Ok, I've got a trickle charger but to hook it up I have to open the hood - if I'm in a rush or wearing dress clothes, that doesn't happen..and let me tell you about the time I forgot to disconnect it before I drove off..


I'm looking for a way to hook/un-hook the trickle charger without having to open the hood - ideally it would pop the charge plug out similar to the auto-disconnect on a fire truck...but that's dream-level trickle charger - I'd settle for an externally mounted port..


Suggestions?

 

Go down and buy a set of connectors for trailer lights. They're keyed (only fit together one way) and you can buy them in 2, 3, 4 or 5 pin varieties and they're cheap. Cut your cord to your charger and splice in the trailer plugs. You might want to discard the whole end with spring loaded clamps that come with the charger and just use ring terminals that can be securely screwed to the battery posts. Secur eth ering terminals directly to the piece of trailer wiring. The connectors not designed to be self disconnecting but it you secure the one lead to your truck and secure the battery charger lead to a fixed object, they'll probably come apart at the connectors if you forget to unplug them before pulling out instead of breaking the wires. You miight want to add a fuse to the * lead near the battery just incase the wire breaks so it won't short the battery to ground. BTW the * lead coming from the charger should go to a male pin on the charger side and female socket on the vehicle side for the same reason.

 

I'm in the same boat as you.. I have a battery tender hooked up to my truck 24/7 also and have to open my hood to connect and disconnect.. Doesnt really bother me much though but having something to connect on the outside would be nice..

I usually hang a cardboard note from my steering wheel every time I connect it so I don't have any accidents. Then I store it in the center console when not in use.

 

Not to get off topic, but when I was in school I ran the shuttle bus service at school. The older buses had plugs at the rear with break-away cords so if someone was not paying attention a small section came out, not the whole cord. Well the new International buses we had did not have such a feature. One of my fellow managers drove off. Ripped the whole this up. He's was no longer a manager

 

Hi.

Just use one of these maintainers ( far more than just a trickle charger ).

It installs permanently under the hood - hook it up to a short block heater extension cord run out the front -unplug the external A/C cord and go. As long as you don't 'knot' the cord, if you pull away and forget, it will unplug itself .

http://www.batterychargers.com/Produ...Name=94026501A

Available @ WallyMart.

MGD

 

Not bad - $21.93, available for ship to store:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Schumacher...arger/15167360

 

Creative but not really a good idea. Might sound ok but those plugs are not built for 120v AC. Could overheat and catch fire, at best you probably won't have proper current to the charger. And on a forced pullout could leave live wires exposed on the AC side.



Oh yeah, I've done that few times

If you're lucky it won't just yank the female plug off the cord or the pins out of the male side. If you're really lucky you'll get away with it a few times, but each time is going to compromise the wires and could lead to big trouble. I can't count how many times I've been behind a driver in the winter and seen an extension cord trailing under the back bumper, often without the end and chewed up from being run over.

HoustonF150, I tried to find a price on the professional deal, they sound brilliant, but short of calling up a place I couldn't get a price. Do you know what they cost?

EDIT: And of course, once I admit defeat I find what I was looking for. Over US$200, yeah, a bit pricey for my tastes too.

Maybe someone has a contact with a firehall or other professional that could get one ordered for you? I'm kind of surprised I couldn't find one online, my google-fu was weak. It seems like a huge market out there just waiting for a seller unless they are stupid money. I'd probably buy one at a reasonable price even though I haven't forgotten to unplug in a long time.

Hey, if all you're looking for is battery maintenance, have you considered a solar battery maintainer? No worry about unplugging and always charging, not just when at an outlet. Only works when the sun shines though.

 

I've got a pigtail permanently attached to the battery under the hood and one of the Schumacher trickle chargers from Wallyworld - since it's low amp 12 volt coming out of the charger, I just created an extension using "vacuum cleaner cord" and Anderson Power Pole connectors and left the trickle charger mounted to the wall in the garage. The 10 foot extension lead hangs on a hook outside the garage behind the shrubs where it's not visible. The worst you could do would be to short the two terminal ends together with a paperclip and blow a fuse on the charger..no fire hazard from meddling teenagers if they found it...and I've already given the cord the worst pull test ever...no major damage there either.

