Taken when I first fitted it with jacket, I now have a cable extention off either post that plug into my trickle charger.
And no carpets 
If you can drop a solar charger on if you are worried about it lasting. Before mine was garaged and on a ctek it was on a solar charger and was never flat 
Mine looks exactly like Johnny’s did as i still have carpets, I do still have the standard plastic cover over the top and it doesnt move anywhere. I also have the cable extension plugs attached for my Ctek charger as makes things much easier to connect.
Anyhow my PC680 has also been fine so far. Never left it more than a week though without it being connected to the trickle charger.
Thanks all, Henry & Jonny especially for the photos - makes it easier for a simpleton like me!
I’ve been contemplating installing a solar charger, so will look into that as well. Got a couple of months 'til the car emerges from hibernation :sleep:
Maplin do some good and cheap solar chargers, I used to use one from them that cost �12 
Had a look at them, and in the FAQ section they state that the products aren’t really suited to living outside all the time, which mine would have to (on the garage roof).
I’ve tracked one down on Amazon for �30 though, which has a positive review describing an almost identical situation to mine
odyseey PC680???
Really good reference thread on batteries [color:#FF0000]HERE[/color] on lotustalk.
Interesting to see the Braille is almost half the weight of the Odyssey with even more Crank power for the same dosh.
No experience of these.
Any good?
[quote=stevegreen]Really good reference thread on batteries [color:#FF0000]HERE[/color] on lotustalk.
[/quote]
Cheers for that. It seems that owners in the states favour the Optima battery type. I’m going to go for the Odyssey PC680, or perhaps the 925.
Well it seems my Odyssey battery has died already 
No power in the garage means it doesn’t get trickle charged, and if I’m unable to use the car at more than 2week intervals it just won’t start
This week was the best yet though, as the battery didn’t even have enough oompf to unlock the central locking so I had to go in via the front access panel and an auxillary battery just to get into the car. That set the alarm off and made my ears bleed 
as it took me about 2-3mins to get the alarm turned off!
The Odyssey has been on the Accumate for the last 24hrs and is showing no signs of life.
Connected up my old battery, but that seems to have died when allowing me entry in to the car, so I can’t even turn off the immobiliser now.
Once I’ve got a new battery in place, I’ll have to stop setting the alarm, and just lock her up manually. And even then I think I really must rig up some sort of outdoor solar panel to run the trickle charger of off.
I’m beginning to think it doesn’t want to be driven
I believe all lightweight batteries will die quickly without trickle charge. And if left long enough are beyond recharging.
I had the same experience with a Harley Red Top. My car used to be kept on the drive under a cover so just ran an extension cable out to it, dropped that and trickle charger in the boot, connected the trickle charger and closed boot before putting car cover on. Lasted the whole winter unmoved and fired first time in the spring.
Why don’t you try a battery isolator switch off eBay and turn it off when you put it in the garage
You can even take the key with you if you like
http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?sbk=1&nav=SEARCH&itemId=290826281098
Seems to work for me
Yes I’ve been giving that some thought too, so I may just do it.
Seems the Accumate has revived the battery after 36hours, so at least I can reinstall it
They’re good batteries, but when they’re dead, they tend to be difficult to resuscitate
Interesting thread. My original battery died a few months back and I replaced it with the Bosch equivalent, which expired without warning just a couple of weeks ago. In so far as I can check, the alternator and rectifier are fine but one thing nagging me is whether there is some extra parasitic current draw due to a short anywhere. My aged ammeter isn’t trustworthy enough to do a reliable measurement so as an interim I installed a cutoff. A solar charger sounds like a good idea. I’m curious though, what if any measurable parasitic current should be expected when the ignition is off and the alarm has armed itself ?
There will be, can’t remember the amount exactly but less than half an amp. Alarm, ECU and radio pull a little bit of current when ignition off and alarm armed.
When you put the multimeter in line, try to keep the circuit connected either through the battery terminals or multimeter.
I have seen it where a faulty radio would draw a current when the ignition was off, but it the battery was disconnected, then connected through the multimeter would show nothing. As soon as it was done as above we were seeing about 4 amps!
Oh look, another year on, and another post from me about my battery being dead 
Think I’m gonna buy a new full size battery in the hope that it will last more than a week and half without use, getting bored of jump starting the car even though I’ve got it down to a fine art and about 5 minutes! 
These things are amazing:
I bought one of their emergency phone chargers at the Goodwood revival. The car starting batteries are tiny. The size of an original mobile phone but half the weight would start a 5 litre car. Amazing.
Not for you though, Pete, you’d let it go flat.
Sorry , that’s the Yank site, UK importer :
May I suggest BALLISTIC EVO2