[Shop-talk] Trickle Chargers

[Jim Stone]

My cousin keeps two cars at his summer home and they tend to sit outside for
weeks at a time over the winter.  He recently mentioned to me that he has to
call the AAA once or twice each winter to jump the batteries.  I'd like to
help him avoid that hassle.

The cars sit close to a barn, so it would be a simple matter to lengthen the
wires on a couple of trickle chargers so that the charger could sit in the
barn and the wires extend out to the cars.  However, he is not terribly handy
and I figure he would just jump them himself if we was inclined to put cable
clamps on a car battery.  One option I have considered is to permanently wire
a plug to the batteries and put the mate to that plug on the charger.
However, the other possibility is to buy a couple of solar trickle chargers.
HF has one on sale right now for just $9.99
(http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=44768).  I
am fairly certain the car gets enough sunlight in the winter, provided the
arrays were properly positioned.  I assume I'd have to rewire the cigarette
lighter to be independent of the ignition switch, but that shouldn't be a big
deal.  Do these things work?  Any other ideas?

Thanks.

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