I am getting to the point where it seems a cunning plan isn't.

We have a caravan with a leisure battery.

We also have a spare leisure battery which gives us the option to carry it
for extra capacity and possibly use it with an inverter to power some low
demand 240v devices.

It is a few years old and doesn't match the new one in the caravan so just
linking the two together may not be the best option.

I thought I might be able to trickle charge it from a 12v socket in the
car for the times when we will not have an Electrical Hook Up (EHU)
available over night.

However, although there are DC-DC chargers these seem to start around £70
which is not far off the price of just buying another leisure battery and
fitting it to the caravan.

Does anyone know of a cheap but effective DC-DC charger?

To make it easy to use it needs to work off a cigar lighter socket; I know
I would probably get far superior charging by fitting a charge controller
to the output of the car alternator to feed the battery but this looks to
be in the £200+ price range.

Just looking for a cheap and simple way to use the spare battery without
any major electrical surgery to the car or caravan.

Cheers


Dave R



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On Monday, 8 May 2017 14:48:47 UTC+1, David WE Roberts (Google) wrote:
I am getting to the point where it seems a cunning plan isn't.

We have a caravan with a leisure battery.

We also have a spare leisure battery which gives us the option to carry it
for extra capacity and possibly use it with an inverter to power some low
demand 240v devices.

It is a few years old and doesn't match the new one in the caravan so just
linking the two together may not be the best option.

they have different offload voltages?

I thought I might be able to trickle charge it from a 12v socket in the
car for the times when we will not have an Electrical Hook Up (EHU)
available over night.

you could with a dc-dc convertor, but I'm not seeing any point in doing so.

However, although there are DC-DC chargers these seem to start around £70
which is not far off the price of just buying another leisure battery and
fitting it to the caravan.

Does anyone know of a cheap but effective DC-DC charger?

you need to check out ebay & iffy chinese sites. A few quid should get you a low power switching regulator. But I still don't see what it would gain.

To make it easy to use it needs to work off a cigar lighter socket; I know
I would probably get far superior charging by fitting a charge controller
to the output of the car alternator to feed the battery but this looks to
be in the £200+ price range.

alternators have charge controllers built in - they're for wet cells of course, so would want voltage dropping some. I presume that could be done with a diode or 2.

Just looking for a cheap and simple way to use the spare battery without
any major electrical surgery to the car or caravan.

Charge it when the car runs, not when it isn't. The latter gains you nothing.


NT

David wrote:

It is a few years old and doesn't match the new one in the caravan so just
linking the two together may not be the best option.

If they're both the same technology (i.e. lead acid, liquid
electrolyte - or - lead acid, gel - or - whatever) then I don't really
see any problem with simply parallelling them to get the 'extra' one
charged. It would probably be worth disconnecting it if leaving long
term.

--
Chris Green
·

In article ,
David wrote:
However, although there are DC-DC chargers these seem to start around
£70 which is not far off the price of just buying another leisure
battery and fitting it to the caravan.

Pretty low demand pushing up the price, I'd say.

--
*Frankly, scallop, I don't give a clam

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Chris Green wrote:
David wrote:

It is a few years old and doesn't match the new one in the caravan so
just linking the two together may not be the best option.

If they're both the same technology (i.e. lead acid, liquid
electrolyte - or - lead acid, gel - or - whatever) then I don't really
see any problem with simply parallelling them to get the 'extra' one
charged. It would probably be worth disconnecting it if leaving long
term.

You need well above the nominal battery voltage to charge it fully.

--
*What was the best thing before sliced bread?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
In article ,
Chris Green wrote:
David wrote:

It is a few years old and doesn't match the new one in the caravan so
just linking the two together may not be the best option.

If they're both the same technology (i.e. lead acid, liquid
electrolyte - or - lead acid, gel - or - whatever) then I don't really
see any problem with simply parallelling them to get the 'extra' one
charged. It would probably be worth disconnecting it if leaving long
term.

You need well above the nominal battery voltage to charge it fully.

Er, yes, there is presumably something charging the 'first' battery so
it will charge the added parallel one as well.

--
Chris Green
·

ssnip

Just looking for a cheap and simple way to use the spare battery
without any major electrical surgery to the car or caravan.

Charge it when the car runs, not when it isn't. The latter gains you
nothing.

Yes, I am intending to charge it when the car is running; I don't want to
flatten the car battery.
--
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In article ,
Chris Green writes:
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
In article ,
Chris Green wrote:
David wrote:

It is a few years old and doesn't match the new one in the caravan so
just linking the two together may not be the best option.

