I have a FH16 that is currently stood up. Someone has suggested that if I plug a solar battery charger into the cigar lighter, it will help keep the battery charged.
Has anyone come across these and if so, any recommendations?
Regards
A couple opf points to ponder.
a: Can you get the 24v variety of solar trickle chargers? (Or one that will output around 26-28 volts)
b: Does your ■■■ lighter work with the ignition off? If it doesn’t then there’ll be no charge going anywhere.
Have a look on Maplins website as they have plenty and you can ask a question easily about any product they carry.
Hope that helps a bit.
It won’t work because as DF said, you would have to have your ignition switch turned on for a solar panel to charge your battery through the 12v socket… if the electricity can’t flow one way then it can’t flow the other 
I’ve got a 12v one on my landrover that’s been parked all summer which came from maplin’s funnily enough. Has a wire for the cig lighter and one that can clip straight to the battery.
It’s crap! Measured, it’s working fine but even in the “height” of summer the battery went flat (no drain except milliamps the alarm takes), you’d be better off running the engine every 10 days to keep it topped up or swapping it’s batteries with another unit once a month or whatever you’ve been doing
I would suggest 2 x chargers. 1 wired directly to each battery. Each one needs to produce about 14.5v.
Also need (unless its built in to the chargers? ) a management system so as not to overcharge.
If its parked within reach of accessible mains power, you might want to look at K-tech battery conditioners.
Whilst we’re on the subject:
If anyones got £15,000 to invest AND a south facing roof, there is an opportunity with the Energy Saving Trust (same lot that did subsidised LPG conversions).
You get: Solar panels fitted to your roof. Free electricity. Around 8% return on your investment paid bi annually.
At 3 years the contract ends (although I believe is extendable) & you get your original investment returned.
I reckon that’s a pretty good deal & I would definately do it myself if it were not for the fact I’m getting higher returns elsewhere.
go and talk with the solar panel experts and as well as talking ,show
them the vehicle in question , ,get it done by the experts so that
you have no problems if it ;(a) breaks down,(b) catches fire due
to being incorrectly fitted, plus you can off set it on the TAX,
The idea is a great one as some country’s get rather upset
when you run the engine whilst parked up say for the week-
end in Switzerland/Austria /Germany,
Thanks chaps, sounds like it would be better to invest in a battery charger!
Thanks again
Y111RDF:
Thanks chaps, sounds like it would be better to invest in a battery charger!Thanks again
conditioner better.
Driveroneuk:
Whilst we’re on the subject:If anyones got £15,000 to invest AND a south facing roof, there is an opportunity with the Energy Saving Trust (same lot that did subsidised LPG conversions).
You get: Solar panels fitted to your roof. Free electricity. Around 8% return on your investment paid bi annually.
At 3 years the contract ends (although I believe is extendable) & you get your original investment returned.
I reckon that’s a pretty good deal & I would definately do it myself if it were not for the fact I’m getting higher returns elsewhere.
I have a south-facing roof and would be eager to exploit any earning potential it may have, but not to the point where I would lay out £15,000, even if they did promise to give me back my money in three years time.
Perhaps they could think of paying me for my roof, instead of the other way around?
At 8% PLUS free leccy its better than money in the bulding soc. at, what 3%?
If your leccy bills £500 a year, then it equates to just over 11%
I would imagine many owner drivers would be very happy with that in profit on their investment annually - for many hours of hard work.
I’ve no vested interest, just pointing out its availability. Quite happy with my Detroit property netting 20%