Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Car to Car Charging

This is my first post - so definitely a newbie!

I purchased my first Morgan last month - a 2010 4/4 from an incredibly helpful Peter Constable at Newtown motors. It's been my lifetime's ambition to own a Morgan.

I started restoring Triumph Vitesse's and GT6's with my father in 1978. Sadly he passed away 10 years ago, but I used his tools to straighten the steering wheel on my Morgan when i got it home - priceless memories and great to get those old tools out again.

I've got two left hands when it comes to working on cars - my father was the mechanic. So, I have my first question - i travel a lot for work and will leave the Morgan for 3 weeks at a time without use (what a crime!). There is no power point where i leave it, so if the battery goes flat are there any problems in using the following Draper car-to-car charger to get enough juice into the Morgan's battery to start it - Bamford . Or, is that a better solution?

Many thanks.

Hi and welcome Martin

I dint know the device you ask about but am nervous about trying to use a cigar lighter to cigar lighter for much more than a trickle charge, if they have tested this and let's hope they have then it will eventually charge up the flattest battery. Then again so would a pair of jump leads? The advantages are it's cleaner and less fuss to connect so if it's been tested then it's a simple solution.

Where is the car stored? Is it in an underground car park or a surface car park? If the latter there are a range of solar charger panels available that may be of interest, connected with long leads to the cigar socket is fine to keep a battery topped up, they provide a steady trickle charge and quality ones will not fry the battery and can be left connected for long periods, check with a caravan spares shop. Of course the ultimate is a float charger/conditioner but without mains electricity that's no help to you.

Good luck finding a solution and safe miles to you.

This problem came up a couple of weeks ago with someone else parked in an underground with no mains supply and the unit seems very handy indeed posted by asbojohn.

"You might want to take a look at one of these we have a few at work and they'll jump start a diesel transit. The problem will be getting to the battery"
http://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/pocket-sized-jump-starters/

Similar used by Hamwich
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Suaoki-Portable...arter&psc=1

This is the whole thread
http://www.talkmorgan.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/355863/1

Welcome to TM enjoy your Morgan adventures.

Nice idea Richard, not a major job to wire in a couple of booster points, all you need is a feed spur off the starter motor main feed lead and an earth point, you could probably buy an insulated feed post from somewhere like car builder solutions and have both mounted a few inches apart on a plate under the bonnets? Only an hours work for a garage at the most and about £5 - £10 worth of materials I guess. I put something the same on my 2002 +8 when I moved the battery from the front to the rear axle.

I like the sound of the under bonnet mod Colin, it's always a bit of a faff around lifting the saddleboard on my older model or removing the alloy plate on the newer one's.

The battery isolation switch I think is a good idea when leaving the car for any length of time or working on the vehicle.

To be honest that came about as an afterthought to moving the battery ;-), I looked at it and thought no need to run a new feed from the rear battery to the starter solenoid so I ran it from the battery to where the OE feed cable was above the drivers knees (2002 car) I then looked for an insulated battery cable joiner and found a small unit with 8mm studs and a buzz bar....perfect for battery cable ring terminals. I used this as a cable joiner/potential jump starting point/feed buzz bar for accessories. For earth I just used a bell housing bolt. Necessity being the mother of invention and all that ;-).

My other car is stored in a garage without power and the battery depletes after about six days due to the alarm/immobiliser.

Now I detach the negative battery connector upon parking and reconnect the battery when I pick it up and the alarm/immobiliser kicks in and the battery is fresh as a daisy - I could leave it weeks.

Works a treat - would have to work a bit harder to get to it on the mog but better then it going flat.

Yes Clipper that's why the battery isolation switch on Morgans makes a lot of sense.

http://www.holden.co.uk/displayproduct.a...mp;pCode=SSB112

Thanks for all the advice. Unfortunately it's an underground carpark, so its not possible to use the solar charger, the portable jump starter seems the best idea - it's not that hard to remove the aluminium panel after all!

A final question - the engine had an ECU remap already programmed when i bought it. Will a battery isolation switch remove the program?

No a battery disconnect will not wipe remaps.