If they're both the same technology (i.e. lead acid, liquid
electrolyte - or - lead acid, gel - or - whatever) then I don't really
see any problem with simply parallelling them to get the 'extra' one
charged. It would probably be worth disconnecting it if leaving long
term.

You need well above the nominal battery voltage to charge it fully.

Er, yes, there is presumably something charging the 'first' battery so
it will charge the added parallel one as well.

IME, cigar lighter sockets are hopeless for long duration
current rating (anything over a couple of amps). The contact
resistance is too high and they overheat, because they don't
have contacts with large enough surface contact and high
enough pressure.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Chris Green writes:
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
In article ,
Chris Green wrote:
David wrote:

It is a few years old and doesn't match the new one in the caravan so
just linking the two together may not be the best option.

If they're both the same technology (i.e. lead acid, liquid
electrolyte - or - lead acid, gel - or - whatever) then I don't really
see any problem with simply parallelling them to get the 'extra' one
charged. It would probably be worth disconnecting it if leaving long
term.

You need well above the nominal battery voltage to charge it fully.

Er, yes, there is presumably something charging the 'first' battery so
it will charge the added parallel one as well.

IME, cigar lighter sockets are hopeless for long duration
current rating (anything over a couple of amps). The contact
resistance is too high and they overheat, because they don't
have contacts with large enough surface contact and high
enough pressure.

Quite agree, it was a very silly idea to try and use them as power
connectors. I wasn't suggesting that above, just that parallelling
the two batteries would probably work fine (but best not to use the
cigar lighter socket!).

--
Chris Green
·

In article , David
writes
ssnip

Just looking for a cheap and simple way to use the spare battery
without any major electrical surgery to the car or caravan.

Charge it when the car runs, not when it isn't. The latter gains you
nothing.

Yes, I am intending to charge it when the car is running; I don't want to
flatten the car battery.
Then jut connect up a voltage sensitive relay and off you go. That's all
the caravan battery has. The regulation system on the alternator will
prevent overcharging. When you switch off the engine the relay will
ensure the two batteries are not connected in parallel.
--
bert

I'd have thought this could be done simply by just having a switch to charge
one or the other of them. Don't like the idea of having a charging battery
in the passenger compartment withou ventilation.

The lighter is not going to sink the sort of current you need to charge it
really, and yes you could current limit this by a simple circuit (Look in
many of them old Bibani Books!)

I'm sure little modules exist for this nowadays.

Brian

--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"David" wrote in message
...
I am getting to the point where it seems a cunning plan isn't.

We have a caravan with a leisure battery.

We also have a spare leisure battery which gives us the option to carry it
for extra capacity and possibly use it with an inverter to power some low
demand 240v devices.

It is a few years old and doesn't match the new one in the caravan so just
linking the two together may not be the best option.

I thought I might be able to trickle charge it from a 12v socket in the
car for the times when we will not have an Electrical Hook Up (EHU)
available over night.

However, although there are DC-DC chargers these seem to start around £70
which is not far off the price of just buying another leisure battery and
fitting it to the caravan.

Does anyone know of a cheap but effective DC-DC charger?

To make it easy to use it needs to work off a cigar lighter socket; I know
I would probably get far superior charging by fitting a charge controller
to the output of the car alternator to feed the battery but this looks to
be in the £200+ price range.

Just looking for a cheap and simple way to use the spare battery without
any major electrical surgery to the car or caravan.

Cheers


Dave R



--
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on 09/05/2017, Brian Gaff supposed :
The lighter is not going to sink the sort of current you need to charge it
really, and yes you could current limit this by a simple circuit (Look in
many of them old Bibani Books!)

It may not charge at full speed, but charge it would.

I'm sure little modules exist for this nowadays.

No need, the resistance of the wiring and the small voltage difference
between vehicle battery and car battery will provide an effective limit
to the charge current.

I would no want a battery on charge in the passenger compartment.

On Tue, 09 May 2017 09:53:30 +0100, Harry Bloomfield
wrote:

on 09/05/2017, Brian Gaff supposed :
The lighter is not going to sink the sort of current you need to charge it
really, and yes you could current limit this by a simple circuit (Look in
many of them old Bibani Books!)

It may not charge at full speed, but charge it would.

I'm sure little modules exist for this nowadays.

