Well if you go down to the motor museum at Beaulieu there are cars from the early 1900's with original batteries that still work, BUT....... they weigh almost as much as a Morgan! Yet their functionality is poor when at their best. Modern batteries are always evolving to produce better cold cranking amps, better amp hours etc. yet fit into smaller places and weigh , well, not too much!
So, something has to give and that is in effect quality or in the lead acid battery world, HEFT! so things are more fragile and don't tolerate the things we tend to do to them like running them flat by leaving them to drain, fast charging them or not checking the electrolyte if not a sealed unit! In an ideal world they last pretty well. Those who report good results from their battery have looked after it, they must have! In your daily drive the modern car is doing just that for you, it monitors the battery state and demand on it and adjusts the charge to suit, so in effect its looking after your battery for optimum performance and subsequently its longevity.
So, for the Morgan owner who is probably driving a later classic which has a limited brain and a constant drain on the battery when all alone in the garage, the battery will drain unless action is taken. You can isolate the battery with a switch on the negative battery terminal ie. isolating the chassis earth to everything in the car. Alarm would be lost, if fitted, unless alternative feed was run direct to battery! The PCB (board) fitted in these cars is both fragile and unsophisticated and installed in a poor environmental location without protection and owners have reported that isolating switches have on reconnection fryed the electronics/electrics.
As we don't have an alarm system ,only an immobiliser ,the isolator switch in effect becomes an Immobiliser if you want to go that way!
As I said earlier I chose to use a fairly technical battery conditioner/charger And pound for pound I feel that it is the best option available for me, Look at the CTEC MX-S 10. they seem to retail about £175, think I paid about £150. I fused and wired it directly to the battery connecting it to a plug in the rear wooden bulkhead for easy access in the car. This is where I connect my CTEC charger, I can also fit a splitter lead to this and connect a trailing power socket to provide for phone charging etc whilst driving. You can in theory charge the battery through the car power socket at the dash and CTEC provide an adaptor for same but that gives me the willies, however when I'm out and about I do connect the battery state indicator here which flashes a traffic light colour state every couple of seconds and when parked up, to the uninitiated it looks like the car is very well protected! If we are away and just walking for the week I can instantly check the battery state and take action early if needed. You can buy and use that lead without the CTEC unit .
In conclusion, modern batteries like to be used constantly and in conjunction with technical cars that protect them, otherwise they are compromised or stuffed in the vernacular! Why Morgan didn't choose to either not install a part modern system or rather not just some of it and stick to manual switching which they were pretty good at I cannot fathom, Surely after bragging about just how long Morgan's last and that people enjoy them generationally they could have at least made replacement parts both available and affordable having chosen that route!
