I checked the 12v auxiliary battery today and found that the terminal voltage was 11.9v. The 12v battery only charges, at 13.5v, when the "ignition" is on. This means that if the car is mainly uised for short journeys the essential auxiliary battery may become dischargedsufficiently to lock me out of the car and prevent starting. Has anyone fouind a way of trickle charging the 12v battery? Why can it not be kept charged by the traction battery even when the car is not being used?
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Hi Anthony
An option if your concerned may be to fit a 12v bluetooth battery monitor, something like this, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295644935211?hash=item44d5cfb42b:g:VCUAAOSwGg5kQQO5&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8Ff8jhkddvLoVZIUvfvZnCBQ3oBRP13UdTY%2FW1RldojUhnSoCYEuvivi4L%2BbDplnKnBukiliN%2FLUISYFG3MOR9slzpbCPhT%2BP67Uf328z5CRZ%2Bv%2F9kVxk%2Frr0WPRraW5cvNalFvEl45kxBHhSuv5%2B%2F1jVbB%2B0ekszGGe2srnWebg2oD2qZgbg04JwCnIwgwmPwr0%2FSPOJEiI8ENWPkIzujzNppPhaIN9ehBhYeVaTWEC3srYvazBaB2KGxDlklRFTboHqQMv2%2BYd%2FLIaBpwUpOQTaa9%2BsRtCo%2FJSsCO9diAAb5B25h4erdlZuCgbKNqDlQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBM2oufuNBi
You can then check your battery condition at any time, real time, on your phone. I havent used one personally, so cannot vouch for this unit but something like this may help.
Richy
You can get trickle chargers that stay connected to the battery terminals (often used by classic car and motorbike enthusiasts to keep their batteries ready to go.
There's a very small plug so that you can unattatch from the trickle charger so the charger is not connected to the car all the time.
As I'm not doing very much mileage at the moment I personally use a 'pluse' charger on my car about once a month it reads about 13.4v when it's finished charging.
Hi Anthony, If 13.5v is the charge voltage I would not expect this to be the battery static voltage. Depending on when the car was last run and what loads the battery may have on it at the time of the test the 11.9v you have recorded may not be an issue. Richy