No need, the resistance of the wiring and the small voltage difference
between vehicle battery and car battery will provide an effective limit
to the charge current.

I would no want a battery on charge in the passenger compartment.


*Years ago*, Dad bought a portable battery system that consisted of 2
x 6V lead acid batteries in a fibreglass carry case that strapped into
the boot of the car and took power from the car 12V system when the
engine was running.

There was some form of electronic controller you fitted inside the
boot that would charge each battery independently and then when you
wanted 12V in say a tent, you unplugged it, lifted it out and flicked
a big rocker switch from 'Charge' to '12V'.

If you needed a charge you just put it back in the car when you were
out and about, or using a 12V mains charger of course.

Before campsites offered mains hookups, most places would allow you to
charge such things in their garage / store for a few pence. Not sure
'the rules' would allow them to do such these days?

Cheers, T i m

T i m wrote:

*Years ago*, Dad bought a portable battery system that consisted of 2
x 6V lead acid batteries in a fibreglass carry case that strapped into
the boot of the car and took power from the car 12V system when the
engine was running.

I am ancient enough to have installed and used a similar system
myself.

The caravan was quite advanced, and came with its battery in a
box with an external socket, to match that on the van. You could
then fit a mating connector in the car boot to top up when you
went for a run.

You used to be able to fit a simple split charge relay, which is
amongst the methods described he

http://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/split-charging.html

But cars and life seem to have become more complicated these
days.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Plant amazing Acers.

On Tue, 09 May 2017 09:53:30 +0100, Harry Bloomfield wrote:

on 09/05/2017, Brian Gaff supposed :
The lighter is not going to sink the sort of current you need to charge
it really, and yes you could current limit this by a simple circuit
(Look in many of them old Bibani Books!)

It may not charge at full speed, but charge it would.

I'm sure little modules exist for this nowadays.

No need, the resistance of the wiring and the small voltage difference
between vehicle battery and car battery will provide an effective limit
to the charge current.

I would no want a battery on charge in the passenger compartment.

Our Touareg has the battery under the passenger front seat.

Our Hymer motor home had the leisure battery under the driver's seat.

Our caravan has the battery under a seat in the lounge area.

All of them are charged whilst people are around.

I fail to see the problem, frankly.

Cheers



Dave R



--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

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On Tuesday, 9 May 2017 14:24:02 UTC+1, David WE Roberts (Google) wrote:
On Tue, 09 May 2017 09:53:30 +0100, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
on 09/05/2017, Brian Gaff supposed :
The lighter is not going to sink the sort of current you need to charge
it really, and yes you could current limit this by a simple circuit
(Look in many of them old Bibani Books!)

It may not charge at full speed, but charge it would.

I'm sure little modules exist for this nowadays.

No need, the resistance of the wiring and the small voltage difference
between vehicle battery and car battery will provide an effective limit
to the charge current.

I would no want a battery on charge in the passenger compartment.

Our Touareg has the battery under the passenger front seat.

Our Hymer motor home had the leisure battery under the driver's seat.

Our caravan has the battery under a seat in the lounge area.

All of them are charged whilst people are around.

I fail to see the problem, frankly.

Cheers



Dave R

Charging regulation failed in one of my history pieces. The first I knew of it was when the interior suddenly filled with choking sulphuric acid fumes.. In the space of under a second I couldn't breathe at all. I clamped anchors and leapt out. It had no effective bulkhead. Maybe if it had had fusing (it had none anywhere) that could have prevented it. If it had had an ammeter I might have noticed something wrong.

Modern vehicles are different of course. Interior batteries will either be boxed & vented to the outside, or monitored in various ways to detect any malfunction & shut down - I presume.


NT

David used his keyboard to write :
Our Touareg has the battery under the passenger front seat.

Our Hymer motor home had the leisure battery under the driver's seat.

Our caravan has the battery under a seat in the lounge area.

All of them are charged whilst people are around.

I fail to see the problem, frankly.

Batteries under charge vent a mix of H and O, the two mixed are very,
very explosive pair of gases. I would hope that any vents from those
internally installed batteries are safely piped out side. My caravan
has its battery under a seat in the lounge, but it is safely contained
in a cabinet sealed from the living space and only accessible plus
vented to the outside.

Harry Bloomfield wrote:

Batteries under charge vent a mix of H and O, the two mixed are very,
very explosive pair of gases. I would hope that any vents from those
internally installed batteries are safely piped out side. My caravan
has its battery under a seat in the lounge, but it is safely contained
in a cabinet sealed from the living space and only accessible plus
vented to the outside.

