Solar Charger /Cigarette Lighter

[Blandito80]

Went out this am and for third time this winter, battery dead. This time it was down to 6% charge when I hooked up the charger unit.
I know it's a sin, but I haven't driven the 200 for a month or so. This 200 is a 2018 with a whole @15000 miles on it. Runs fine/starts fine as long as I use the thing...just doesn't like sitting out in cold for weeks on end without driving or at most the 10 minute run to store and back one a month. My commute and most errands are on bicycle and just been 2 busy last month or so with all the Virus nonsense to take it out and play.

Any of you know whether the 200 can be safely trickle charged with one of those Solar Chargers that plug into the cigarette lighter?

 

[LCtour]

I wouldn't use a solar charger. A guy at my work had one on his dash and came out with his car on fire.

 

[Sandroad]

I wonder if your battery is still ok, after going dead three times? That's really hard on a lead acid battery and it may already be damaged such that it can't be fully charged and will just shallow-cycle regardless of use or charging. If you have access to an outlet near the truck, get one of these. A quality smart charger is more reliable and safer for the battery than a typical cheap solar trickle charger.

Amazon product ASIN B07W6B987F

 

[Blandito80]

I wonder if your battery is still ok, after going dead three times? That's really hard on a lead acid battery and it may already be damaged such that it can't be fully charged and will just shallow-cycle regardless of use or charging. If you have access to an outlet near the truck, get one of these. A quality smart charger is more reliable and safer for the battery than a typical cheap solar trickle charger.

Amazon product ASIN B07W6B987F

Have one of those...Great Item! Saved me a few times including this am when I didn't want to wait around for the battery to charge to start capacity so I could go play in the mountains. May buy another one for other vehicle.

 

[KLF]

Pretty sure you can't backfeed the system through the cig lighter plug when the truck is off. Key has to be on to engage the relay that turns it on.

I think a solar charger is the way to go on this. Surely there are reliable ones out there that won't burn the truck down.

 

[Blandito80]

I wonder if your battery is still ok, after going dead three times? That's really hard on a lead acid battery and it may already be damaged such that it can't be fully charged and will just shallow-cycle regardless of use or charging. If you have access to an outlet near the truck, get one of these. A quality smart charger is more reliable and safer for the battery than a typical cheap solar trickle charger.

Thanks...So I think you're correct that the OEM lead acid battery is damaged as it won't go above @70% charge on battery charger.

I ordered an Optima yellow D27F. Changed out plenty of batteries in older vehicles but this is my first time with a computer on wheels. Looks like a lot of modern cars need OBD port to be hooked to power memory savers to save all settings?

Do you use OBD port memory savers while changing batteries in LC 200?

 

[Sandroad]

Pretty sure you can't backfeed the system through the cig lighter plug when the truck is off. Key has to be on to engage the relay that turns it on.

I think a solar charger is the way to go on this. Surely there are reliable ones out there that won't burn the truck down.

Their are 2 problems with solar trickle chargers, in addition to their typical cheap construction. First, they rely on their very low output to protect the battery from over-charging rather than any type of charge controller circuitry. Second, their very low output means they are really only for a fully charged battery to maintain its charge; they are usually incapable of restoring a discharged battery to fully charged state. This is not the case with a decent sized (at least 25W) solar panel connected to a good charge controller. For routine battery trickle charging, I'm still a fan of plug-in smart charger models with at least 2 amps of base power.