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What I dont understand with you Americans is ...can you not run an extension lead to the car wherever its parked or extend the charger cable so it is long enough to reach the nearest plug?
A couple of recent posts seem to reject that possibility.
I have no idea why some people can’t hook up a battery tender when the car is not being used. Doing so has shown to be extremely beneficial.
perhaps those few who can’t manage to find an electrical outlet are parking in a public lot without utilities.
Cheers Pistnbroke,
that sounds sensible.
******** (my cat) doesn't go outside because a neighbour of mine has had three cats which were killed on the road near our houses and I'd feel awful if that happened to mine, too. Therefore I can't leave the door open, and I don't have a power outlet outside. My garden's about thirty feet long and the Jaaag will be on the road on the far side of that, behind a six feet tall wooden fence. As I understand it I'd have to run a power cable through my letter box and outside to the charger and leave it charging where I couldn't see it from the house (unmonitored). It seems likely to me the charger might then be at risk of thieves and I might have to leave the car open. Also, reaching to access the battery may be difficult for me.
I'n the past year I've twice had to stop getting into my wheelchair for over three weeks (each time) and as I wrote, I'm trying to hedge my bets. I was given the impression elsewhere that letting the battery go flat could cause problems with the electrics. I understand Jaaags to be fairly hardy at a mechanical level but (as happened with motorbikes, which were my original vocation) the ever-increasing computerisation of vehicles has left us with a potential nightmare of complications I'd prefer to stay well out of.
Sorry,
I've written (and explained) above that I dont want to run an electrical cable over 30 feet up my garden and Behind a fence where i can't see it while I slowly charge a battery.
I refer you there.
Thanks
Put the charger in the boot (trunk) run the cable out and slam the lid shut .
Take down the fence and put the jag in the garden.
Drill a hole in the house wall and put the cable through that .
QED.
I'm considering getting an XKR but I'm told that flat batteries in them are a nightmare. My last car was an XJS so all this is new to me and I use a wheelchair all of the time so
it's very important. Will I be able to shut down an XKR by removing the battery if I'm not using it for a fortnight or so?
Thanks
Ummm,,, I have an XK8 and an XKR. The battery situation is much like any other car. No big deal. Mislead or exaggerated or both is all I can say to the nightmare idea. All is good.
A way to take the battery out of the loop was suggested above. There is a little device, a switch basically, that one turns to effectively discons the battery.
Then, trickle chargers of many designs are old tech.
If there's no possibility of a power source in the short term, that is what I would do. I left the battery disconnected for two months or so last winter while the car was in pieces, and no issues other than the inevitable radio code/window resets.
But - no annual test here:- am I right in thinking that the UK MOT uses a gas analyser rather than OBD for emissions checks?
It's looking as though there's just a few people online elsewhere who've made a lot of noise about issues they've had, you know what both cars and people are like sometimes!
The range of options suggested are certainly enough that I'm no longer concerned about that. Looks like I'm in the market for an XKR! 😁
Yep gas analyser test in the MOT. Why?
MOTs can be a pain in the butt. A great advantage of my trike is that it doesn't need one. Almost all other taxed vehicles on the roads here have to have them. After world war two they used to make a single seater vehicle here called an Invacar. Most of them were given to veterans by the government for free after they'd been injured in the war. They made an exemption to the MOT test for them and the law remains that vehicles which weigh less than 250kg and which are designed to be driven by people with disabilities don't need to do MOTs. It saves me money and stress each year!
It's looking as though there's just a few people online elsewhere who've made a lot of noise about issues they've had, you know what both cars and people are like sometimes!
They were designed to be driven regularly, not to be occasionally-used garage queens (sadly as mine is for now) and all manner of wacky issues have been resolved with a new battery/proper charge/tender/hard reset, so it's not really a myth...
I very much doubt you will regret owning one.
Last edited by michaelh; Dec 22, 2021 at 06:59 PM.
Yes, you also have to remember these were expensive cars when new and mainly purchased by wealthy people who regularly parked them at the airport for 3 or 4 weeks at a time to go on holidays/skiing etc. and they would not have been pleased to find it would not start on their return.
Just make sure to fit a known brand type 017/019 battery and all will be well.
As long as there's no drain, the car can easily sit for a couple of weeks and should start, but you might have some warnings on the dash which should clear.
A battery tender is a no-brainer for our Voltage sensitive cars esp. if they are not driven for months. Pic below of what I did. I went with Rothwell's great idea of installing a panel that showed battery voltage and modified an old trusty micro/trickle charger to just plug into the panel's cigarette port.
Plenty of give in the trunk seal for the thin wire, so I could close the lid without having to worry about damaging the wire or rubber seal.
The panel came from a marine/jetty shop and also had 2 USB ports so I could charge the car's emergency flashlight and other stuff too.
Like any charging system, it's best to inspect it (infrequently) for heat to make sure things are not overcharging. All modern battery tenders have auto shut offs, so long as it's a reputable brand. My little trickle charger plug only puts out 300mA and maxed out at 13.5V so there wasn't a chance in hell that it'll overcharge the big ol battery'.
I keep my x350 on charge using a trickle charger into the trunk/boot, is it safe to connect it then shut the trunk so that I can lock the car when not in use? My only concern about this is whether gas released from the battery could build up in the trunk/boot if I shut it with the charger connected?
Is my concern unfounded?
Is it better to connect the changer under the bonnet/hood instead?
The battery does not gas until 14.5v so if its below that when its charged dont worry.
However you say a trickle charger which is a UK term and may imply a charger with a low output but still going to 15v . you dont want that .
My charger gives out 14.3v and I have a diode in series to drop the volts by 0.7v giving 13.5v at the battery . Yhr current drops to almost zero after a few hours.
Last edited by Pistnbroke; Mar 21, 2022 at 01:43 AM.
Sorry but after reading though all this BS, I've decided that you shouldn't have an X-100.....If you truly are Wheel Chair bound, I would ask you where do you plan to store your Wheel Chair while out Driving the Jag? Also, how do you plan to get in and out of the Jag to start with? I have a Cane that I have to use most of the time and I have a heck of a time getting it into the passenger seat before I try to get in.....Getting out is not much easier either.......It's along way down there getting-in but it's truly a long way up getting out and I'm not Wheel Chair bound!
This Car is not for you my Friend....Forget about the Battery and the Charger...That is the least of your worries......