My old Beetle had its battery under the rear seat. No venting and
only minimal protection for the terminals.

Caravans used to have the battery in the drawbar locker, along
with the gas cylinders. Times have changed.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Plant amazing Acers.

In article , David
writes
On Tue, 09 May 2017 09:53:30 +0100, Harry Bloomfield wrote:

on 09/05/2017, Brian Gaff supposed :
The lighter is not going to sink the sort of current you need to charge
it really, and yes you could current limit this by a simple circuit
(Look in many of them old Bibani Books!)

It may not charge at full speed, but charge it would.

I'm sure little modules exist for this nowadays.

No need, the resistance of the wiring and the small voltage difference
between vehicle battery and car battery will provide an effective limit
to the charge current.

I would no want a battery on charge in the passenger compartment.

Our Touareg has the battery under the passenger front seat.

Vented
Our Hymer motor home had the leisure battery under the driver's seat.

Vented
Our caravan has the battery under a seat in the lounge area.

Vented?
All of them are charged whilst people are around.

I fail to see the problem, frankly.

Cheers



Dave R




--
bert

In article , Chris J Dixon
writes
Harry Bloomfield wrote:

Batteries under charge vent a mix of H and O, the two mixed are very,
very explosive pair of gases. I would hope that any vents from those
internally installed batteries are safely piped out side. My caravan
has its battery under a seat in the lounge, but it is safely contained
in a cabinet sealed from the living space and only accessible plus
vented to the outside.

My old Beetle had its battery under the rear seat. No venting and
only minimal protection for the terminals.

Old Land rovers had the fuel tank under the driver's seat.
Caravans used to have the battery in the drawbar locker, along
with the gas cylinders. Times have changed.

Chris

--
bert

On Mon, 08 May 2017 22:11:05 +0100, bert wrote:

In article , David
writes
ssnip

Just looking for a cheap and simple way to use the spare battery
without any major electrical surgery to the car or caravan.

Charge it when the car runs, not when it isn't. The latter gains you
nothing.

Yes, I am intending to charge it when the car is running; I don't want
to flatten the car battery.
Then jut connect up a voltage sensitive relay and off you go. That's all
the caravan battery has. The regulation system on the alternator will
prevent overcharging. When you switch off the engine the relay will
ensure the two batteries are not connected in parallel.

Does this work directly off the alternator, or via a 12v cigar lighter
socket?

The requirement is for something cheap and simple which does not involve
any extra wiring in the car.

I realise the output from a 12v socket will not have the same
characteristics as a direct feed from the alternator via a charge
controller.

Cheers


Dave R


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David wrote:
I realise the output from a 12v socket will not have the same
characteristics as a direct feed from the alternator via a charge
controller.
The only difference will be due to wiring and fuse resistance in the
feed to to the 12v socket.

On Tue, 09 May 2017 11:24:40 +0100, Chris J Dixon
wrote:

T i m wrote:

*Years ago*, Dad bought a portable battery system that consisted of 2
x 6V lead acid batteries in a fibreglass carry case that strapped into
the boot of the car and took power from the car 12V system when the
engine was running.

I am ancient enough to have installed and used a similar system
myself.

There aren't many of us left. ;-)

The caravan was quite advanced, and came with its battery in a
box with an external socket, to match that on the van. You could
then fit a mating connector in the car boot to top up when you
went for a run.

I think there were several such solutions as these things evolved.

You used to be able to fit a simple split charge relay, which is
amongst the methods described he

http://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/split-charging.html

But cars and life seem to have become more complicated these
days.

Car and motorbikes ... and why I keep my kitcar based on a 1978 Ford
Escort and whilst I don't think any of my bikes are quite old enough
to have points, none of them have CAN busses and the like. ;-)

It's funny, we had the 2L GL Sierra Estate for 23 years in the end and
in all that time the only things that failed were a window winder
wheel runner (broke in the icy weather), a brake caliper seized
slightly and the cambelt broke (safe engine and I had replaced in
within the hour).

