Charging Battery

[Roy V70 850]

Has anyone had any problems with fixing the battery charger directly to the battery without removing any leads.

I've done this in the past on previous cars without a thought, but I'm now increasingly aware of all the computer modules in the car that can be affected by transients caused by imperfect DC voltage and so have always removed the negative lead first.

Any thoughts would be appreciated as removing the negative lead would be one less job to do.

[Ripmax]

I've fixed a battery charger onto mine before whilst poking around with the CANBUS for hours, didn't have any issues.

However, if you're doing it purely to charge the battery. It would make sense to disconnect it from the car first.

[stuart bowes]

on a similar topic, I've been thinking just as a precaution (and for leaving usb things charging in the car when camping) of the following setup..

Solar charger permanently fixed in one of the boot side windows such as this for example (or one that looks better maybe)

solar charger controller to avoid overcharge and provide additional outputs like this

connect directly to battery and just leave it permanently attached

is that a bad idea for any reason I haven't considered

apologies for thread hijack but it's along similar lines

[Roy V70 850]

Originally Posted by stuart bowes

on a similar topic, I've been thinking just as a precaution (and for leaving usb things charging in the car when camping) of the following setup..

Solar charger permanently fixed in one of the boot side windows such as this for example (or one that looks better maybe)

solar charger controller to avoid overcharge and provide additional outputs like this

connect directly to battery and just leave it permanently attached

is that a bad idea for any reason I haven't considered

apologies for thread hijack but it's along similar lines

Nice idea, I could hook up my 10W solar panel for the 2 week periods I don't use the car. In which case, I might not need to charge up the battery at all.. Also there's no need to worry about transients because it's pure DC.This may just keep the battery from draining too much, although it depends on the drain current from the car's system.

10W, should give 0.83A, that's in full sun. In reality it gives 0.5A on a bright day and less than 0.2A to nothing on a cloudy day. At a rough guess, this equates to an average of 0.3A for 7 hours (2.1Ah per day), because the days are getting shorter and mostly cloudy. I suppose that equates to 30Ah for a 2week period.

The panel you describe 8W should give 0.65A max. In the summertime it would trickle charge you battery. The panel will have a built in regulator to ensure that you don't put large voltages directly to the battery. As for overcharging, I wouldn't worry about that, the sort of current it supply's will not harm a lead acid battery even if it's topped up. Probably going a bit overboard with a 30A solar charger though, it would probably suck more current than the panel can supply.

[Tannaton]

There will be no issues connecting a charger directly to the battery, contrary to some opinions car electronic modules (especially Volvo) are very robust and car batteries are the best surge protector available...

[HDAV]

Connect positive to battery negative to chassis earth