Hey guys!

As some of you know, I have my Crossfire in storage until March/April. I took it out for a ride about two weeks and don't see me taking it out again until the weather finally warms. One of the things I saw you recommend was a "battery tender" as opposed to a battery charger. Can anyone recommend one as well as tell me if I'll have to prop the hood open for months to use one?

Thanks!

 

Here is the one I use. It comes with a set of O ring terminals that easily install onto the battery permanently. The charger unit sits on the garage floor under the front of the car and the low voltage (12V) cord then fits through the grill and plugs into the O ring terminal plug. This allows me to close my hood and then put the car cover on. This charger is completely safe and conditions the battery to prevent sulphating. I plan on leaving the O ring terminals connected to the battery when I take the car out of hibernation and just tuck them away out of sight beside the battery until I need them again next fall.

CTEK Battery Chargers | The World's Smarter Battery Charger

 

The members here recommended to me that I look at one manufactured by a comany called Schumacher. The model is 1562A. It is called a microprocessor controlled Speed/charge maintainer and it operates in what is called "float mode". It is 1.5A and 18 Watts output. It works automatically with 6V or 12V. It has a two year warranty.

I was able to purchase mine at Walmart for about $30CDN. It comes with two methods for connection. One is a set of quick disconnect cables with lugs that you can simply attach semi-permanently to the battery and use these to hook up to the charger. That's what I did. It has 3 lights...
red for power
yellow for charge - if it flashes then charging is aborted and you just need to unplug and plug in again to restart the process
green - for charge complete and monitoring mode

I laid the charging unit in the engine bay and ran the power cord out front through the grille, let the hood click to the saftey latch only and put the cover back on. I've gone out to look at it a few times... it seems happy and green!

Just hook it up and forget it for the months the car is put away. Don't forget to disconnect it befor you drive away.

The other quick connect cables are the typical clip on style which I saved but likely won't use these.

From what I have read, this charger is capable of keeping a wet cell battery fresh and alive for years and years and years. That would be awesome to see. I'm not certain but I think it has some ability to resurect an old battery that you or I would otherwise be ready to deep six. Others can correct me on that.

Regardless, it is a great find and a great value. It is what I would recommned.

That said, my confidence in this car and everything I ever do with and to it is bolstered heavily by the great guidance and advice from the members on this forum. Simply, they are unbelievable in their support. And, having met a few of them in Whitby this past Christmas, quite a nice group of men and women. I look forward to a couple of road trips with them!

Check the search bar for other information on Winter Storage.

Best,
John

 

Thanks both of you for your recommendations. After doing some research online, I went ahead and ordered the CTEK 3300 off Amazon. Looks very simple to use so I figured that'd be my best bet. Are there any other specific things I should know (settings and such) before I hook it up later this week?

 

feel sorry for you northern people i can drive mine everyday no need of a battery tender

 

Here is the manual so you can read up on it while you wait for it to be shipped:

http://smartercharger.com/wp-content...US-3300_us.pdf

 

schumacher is plug in and forget it. 20$ at walmart. how much easier do you need?

 

I should add that when using any battery tender, make sure the battery voltage is a minimum 12 volts before connecting to the tender as a tender is NOT meant to charge a discharged battery but is for maintaining a charge over long periods of inactivety with minimal load on the battery.

 

I use a couple of these Sears DieHard charger/maintainers that work very well.

Sears: Online department store featuring appliances, tools, fitness equipment and more

They appear to be made by Shumacher and look like the 1462A, but they have a higher charge amperage of 2 amps. In addition, they have the clamps, o ring connectors, and 12V accessory plug.

I picked up both of mine when they were on sale under $20.00.

 

I always put a sticky note on steering wheel ( battery charger hooked up take off before leaveing ) Started my car up once & backed it out of garage pulling charger with it !!! Got lucking & nothing happened to car or charger !!! Sticky not for me from now on !!!!! Sometimes just to big of a hurry to start driving !!!!

 

CTEK ON MY 6 ,

 

That notion of the sticky note is a good idea, Ed. Going to put one on now, myself! On that, there must be some kind of wierd chemical on a 3M style sticky note's glue. We all know the story of how these got discovered. Well, this I saw and tested and proved myself.

I used to be in the IT business. How many people have ever put a small sticky note on a CD or DVD? Thousands if not everyone!

So a colleague put a note on a CD in May and left it on his bookcase, ready to use again the following February. When the day came to run the program stored on the CD, he retrieved it, pulled off the sticky note and along with it, came the coating that was on what I'll call the "backside" of the disk. This is the side that you'd normally write or print on. Yikes!! The disk was totally nackered.

Thinking that this was a freak accident of some kind, a number of us each took sticky notes from various people's desks, (in order to get random styles, colours and presumably manufacturers) and put them on CDs. We left them on for 3, 6 and 9 months - marked our calendars and got them out to test the results.

Those in the 3 and 6 month timeframes seemed okay. Once you got to the 9 month group, they all started to fail in the same way. You could use these sticky notes to pull off ALL of the coating, even where there was no sticky note placed. You wound up with a totally clear and virtually useless CD!!

Moral of the story, don't put sticky notes on CDs and be mindful of what surfaces that you do put them on, regardless.

I guess it will go on the windshield!

John

 

This is true but I'm a sucker for anything techy.

 

yeah inside on windshied at eye level will work good idea !!! thats where sticky note is right now !!!!!

 

FWIW, I picked up 5 float chargers from Harbor Freight for $5.99 each + shipping a couple years ago. Use them on all my stored cars, motorcycle, and lawn mower. Nothing fancy but they work, are small, and cheap (read disposable) but so far none have failed. I would not use HF Chinese-made tools but electronics pretty much are all made over there these days, regardless of who puts their label on the box. www.harborfreight.com

 

i have a "remove before flight " flag on my steering wheel. no way you miss it!

 

I'm hooking up the charger tomorrow and took a look under the hood tonight. Did you install the O rings terminals where the nuts are on each connector? I noticed that on each clamp that attaches to the battery, there's a thread with a nut on it. I take it you put the O rings on there, tighten the nut, and that's it?

 

Bang on....I also fed the one o ring under the battery hold down bracket so that when I un-plug the push in lead connector, the tail can stay with the battery and be tucked away completely out of sight beside the battery until I need it again. This will take you all of five minutes. Enjoy.

 

I see you have already ordered a charger, anyway, I got my Battery Tender,( name of charger,) at a snowmobile, trail bike dealer where I bought my Kawasaki "Mule" 4 wheeler. it cost around $50.00. I have heard some bad reports about battery charges, so I went with the "tender" which is supposed to be better for long storage issues,( I also am in Michigan, and my 05 limited will not have its,"rubber meet the road," until some time in April the way it looks now.
PS as far as keeping the hood from cutting the cord, I put a brick, wrapped in a soft towel under the hood keeping it about 5 inches from closing.
Also, in case you are interested, I put my State Farm insurance on vacation for the period it is in storage, for $65.00 and covers Comprhensive only.

 

I use this one on my SRT that gets stored for three months-a-year.

Battery Tender Plus - Batterytender.com

I didn't pay $65 for it though. I think I got it for $40, but I can't find where. Amazon has it for $48.