Oh, the clutch cable snapped but I carried a spare (like you did in
those days) and I changed it at the side of the road using no more
than my Leatherman PST II. ;-)

Not quite so easy to change a concentric hydraulic slave cylinder and
unlike the Rover 218SD or the Meriva, on the Sierra I never had any
issues with the aircon, central locking, immobiliser, the ECU or
electric windows because it didn't have them (and somehow we used it
everywhere for everything) and to have a new key cut cost £5. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

In article ,
T i m wrote:
Not quite so easy to change a concentric hydraulic slave cylinder and
unlike the Rover 218SD or the Meriva, on the Sierra I never had any
issues with the aircon, central locking, immobiliser, the ECU or
electric windows because it didn't have them (and somehow we used it
everywhere for everything) and to have a new key cut cost £5. ;-)

But then there were the new plugs, plug leads, points, rotor arm, dizzy
cap etc at regular intervals - and checking the ignition timing too. Then
antifreeze each winter and replacing a few hoses too. To say nothing about
5000 mile oil changes. And then the new engine at perhaps 50,000 miles...

--
*I have never hated a man enough to give his diamonds back.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Thursday, 11 May 2017 15:32:04 UTC+1, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
T i m wrote:
Not quite so easy to change a concentric hydraulic slave cylinder and
unlike the Rover 218SD or the Meriva, on the Sierra I never had any
issues with the aircon, central locking, immobiliser, the ECU or
electric windows because it didn't have them (and somehow we used it
everywhere for everything) and to have a new key cut cost £5. ;-)

But then there were the new plugs, plug leads, points, rotor arm, dizzy
cap etc at regular intervals - and checking the ignition timing too. Then
antifreeze each winter and replacing a few hoses too. To say nothing about
5000 mile oil changes. And then the new engine at perhaps 50,000 miles...

and wondering why the timing light showed the sparks scattered all over about 1/4 of the flywheel.


NT

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

But then there were the new plugs, plug leads, points, rotor arm, dizzy
cap etc at regular intervals - and checking the ignition timing too. Then
antifreeze each winter and replacing a few hoses too. To say nothing about
5000 mile oil changes. And then the new engine at perhaps 50,000 miles...

Memories of my first car, a VW Beetle, come flooding back.

I picked this up at trade. It had been imported from South
Africa, and was a bit behind the European model changes. IIRC
the greasing interval was 1500 miles. It was OK as a first car,
but not after driving anything else. Motorway trips in a cross
wind were very interesting, as the steering, even with new king
pins, was incredibly soggy.

A fun job was changing the spark plugs - on the 1500 engine
you needed a plug spanner that would take the tommy bar at 45
degrees.

Then there was the heater designed so that, if it was going to
stick, it would do so fully on.

My only success was once getting an exhaust fitted free - they
took all day and had to change a stud.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Plant amazing Acers.

On Thu, 11 May 2017 15:30:43 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
T i m wrote:
Not quite so easy to change a concentric hydraulic slave cylinder and
unlike the Rover 218SD or the Meriva, on the Sierra I never had any
issues with the aircon, central locking, immobiliser, the ECU or
electric windows because it didn't have them (and somehow we used it
everywhere for everything) and to have a new key cut cost £5. ;-)

But then there were the new plugs, plug leads, points, rotor arm, dizzy
cap etc at regular intervals

Erm, I bought the Sierra off the company when it was about 10 years
old and 30k miles and I'm pretty sure it hadn't had much of that done
over that time and I know little of that was done over the 13 years /
70k mikes I had it after that. Outside of reasonably regular oil, oil
filter, air filter and checking the brakes, no more was done to that
than any other car of today (well, mine anyway). ;-)

- and checking the ignition timing too.

I thought it had electronic ignition? Ok, it still had a dizzy and a
sensor in that fed to ignition module but nothing that changed much
over time (and if it still had a mechanical / vacuum advance / retard
they didn't go wrong that often (even if they weren't that accurate)).
;-)

Then
antifreeze each winter

Not on that company car there wasn't. ;-)

and replacing a few hoses too.

I can't remember a hose ever going but if any did they were cheap and
easy to do and there weren't that many.

To say nothing about
5000 mile oil changes.

Ah, ok, that was probably done.

And then the new engine at perhaps 50,000 miles...

Mine had done 100k when I broke it myself (with the thought of putting
the engine and gearbox in the kitcar) and it was running well the day
I did it.

Cheers, T i m

On Thu, 11 May 2017 19:43:42 +0100, Chris J Dixon
wrote:

snip

Then there was the heater designed so that, if it was going to
stick, it would do so fully on.

