Maplins are offering a 15W amorphous solar charger at £56. It has mounting holes at the corners, and should fit across the roofbars on the GV. It claims to have good charge even in diffused daylight. It has the usual blocking diode and has a cigar-lighter adaptor to plug into the GV's left-hand socket. The thin wire could be run down the passenger's door pillar with some black sticky tape to the cigar-socket. If you need more, another could be connected in parallel.

This should interest drivers who don't do enough motoring to keep the battery in a good state, and can't get mains electricity to the vehicle when parked. It will be an easy DIY job, no fancy electronics, and most importantly, probably enough power to keep the battery good.

Of course it could be used on other vehicles and shouldn't cause any wind-drag. But be sure the fixing is good so the wind doesn't have it away!

Solar Powered 12V 15W Battery Charger | Maplin

Leedsman.

 

After weeks of trying to find what is sucking the life out of my battery this is beginning to look like a good option.

 

- read this general thread, then come back with questions
- if and when you do get one, its the LHS cigar socket only

 

Thanks QinteQ, I've already seen this and i'll try to get a resistor next time i'm in maplins, which needs to be soon because I blew the fuse in my meter checking this problem. It does make sense to maximise what you're getting from the alternator

I've just replaced the battery with an 096 74AH 680 CCA which is a bit sturdier than the previous, it required a bit of surgery but it's in.

I have the same issue of parasitic draw as many others, approx 430ma which I'm led to believe is about twice what would be ideal. I've tried the key withdrawal button and the radio/speaker amp draw, towing electrics, alternator short, so i'm kind of thinking a solar charger while not ideal may be the easiest option to keep the battery sweet.

Tom.

 

I originally bought a for £12 from Maplins [post is on this board somewhere] and found my winter problem disappeared completely. My deliberately unambitious target at the time was to only target the replacement of the milliamps loss [270 milliamps = .27 amp or .27 watt / volt] from standing per bad winter week of 6 un-started days. These GV's have an



IOD fuse[/url] that pulls part way out that cuts power loss considerably in 'sleep mode' which on my 05 2.8 CRD is a 20A at the bottom LHS of the pic.

These cars take at least 15 minutes to go to sleep, measuring loss before the computer[s] go into sleep mode is of no value, after that time I would expect to see max of 35 ma or less, mind you ask 10 different Chrysler trained experts and no doubt you will get 10 different answers. Digital VOM's usually have a 2 scales - a 2a fused and a 10a without a fuse. Start with the 10a and leave the pins in place - when the puter goes to sleep - switch to the lower scale to be able to measure low after the decimal point. NOTE - moving the pins will wake the puter up and blow the 2a fuse.

Hope this helps.

 

Tombt have you tried winding the interior lighting dimmer to 0 everytime your park up.

 

Yeah, it's been off for a few years now, disproved my original theory of 'blame the kids'.

I'm thinking of putting a switch inside the car so I can isolate the iod fuse without going under the bonnet? I reckon I would only use it when parking up for a while at home, so could manually lock it without worrying too much about the alarm/immobiliser.

Thoughts anyone?

Tom

 

100% + anti-theft red key, you would need it under the bonnet - unless you are prepared to route your battery cables into the cab. I put one in in my early frustrated with the mA loss days, it remains a reassuringly quick way to make sure if the really really want it - they are gonna have to work quick to nick it.

 

I think I might have mentioned in one of my postings re. GV battery charging -- simply snipping the brown lead to the cold battery sensor will default the micro's charge-controller to 14volt. But tuck the ends into a little terminal block for safety's sake if you do this. Handy anyhow for when you fit a 33K0 resistor.

n.b. The float charge voltage specified for a silver calcium-calcium lead-acid is 13.9volt. I think this is much higher than the original battery spec. for GV., if you fit such a battery. I can confirm that with Yuasa's spiral-wound 12volt lead-acids used in alarm systems the float-charge voltage is 13.8volt. In any case, all these batteries consume their own gas quite effectively, and the amount of hydrogen and oxygen produced will be minimal anyhow.


Leedsman.

 

Not planning on taking battery leads in to the cabin, just to use a rocker switch to isolate the iod fuse, I haven't checked the load on this circuit yet but don't think it would need anything too heavy duty.