Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi all,

well, final bits of prep before the winter are nearly done. Ivy is purely a high days and holidays car for us, and as such, as soon as the salt hits the roads, thats it until the spring. Quick Q, for such a car, is it an idea to purchase a trickle charger to keep the battery in a good state over the winter? The battery was new in March, so not expecting it to drain, and the Ampmeter in the car shows no discharge when all shut down...
any advice on suitable chargers as well would be great!

Chris & Jo

I would take the battery off the car and charge it occasionally with a trickle charger, an inexpensive one will do. Even a good battery will lose its charge over a period of time. Sarge.

Get a solar charger from Maplins - absolute bargain ~ £10 - works very well indeed. Mine are set under an overhang so they are shielded from rain etc (but they are supposedly waterproof anyway) and from the high summer sun. But low winter sun gets square onto them - and they are facing due south. Keep the batteries right up without any risk of overcharging and no running cost. Highly recommended!

Do a search on here for 'Three Cheers for Solar Charging' thread where the panel benefits are covered. I also have a 12w panel on a one-year old mixed use leisure/starter 110Ah batt. to keep that up during the winter in a garaged camper. The panel hangs in the window facing west. I have had to extend the lead with a length of decent cable to avoid increasing the voltage drop too much. Its worked so far, I check the terminal voltage with a meter every now and again. Update on the Pug battery, now heading towards seven years old, is that it is fine. Trouble with both my modern vehicles is there is a slight drain for all the security and immobiliser devices and radio security! Add this to the internal discharge and a 300mw - plus trickle seems to be necessary..

If you haven't anywhere to collect sunlight on a panel, then there are plug-in low output 'trickle' chargers but of course they will draw from the mains and require a supply.

The 1500mw Maplin panel is not designed for an outside location.

Thanks for the replies!
The solar panel sounds like a great idea, however the car is kept inside an old cow shed of all places, so isn't in direct sunlight. I've ordered a Draper trickle charger and at the moment my plan is to remove the battery over the winter and just occasionally put the battery on.... then take it to the car as and when i want to warm her up for a bit over the winter months. If last years winter up here was anything to go by she'll be frozen!!

As an aside, does anyone put dehumidifiers in the car over winter?

Chris

solar chargers don't deliver high current so you can extend the wiring a few extra metres without a problem...
Cow sheds are not really a problem - some I know have enough light inside but otherwise, just string the wires across a beam and mount it on an external wall.
so many people are now using these as they work so well - I visited a mate at the weekend only to see one screwed to the frame above his garage door to charge his motorbike over winter

I've got 4 and I could do with a few more! One of mine is in the elemnts for 3 years now and still works ok - the car is under a sheet as it has no windows, so no chance of putting it 'in the car'.

Yes - I extended the leads on my solar chargers. I see the 2.4watt model is £12.49 in Maplins at the moment - supposedly 'half price'. And if you are taking the battery out anyway - you can surely put it somewhere there IS light! They really do make much more sense than 'trickle chargers' which actually tend to supply a bit too much current - and are less expensive too!

Would you buy the 1.5 watt or the 2.4 if the car will be standing quite a while without being used?

I think they only have the 2.4 watt now - that's what I bought last time. Well worth the money - but although it says it's weatherproof - mine is mounted in such a way it is pretty much sheltered from the rain - and the high summer sun!

if it's just used to maintain the battery on a Minor that isn't regularly used, I'd be happy with either version - you don't actually need much power for this use.
For a bigger battery and/or one that gets drained, then more watts is better.
I would avoid any 'high capacity' solar charger as I don't know what circuitery they use for voltage regulation. The risk is slight overcharging - which can also happen with some trickle chargers.

Many thanks for the advice.

I have a new solar charger I have not used yet , do I have to disconnect the battery or can I use it in situ ?

you can leave the battery in situ - however it is a very good idea to disconnect the charger before starting the car.

Thanks Ray

Just connect it up - and it will do no harm (or good!) to leave it on when starting up.

Does the polarity matter , our car is positive earth ? Finally getting around to fitting it now it is getting colder

It will have red +ve and black -ve croc clips - just put them on the terminals! Reminds me I should connect mine tomorrow - been using them all summer to charge up re-chargeable packs for my Bardic Railway Lamps!

Thanks