The heater on my Messerschmitt KR200 is a jacket wrapped round the
exhaust manifold-downpipe. Heat up time was nearly instant, as would
be death if there was an exhaust leak. ;-(

Cheers, T i m

On Thursday, 11 May 2017 22:27:52 UTC+1, T i m wrote:
On Thu, 11 May 2017 19:43:42 +0100, Chris J Dixon
wrote:

snip

Then there was the heater designed so that, if it was going to
stick, it would do so fully on.

The heater on my Messerschmitt KR200 is a jacket wrapped round the
exhaust manifold-downpipe. Heat up time was nearly instant, as would
be death if there was an exhaust leak. ;-(

Cheers, T i m

Sounds fun. Safety was never a feature of microcars though.


NT

On Thu, 11 May 2017 16:17:36 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Thursday, 11 May 2017 22:27:52 UTC+1, T i m wrote:
On Thu, 11 May 2017 19:43:42 +0100, Chris J Dixon
wrote:

snip

Then there was the heater designed so that, if it was going to
stick, it would do so fully on.

The heater on my Messerschmitt KR200 is a jacket wrapped round the
exhaust manifold-downpipe. Heat up time was nearly instant, as would
be death if there was an exhaust leak. ;-(



Sounds fun.

It is / was (I still have it but haven't driven it in years).

A mate and I both had one (well, he had two) and they were 'just
transport' for us at the time. So they were serviced, for what there
was of it (changed the gearbox oil (it was a 2/), checked the brakes,
did the plug and points as soon as we noticed any drop in
'performance' g but that was about it) and both sported plenty of
primer and signs of 'work in progress'.

But, we were young, they were quite agile / nippy compared with
conventional cars and so we would generally have fun in them. [1]

Once, the mate was in the back and we were doing a rat-run in what
I'll call a 'spirited fashion' and I commented on how good it was to
have a passenger that knew what he was doing. At that he thought it
would be 'fun' to sit on the wrong side on the next corner and we
found ourselves up on two wheels.

On that, he lean his spare 'Schmitt' to his mate who had it a week and
rolled it (no harm to him from the rolling, only from my mate). ;-(

So, when we went to the 'International Messerschmitt Rally' in
Northants, he and I came joint first (out of 50 or so) in the driving
agility event because we both drove like that every day. ;-)

Had there been a prize for the 'scruffiest cars at the show' we would
have one that too. ;-)

Safety was never a feature of microcars though.

No, you are right there, as I found out once when in some slowish
moving traffic, the car in front stopped really quickly (for no
obvious reason [2]) and I couldn't stop in time (6" drum brakes all
round). There was no real damage to him (metal 'bumpers' in those
days') but I had a bumper depth crease across the nose of my Schmitt
that just fouled my toes as I used the pedals!

But I went all over the place in it, including on holiday with my
girlfriend at the time and even towing a lightweight trailer I'd made
for it and at the time, considered it safer than being on my
motorbike. shrug

Cheers, T i m

[1] Even with the drivers seat out, it was nearly impossible to have
any 'back seat' fun in it, as my girlfriend and I found out.

[2] After he had checked his car for damage and found none he smiled
and confirmed why we had both lost concentration for a second ...
'That was a *very* short skirt wasn't it ...' weg

(The irony of that story was a few weeks later, a woman in a car drove
into the back of me (again, in slow moving traffic, no real damage to
either vehicle) and she confessed she was distracted by 'looking in
the gas showroom window'. g).

On Tue, 09 May 2017 16:46:42 +0100, Chris J Dixon
wrote:

snip

My old Beetle had its battery under the rear seat. No venting and
only minimal protection for the terminals.

My Enfield 8000 'Moke' plugin EV has 4 x 6V semi-traction 200AH
batteries under the bonnet and the same under the rear passenger seat
(no lid or cover) and contained within the soft top 'cabin'.

Maybe they though the soft top was sufficiently vented as it was (and
it was). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

David brought next idea :
Does this work directly off the alternator, or via a 12v cigar lighter
socket?

The requirement is for something cheap and simple which does not involve
any extra wiring in the car.

I realise the output from a 12v socket will not have the same
characteristics as a direct feed from the alternator via a charge
controller.

It would provide a more rapid and consistent charge for a second
battery. If you tow the caravan and have the 12S socket or the fully
wired 15(?) pin socket, then you should have a voltage controlled relay
already system wired up in boot.

I have and tapped off that with a none reversable plug and socket, to
allow a battery to be charged in the boot in emergencies.

The problem with using lighter sockets is they are current limited,
there will be lots of voltage dropped in the wiring and the connections
are just not reliable at the plug and socket.