. You might need to put the ignition switch into the "accessory"
position to connect the ciggy socket to the cars 12 V rail.

Personally with the driving powder snow and wind chill between -15 and
-20 C we have faffing about providing a backup and removing batteries is
not on. Preparing suitable lenghts of T&E indoors is much better
proposition. B-)

--
Cheers
Dave.

Jim K wrote:
is there a method of charging a 12v car battery without using a
charger?

(jump leads won't reach, charger gone awol)

Cheers

Jim K

It does rather depend on what you have to hand. A bench power supply set
to 14 volts would be my first choice, otherwise why not buy a cheapo
charger or a longer set of jump leads.

Dave Liquorice wrote:

I'd say that is probably more than the CSA in a set of
lightweight jump leads...

Something about putting the words "CSA" and "lightweight jump" in the same
sentence just does not seem right:-)

--
Adam

On Mar 25, 5:42*pm, Bob Minchin
wrote:
Jim K wrote:
is there a method of charging a 12v car battery without using a
charger?

(jump leads won't reach, charger gone awol)

Cheers

Jim K

It does rather depend on what you have to hand. A bench power supply set
to 14 volts would be my first choice, otherwise why not buy a cheapo
charger or a longer set of jump leads.

its to start the tractor loader to dig me out so (amongst other
things) I can get to the shops to buy a charger without shagging the
car too... ;) feckin snow.

borrowed a (distant) neighbours charger but thanks for the helpful
replies

Cheers
Jim K

On Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:40:39 +0000, Dave Liquorice wrote:
Or take the battery out and move it to within jump lead distance but
that means codes and possibly and engine management reset for the donor
car unless you have a small 12v SLA to keep the donor car alive via the
ciggy socket.

I've never heard of that before. Which is to say that it's not the case*
on anything that I've ever owned, and now that you've mentioned it I'll
make sure that it isn't on anything that I may own in the future. That
kind of shonky "design" I can do without! :-)

* although if the van's battery goes flat, it has a habit of "rebooting"
with the dashboard display in Spanish.

cheers

Jules

Dave Liquorice wrote:

Any sort of reasonable connection between the two batteries will do to
charge.

You can't really charge a battery from another battery. It works for a
while but the recipient battery ends up still pretty well flat. The
voltage of the good battery will not overcome the surface charge that
builds up on the recipient battery and the current flow ceases. Also,
when the voltage difference between a battery being charged and the
charging source is almost zero, as in this case, the resistance of the
connecting leads becomes very significant. You need around 15V to charge
a car battery at a reasonable rate. 11 or 12V will do nothing.

Bill

On 25/03/2013 16:45, Jim K wrote:
is there a method of charging a 12v car battery without using a
charger?

(jump leads won't reach, charger gone awol)

Cheers

Jim K

You could try tucking the lance under your arm and simply running. But,
obviously, a horse is the right way of doing it.

--
Rod

On Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:04:47 +0000, Bill Wright wrote:

Any sort of reasonable connection between the two batteries will do to
charge.

You can't really charge a battery from another battery. It works for a
while but the recipient battery ends up still pretty well flat.

Selective quoting. Read the end of the next para:

"Making sound connections to the batteries might be the hard bit if you
want to try starting the vehicle with the flat battery rather than just
charge it's battery from the other one (will need the donor engine
running)."

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Mon, 25 Mar 2013 18:28:21 +0000 (UTC), Jules Richardson wrote:

Or take the battery out and move it to within jump lead distance but
that means codes and possibly and engine management reset for the
donor car unless you have a small 12v SLA to keep the donor car alive
via the ciggy socket.

I've never heard of that before.

Which bit? The code (for the radio), engine management reset (goes to
default settings, needs a 100 miles or so to "relearn" the engine) or
using a 12 V SLA via the ciggy socket to keep the car alive.

... now that you've mentioned it I'll make sure that it isn't on
anything that I may own in the future. That kind of shonky "design" I
can do without! :-)

This side of the pond anything fairly recent (10 years or more...) will
suffer the radio code problem and probably the engine management reset.
How much you notice the former is variable. I can tell on mine, it feels
sluggish (well more so than normal...) you have press the "go" pedal a
bit further and even then it doesn't respond as well.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On 25/03/13 16:45, Jim K wrote:
is there a method of charging a 12v car battery without using a
charger?

(jump leads won't reach, charger gone awol)


best trick is to pull battery that works out of summat and jump from
that. If its fully charged that will get the car started.

can be a pain if it e.g. resets your car computer tho.

I haver a leisure battery in the camper I use for this sort of work..



Cheers

Jim K



--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

On Monday, March 25, 2013 4:45:51 PM UTC, Jim K wrote:
is there a method of charging a 12v car battery without using a
charger?

any source of current limited 14v would do. They're not fussy, as long as you dont dirty charge frequently

NT

On Mar 25, 4:45*pm, Jim K wrote:
is there a method of charging a 12v car battery without using a
charger?

(jump leads won't reach, charger gone awol)

Cheers

Jim K

Use the telephone line.
Used to work in days gone by. Not sure about these days!

On 27/03/13 14:20, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Mon, 25 Mar 2013 22:40:00 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 25/03/13 16:45, Jim K wrote:
is there a method of charging a 12v car battery without using a
charger?

(jump leads won't reach, charger gone awol)


best trick is to pull battery that works out of summat and jump from
that. If its fully charged that will get the car started.


Is that suggesting swapping batteries while the engines running ?

No.


Isn't that a bad idea ?


Yes. It would be, but it was not suggested.





--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

On 25 Mar, 18:18, Jim K wrote:
On Mar 25, 5:42*pm, Bob Minchin

wrote:
Jim K wrote:
is there a method of charging a 12v car battery without using a
charger?

(jump leads won't reach, charger gone awol)

Cheers

Jim K

It does rather depend on what you have to hand. A bench power supply set
to 14 volts would be my first choice, otherwise why not buy a cheapo
charger or a longer set of jump leads.

its to start the tractor loader to dig me out so (amongst other
things) I can get to the shops to buy a charger without shagging the
car too... ;) feckin snow.

borrowed a (distant) neighbours charger but thanks for the helpful
replies

Cheers
Jim K

so buying a charger:-

screwfux have a 4A at £20 & a 6A at £30.

the 4A one is "not recommended for batteries over 50Ah" ?

(my borrowed charger has a "2A trickle charge" setting....)

So is that just marketing bull**** to induce me to buy the more
expensive charger? or is there a basis?

Jim K