I like the classic car on-board full-time mounted trickle charger and the idea of attaching house current to the car...but it's the same problem with a different cord...although moving to hooking an extension cord up gets me into the realm of using one of these again: http://www.kussmaul.com/091-55-15-120-bw.html

I know they're pricey, but I figure the cost and hassle of replacing a battery when I neglect re-hooking the truck back up AND the cost and aggravation of having to re-make my extension cord will be saved in the long run..I've had the truck since 2006 and plan on having it for another 10 years..

Now - where to mount it? I may have to buy a nice brush guard for the front of the truck to mount this sucker on.


Incidentally, if you like to tinker, check out Kussmaul's catalog - most of it is for Fire/EMS/Police service vehicles..and they're not cheap, but you do get what you pay for (and no, I'm not a rep, I was just a volunteer fireman for awhile..and you get exposed to some really cool everyday technology that most folks don't see).
http://www.kussmaul.com/pdfs/Catalog_Vol_118%20.pdf

 

I've been thinking of doing the same thing to my truck. Although, I've never had a flat battery.

What I'd like to do sometime is get a bigger alternator or somehow do a dual alternator setup, and run a large inverter with outlets on the inside and outside of my truck. But I'd first have to figure out how to do a SEIC mod on my truck to keep the RPMs up.

Not sure why SEIC isn't a default on any F-series, not just the SDs.

At the end of the day, I think a small diesel generator is cheaper and possibly more efficient.

 

ManualF150 - my truck may sit up for 2-3 months sometimes and if I forget to turn the automatic headlight switch to off, the battery seems to drain down to unstartable somewhere between 1 and 2 months.

The SEIC mod looks like something I'll wind up doing eventually - at one point I had a toolbox in the back with 4 marine batteries and an inverter that I used for power when at hare scrambles - totally silent, plenty of juice to run some basic 12 volt lights until the camp-fire was lit and enough oomph to run some basic 120v items. A solar charge controller let me draw charge off the alternator when the truck was running prevented charge loss when it's all turned off.

I eventually moved away from batteries and bought a Honda EU2000 genny....the coffee pot demanded it...though I could easily see the SEIC mod, a bigger alternator and a marine battery or two in the mix to help soften the blow for the setup you're talking about...and for my coffee pot....maybe a larger inverter and another marine battery or two...hmmm I wonder....

 

These chargers come with quick connects, extension leeds, and all kinds of goodies. I have quick connects on all my quads.
http://www.geniuschargers.com/G1100

 

Hmm... that's exactly what I've been yearning to do... get about 4 AGM deep cycle batteries and run a large marine inverter off of it. Solar charging is a good addition too; didn't even think about that!

See you got a '98, so you have a mechanical throttle body... you can get a locking pull cable that you can attach to your throttle body cable, and pull on it, and then twist it at the RPM you want. Similar to a riding lawn mower, or heck, even get a lawn mower throttle assembly and mount that someplace out of the way.

On the '04's and above, they have a drive-by-wire electronic throttle body. So it's a different ball game. Been trying to find the exact schematic and programming for my truck, but so far I've come up empty handed.

I'd love to flip a switch and my engine goes up to 1800 rpm.

Sometimes not so much for charging, but for warming my truck up on those -15F days...

 

you can still do the pull cable for the throttle. Just hook it up to the gas pedal. but remember to mount it in a place that when your driving the wire is not interfering with your foot and getting bent.

 

I was thinking of doing that... Maybe this summer. It's a heck of a lot easier and then I can run the engine at any speed I want to.

Too bad I didn't have a PTO output off the tranny. Was thinking about making some kind of electronic gearbox to divert the power to a PTO output instead of the rear axle shaft.

I seen a really nice Military Utility truck where it had a live PTO output, and the truck even came with a box of different splined adapters for running things like generators, water pumps, etc. I seen a guy use his to mow his lawn with a 96" finishing mower on like 20 acres of land. Unique idea...

 

Are these safe to use with glass mat type batteries like my Sears Platinum? I may want to swap out my battery tender plus for this one.

Would you also happen to know the dimensions?

Thanks.