Charging socket
Discussion
Seems like simple thing but I assume everyone here has the ability to charge their car.
I have been looking around the car for quite some time looking for the idea place to charge the car.
Of the other cars I've looked at, most either just have the bonnet up in the garage, with the obvious problem of the two person closing the bonnet when you get in the car of a morning.
Or they have a factory fitted charging socket in the boot. This, of course, has the disadvantage of needing the boot to be open, and therefore the boot light to be disconnected.
Lastly I've seen a window open, lead into the cigarette socket on the car. I didn't like this much as it has the potential for setting the alarm off and having the window open just doesn't seem right even when using the 'dog alarm mode' in the handbook.
So I opted for an ORIGINAL design. I have cut a hole in my rear numberplate just big enough for a socket to take a conventional cigarette lighter plug. It has its own rubber cover when not in use. It feeds into the rear fusebox. Charging is just now a matter of unplugging the rubber cover and plugging in a cigarette lighter charger into the numberplate. Charging with boot, bonnet and alarm on is easy and neat.
I just wondered if anyone has used an alternative method?
I have been looking around the car for quite some time looking for the idea place to charge the car.
Of the other cars I've looked at, most either just have the bonnet up in the garage, with the obvious problem of the two person closing the bonnet when you get in the car of a morning.
Or they have a factory fitted charging socket in the boot. This, of course, has the disadvantage of needing the boot to be open, and therefore the boot light to be disconnected.
Lastly I've seen a window open, lead into the cigarette socket on the car. I didn't like this much as it has the potential for setting the alarm off and having the window open just doesn't seem right even when using the 'dog alarm mode' in the handbook.
So I opted for an ORIGINAL design. I have cut a hole in my rear numberplate just big enough for a socket to take a conventional cigarette lighter plug. It has its own rubber cover when not in use. It feeds into the rear fusebox. Charging is just now a matter of unplugging the rubber cover and plugging in a cigarette lighter charger into the numberplate. Charging with boot, bonnet and alarm on is easy and neat.
I just wondered if anyone has used an alternative method?
. I use mine everyday too. But have you seen how difficult it is to replace a battery? trooper1212 said:
two person closing the bonnet when you get in the car of a morning.
eh? Does not compute.
I use mine everyday and bought a jump start battery thingy that I keep in the boot for those annoying occasions.
Sorry, on my car someone needs to hold down the corner of the bonnet on the passenger side while I turn the lock and hold down the drivers side.
Thought all Cerbs were like this due the the nature of unsupported fiberglass?
Personally I would have put the socket somewhere in the front grille area (more opportunity to make it discreet inside that big hole). I believe that someone on here put an RC car NiCd charging socket in that area for the purposes of charging.
I really need to get something sorted along these lines. I currently have a "Halfords special" charger with crocodile clips (the battery was flat and Halfords was the only place open). Trouble is, at some point the battery has been replaced and the terminals on the new one don't line up with the hole in the upper bonnet panel, so I have to remove this to charge the battery which is a PITA.
I really need to get something sorted along these lines. I currently have a "Halfords special" charger with crocodile clips (the battery was flat and Halfords was the only place open). Trouble is, at some point the battery has been replaced and the terminals on the new one don't line up with the hole in the upper bonnet panel, so I have to remove this to charge the battery which is a PITA.
carl_w said:
Personally I would have put the socket somewhere in the front grille area (more opportunity to make it discreet inside that big hole). I believe that someone on here put an RC car NiCd charging socket in that area for the purposes of charging.
I really need to get something sorted along these lines. I currently have a "Halfords special" charger with crocodile clips (the battery was flat and Halfords was the only place open). Trouble is, at some point the battery has been replaced and the terminals on the new one don't line up with the hole in the upper bonnet panel, so I have to remove this to charge the battery which is a PITA.
Started off looking there, but thought that a forward facing socket was more likely to suffer from dirt ingestion, I couldn't see anywhere to fit and also thought that way down out of sight on a grille was a reach. Interested if anyones done this and lived with it.
Julian64 said:
Julian64 said:
two person closing the bonnet when you get in the car of a morning.
eh? Does not compute.
I use mine everyday and bought a jump start battery thingy that I keep in the boot for those annoying occasions.
Sorry, on my car someone needs to hold down the corner of the bonnet on the passenger side while I turn the lock and hold down the drivers side.
Thought all Cerbs were like this due the the nature of unsupported fiberglass?
Fortunately, mine needs a slight press on the drivers side cormer, so I can do it all myself.
This only came about when I had the purple pipes replaced with the newer ones, which have an internal supporting wire thingy in them, meaning they can hold the bonnet up a bit.
I too use mine everyday but after 7/8 short starts the other day, it started fine going to work but then coming home it just decided that it was not going to play. The battery charger said that it was 50% charged when I eventually got it home after a jump start, so I charged it overnight and it's fine again. I am a bit worried about the comment about the Ham fisted approach by the computer to low battery oomph! Doing a serch on this forum for BATTERY comes up with quite alot of useful information.
sean
sean
whatever said:
trooper1212 said:
Julian64 said:
two person closing the bonnet when you get in the car of a morning.
eh? Does not compute.
I use mine everyday and bought a jump start battery thingy that I keep in the boot for those annoying occasions.
Sorry, on my car someone needs to hold down the corner of the bonnet on the passenger side while I turn the lock and hold down the drivers side.
Thought all Cerbs were like this due the the nature of unsupported fiberglass?
Fortunately, mine needs a slight press on the drivers side cormer, so I can do it all myself.
This only came about when I had the purple pipes replaced with the newer ones, which have an internal supporting wire thingy in them, meaning they can hold the bonnet up a bit.
Don't let the purple pipes touch the bonnet, or for that matter the center bonnet rest touch the pipes They will rub through thr purple stuff leaving a hole and the wire in double quick time.
Julian64 said:
Julian64 said:
two person closing the bonnet when you get in the car of a morning.
eh? Does not compute.
I use mine everyday and bought a jump start battery thingy that I keep in the boot for those annoying occasions.
Sorry, on my car someone needs to hold down the corner of the bonnet on the passenger side while I turn the lock and hold down the drivers side.
Thought all Cerbs were like this due the the nature of unsupported fiberglass?
I had this problem for quite a while - it was most annoying to have to get someone to hold the passenger side corner down while I locked the bonnet.
It subsequently turned out that the big piece of fibreglass at the bottom of the windscreen (the one that is held down by the two bolts and is removed first for most top-of-the-engine work) had not been replaced correctly. Now it's been re-fitted and bolted down properly the bonnet closes and locks first time, every time. Might be worth checking...
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