CF Bedford Van

[Gareth]

I plug mine into a smart charger the day before we go racing, run an optima cranking battery (yellow top), getting cars out for next weekends caravan race we used the winch for six cars (most with flats) in one day and was still pulling strong. Just a cheap shit winch also.
I had planned to fit a solar panel to keep it topped up but had a bad experience with a frosty morning and a major panel/battery failure... Trailer lives outside.

[Holden202T]

hook the battery up to the tail lights with a diode from an old alternator and charge the battery as you drive can always run park lights during the day

A really small car battery works fine for dragging a car up on a trailer, they draw a fair bit of current still. The little sealed lead acids dont like high current draw.

Also have a 12V feed in your trailer plug to keep it topped up while driving - you know it will be flat when you go to use it otherwise! It wont be fully charged due to the volt drop from the front of the bedford to the trailer but wont overcharge either.

edit: jenko beat me to it!

yeah i like that idea, would be easy enough to have a feed from the alternator into the auxilary pin on the trailer plug! i have a small car battery, 270 CCA or something like that, thinking it might be the ticket for this setup!

[HQ355]

I plug mine into a smart charger the day before we go racing, run an optima cranking battery (yellow top), getting cars out for next weekends caravan race we used the winch for six cars (most with flats) in one day and was still pulling strong. Just a cheap shit winch also.
I had planned to fit a solar panel to keep it topped up but had a bad experience with a frosty morning and a major panel/battery failure... Trailer lives outside.

What happened to solar panel ? I have one hooked up to the HQ all the time, only thing I did was fit a Perspex cover over it to keep rain off as it said not for outdoor use

[Gareth]

The panel glass cracked with the frost, let moisture in, shorted, smouldered, ruined battery

[HQ355]

Looks like I'm going to buy a c-tek or something today, anyone got any reccomendations ? I only use the car every 2-3 weeks and normally switch off the battery so the only drain is the GPS tracker

[0081]

I have a c-tek charger for my car, works well so far and have had no issues with it.

It came with a few fittings that you can leave connected to the car whick makes it easy to plug ghe charger in.
Have one fitted to my boat also so moving the charger is an easy task.

[Holden202T]

yeah me too, i think mine is the 800ma version .... use it on the bedford and the gemini to keep them topped up, usually if you put it on the night before you want to use the car it will be mint!

VL400 put me onto it, reckons he's been using it on his VL for years and always starts like a new battery!

[HQ355]

Thanx for that guys, didn't get around to getting one today so looks like the Mrs is getting a c-tek for Mother's Day

[Holden202T]

geez she's a lucky lady

[Chuff]

Thanx for that guys, didn't get around to getting one today so looks like the Mrs is getting a c-tek for Mother's Day

A mate of mine bought his Mrs some spanners for Mother's Day one year.

For Father's Day that year she bought him French perfume.

Good Luck.