Am having trhe usual battery drain issues with my TD6, and until I can find it and rectify it I wil leave the FFRR on charge while I'm not using it, I got the Lidl intelligent charger very similar to the CTEK range. Ive seen the hard wire kits for CTEK that allow you to simply plug the charger into a socket under the bonnet/front grill and unplug when finished. Could the hard wire kit be modified to fit my charger? Or could I make something similar up with some cable and a waterproof plug/socket for under the bonnet?

Any help greatly appreciated

Are you charging the car in a garage or outside?

What connection is on the lead of the charger you have?

Charging outside gents

The charger I've got an the moment has small versions of the usual clamp/crocodile clamp type of connection, could I clamp these onto each wire that goes into the other part of a waterproof plug/socket?

What I've got is a mains cable, 5A lighting 2 core circular cable fed from an outside water-proof socket on the garage wall, with a 13A rubber socket fed into the car thro a door opening at the bottom and the door closed on it. In the car, charger plugged into the rubber socket, and then the charger plugged into the front cig socket. Mines a ctek but you could buy this

cut the adaptor plug off the end and then connect to the leads on your charger.
Or make-up your own.
Works very well for me.
The lead shown is a Ctek accessory, about £8.

cheers nicedayforit

That was my plan, CTEK cig lighter lead liek the one you shown, cut the end off and attach to my charger, maybe some nice ends on that lead for my mini-crocodile clips from my charger to bite onto. Was worried about thickness of cable used, load rating etc or am i worrying over nothing? (I'm worse that useless with electrics I'm afraid)

Also, will it make a difference if the car is 20m away from the house and using an extension lead, or 40m away and using 2 x 20m leads?

I'm assuming like me you are going to put the charger in the car out of the weather and run a mains cable extension lead to the car.
I that case 5A lighting cable will be fine for the extension lead whether it's 20 or 40m away.
There is only a very small current in the mains cable so the voltdrop will be negligible.
I trust no-one will interfere with the mains cable.
I should advise that as you are running a mains cable to your car outside you should plug the cable into a socket protected by a RCD rated at no more than 30mA for safety reasons. If no such protected socket is available you should invest in a RCD adapter to use in the socket prior to plugging the extension leads into it.
You would of couse be better in the longer term to arrange to have installed a protected waterproof mains socket outlet nearer to where you park your car so that you can do away with the need for such a long extension lead.

I dont want to to tread on anybodies toes, but if you are making you own extension cable/lead I would really recommend that you use 3 core flex with a csa of 1.5mm squared, so the extension cable/lead may and can be used safetly on other eletrical items when necessary. I know this sounds a bit over the top for a small battery charger but if someone else uses it for some other electrical item it could end in tears. If you need any advice/info on anything electrical pm me and will be happy to help
All the best
Phil

I would agree with you the only trouble is the mains cable needs to pass thro the door seals to use as described.
3 core, 1.5mm is just a bit too big a diameter to do this successfully without affecting the seals.
Nobody touches my dedicated extension cable or else.

nicedayforit wrote:

I would agree with you the only trouble is the mains cable needs to pass thro the door seals to use as described.
3 core, 1.5mm is just a bit too big a diameter to do this successfully without affecting the seals.
Nobody touches my dedicated extension cable or else.

Why not keep the charger inside the building and extend the 12v side of it

Makes for a safer solution all round

I tried that initially but the charger kept going to "error". Don't know why but as soon as I went to option B no problems.
Works for me ok.

47p2 wrote:

Why not keep the charger inside the building and extend the 12v side of it

Makes for a safer solution all round

47p2 wrote:

Why not keep the charger inside the building and extend the 12v side of it

Makes for a safer solution all round

Volt Drop?

Just been thinking about the volt drop.
so the cable may have to be bigger than you think
Phil
ps I am not going to the van to get my regs book and work out what size is required