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Topic: Charging leisure battery in car boot

georgecanty

23/7/2015 at 8:41am
Location: Madre France
Outfit: Hobby 560 Excellent

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I have a 2011 Mitsubishi Pajero (Shogun) with 12v cigarette lighter in the boot.

I will be travelling down to Spain taking 3-4 days and need to use leisure battery overnight. Problem is, it does not have a charger in the caravan.

Can I put the 12v 85Ah gel leisure battery in the boot of the Pajero and connect it to the 12v cigarette lighter so that it charges during the day while we are driving along?

Cigarette lighter in boot turns off with ignition so should not drain car batteries (there are 2 of them under bonnet!) when turned off.

Perhaps I am being too cautious but I don't want to burn out the 12v cigarette lighter or something like that.

If it's likely to be a problem, is there any sort of device to put between the battery and the 12v cigarette lighter?

Any réponses very welcome.

freeatlast

23/7/2015 at 6:35pm
Location: Teesside
Outfit: Mitsubishi ASX4

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Frankly I'd be more worried about the effect of the car battery in the event of an accident. In an accident, your car battery will try and keep going at 50+mph forward. Don't assume the seat back is strong enough to restrain it, as you could easily get up to 10g force, ie 10 times the weight of the battery or some 250-300kg of force. Most of the boot restraining clips are not rated for that sort of force.

georgecanty

23/7/2015 at 10:16pm
Location: Madre France
Outfit: Hobby 560 Excellent

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Thanks for your concerns but I already have that part of it covered. If you know the Pajero you will know that there are means of using fastening straps etc so the battery won't be flying around. The fixings in the floor are designed to hold a seat with passengers so I don't think restraining the battery will be too much of a problem.
As to answering the question…...

themarstonscooper

23/7/2015 at 10:24pm
Location: Cheshire
Outfit: Volvo V70 Swift 570

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A fuse in the positive line will do. Assuming yiu have a charger to plug in to the 12 volt socket you cant just plug in and attach wires it needs a charger The alternative as you have the td pajero with two batteries use one of them Its only got to have more cold cranking amps so as long as you have room charge the battery on the pajero during day and then another one the next day You should not need cold crank amps in this weather

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Mark

Uttoxeter (Race days)
Le Serignan Plage (clothed one) August and Scheveningen on way back

georgecanty

23/7/2015 at 10:28pm
Location: Madre France
Outfit: Hobby 560 Excellent

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Thanks for the reply Mark. I was getting the idea that I might need a charger or something instead of just using a plug and a couple of wires. Thing is, I don't know what sort of a charger I would need. Any ideas?

themarstonscooper

23/7/2015 at 11:45pm
Location: Cheshire
Outfit: Volvo V70 Swift 570

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Here is the problem Technically you can just put wires in but you will either burn out the wires to the cigarette socket or the wires to the battery and it will get darn hot. Thats why alternator leads are high amperage. If you get a lead acid charger from say a model shop that works on dc current then it will put so little power in around 4ah an hour so 6 hours 24 ah.
You could use an inverter and then a regular charger but thats such an inefficient way of doing it. Chat to a model shop. Likely easiest method is swap a battery from under the hood as you wont need that much cold cranking amps in this weather and how much power are you going to use per night, not so much.

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Mark

Uttoxeter (Race days)
Le Serignan Plage (clothed one) August and Scheveningen on way back

janus

23/7/2015 at 11:47pm
Location: Rochdale
Outfit: Hymer Nova 470 Mondeo titanium 140tdc

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Just plug it into the socket that is there. A cable with a pair of quick releases on one end, an in line 15amp fuse in the positive lead and presumably a cigar lighter plug on the other, just get the polarity right and it will do the job.
There is no need for any charger, your cars alternator takes care of that.

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Bill

For a licence dated 1997 or later you must add together the plated max weight of the caravan and trailer, if the total is 3500 or less you can tow it. You may even tow a caravan with a MAM greater than the cars unladen mass the restriction was removed in 2013

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themarstonscooper

24/7/2015 at 7:30pm
Location: Cheshire
Outfit: Volvo V70 Swift 570

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Quote: Originally posted by janus on 23/7/2015
Just plug it into the socket that is there. A cable with a pair of quick releases on one end, an in line 15amp fuse in the positive lead and presumably a cigar lighter plug on the other, just get the polarity right and it will do the job.
There is no need for any charger, your cars alternator takes care of that.

That might work on a Mondeo but will get so hot on a Pajero as its far higher rated .. the Mondeo assuming a TDi will be about 85 amp 95 amp battery 110 at most The Pajero is about 200 amps with its two batteries and the alternator batting about 140 amps may fry the wiring You need to check the amperage of the wire in the plug if your going to try this and it
The likely cigarette lighter plug will be 5 amp wire with 5 amp fuse and as such a 15 amp fuse will be the last thing standing after the wiring has burnt out.

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Mark

Uttoxeter (Race days)
Le Serignan Plage (clothed one) August and Scheveningen on way back

Dalthegooner

26/7/2015 at 4:16pm
Location: Hogwarts
Outfit: Vango Icarus Air 800

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Quote: Originally posted by janus on 23/7/2015Just plug it into the socket that is there. A cable with a pair of quick releases on one end, an in line 15amp fuse in the positive lead and presumably a cigar lighter plug on the other, just get the polarity right and it will do the job. There is no need for any charger, your cars alternator takes care of that.

This is the way to go (With the inline fuse sized to protect the wiring in the plug and leads that you are connecting). You won't burn out any wiring in the car.

The lighter socket in the boot will already be fused. This fuse, that is installed by the manufacturers (Mitsubishi), will be sized so as to ensure that the item plugged in cannot pull so much electricity that the cars wiring will melt.

If you were installiing a new lighter plug yourself then cable and fuse sizes come into it but as you are using a factory fitted lighter socket the worst you can do is blow the factory fitted fuse.

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You have to grow old, you don

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