Trickle charger for 718

[bbbannister]

Hi all

Anyone worked out what to do about trickle charging your 718?

There’s no traditional cig lighter socket, just usb slots.

Can you trickle charge via these?

Anyone know?

Thanks in anticipation of your encyclopedic replies ??

Bob

 

[Andy Barr]

Hi Bob

I don’t have a 718, but my 987 CR has a cigarette style socket in the passenger footwell. It’s high up on the side towards the centre if the car behind a hinged cover. Might be worth checking to see if 718 is the same ?

cheers

Andy

 

[COD981]

On my 981 I just lift out the cover panel under the front lid and use good old fashioned crocodile clips straight onto the battery, you can also fit the adapter on the cetek one and leave the connector on permanently and just plug the charger in as you wish with having to refit the panel each time

 

[Buddy]

You should be able to fit a pair of leads to the battery terminals with a plug to suit, Ctek used to do one to plug directly to their charger lead.

 

[ralphmusic]

You should be able to fit a pair of leads to the battery terminals with a plug to suit, Ctek used to do one to plug directly to their charger lead.

The advice for 981 series is if charging direct to the battery, charger's neutral to a chassis earth point and positive to positive battery post as below. Best to check the handbook as 718 likely the same.

The 981 handbook suggests using the the big nut on the wiper pivot (to the right of the left side top mount in the image above) for the neutral crocodile clip. I have a permanent wiring set-up so I used the top mount point adjacent to the battery.

Apparently this chassis earth avoids damage to the control electronics at the negative battery post and ensures the battery management system "knows" what charge is going to the battery.

 

[Motorhead]

Bob,

On the 981 and 718 cars I believe it's recommended that the negative lead is attached to a body-point rather than the battery negative terminal if you plan to use that method to connect the battery conditioner.

Jeff

PS: I see that Ralph has just pipped me to the post..!

 

[Ray]

I have a similar set up to Ralphs although I do not use that much cable. I take my connector to the rear of the batter, up and onto the tray with just about 10cm cable/connector laying on the tray top.

If I knew how to post photo's I would but I cannot.

Ray

 

[GrahamW]

The 718 has a cigarette lighter point by the ash tray if you have specified the smoking option (well worthwhile even for a non smoker as it gives you a handy stow away point with a closing lid). If not the passenger footwell high up on the right hand side also has the cig lighter connection point. This should remain live if you connect to it after switching on the ignition.

Hope this helps.

 

[Dick Dastardly]

Spoke to local PC about this on my 718CS, they recommended charging directly onto the positive battery terminal and negative charging post.

l think is this is because the lighter socket has a cut off to protect the battery. They told me this was not the case on earlier Caymans.

 

[Ray]

When I call into one of my nearest Porsche dealerships they have their new vehicles (showroom) linked via CTek charging points coming directly off the cars battery in a similar fashion to Ralphs photo.

Forget the lighter socket, I used mine for charging for a short while and it was a pain in the backside. All you have to do is pop the bonnet and push the charging plug into the socket which is directly connected to the battery. In the words of the Meerkat, simples.

Ray

 

[Peter_Bull]

I charges my 981 via the cigarette lighter socket in the centre console as this is a live one when the ignition is off.

The socket in the glove compartment stays live for 20mins (?) after the ignition is turned off and then goes dead, so its no use for the battery conditioner.

 

[bbbannister]

Thanks Everyone - looks like the ctek charger is the way to go.

I will be searching out that passenger footwell socks though.

BB

 

[GrahamW]

I charges my 981 via the cigarette lighter socket in the centre console as this is a live one when the ignition is off.

The socket in the glove compartment stays live for 20mins (?) after the ignition is turned off and then goes dead, so its no use for the battery conditioner.

On my 981 both sockets remained live if the Ctek was plugged in to it. Both sockets will switch off after 20 mins if they are DRAWING current.

Anyway on the 718 the cig lighter is a convenient way to go either in the centre console or the passenger footwell, either will do.

 

[ralphmusic]

The socket in the footwell stays live (output) after car is shut down.

I know this because I forgot to disconnect a data logger drawing about 10v and left the car for 5 days. When I returned, despite the car being on a CTEK conditioner, the battery had been drained.

I left conditioner connected, disconnected the data logger and later that morning the battery had sufficient charge to start the car.

We all learn from experiences, unfortunately....

 

[Steve Brookes]

So, when trickle charging do folks leave their cars locked or unlocked? In particular, I'm wondering about the concerns of pinching the cable by a door or the bonnet when the car is completely locked. Although I wouldn't be worried about leaving the car unlocked in a secure garage I guess the validity of the insurance policy would come in to question if a car was left unlocked.

 

[Motorhead]

I've always left the car locked Steve. That way the current drain on the battery is reduced and the car remains secure.

Although originally I used the cigarette socket to power my CTEK, running the cable via the lower edge of the door without problems, I now connect directly to the battery and pass the cable through the gap between the upper edge of the bonnet and the wiper panel (the cable runs freely through this gap by the way).

Jeff

 

[Steve Brookes]

I've always left the car locked Steve. That way the current drain on the battery is reduced and the car remains secure.

Although originally I used the cigarette socket to power my CTEK, running the cable via the lower edge of the door without problems, I now connect directly to the battery and pass the cable through the gap between the upper edge of the bonnet and the wiper panel (the cable runs freely through this gap by the way).

Jeff

Thanks Jeff, that sounds a good routing. I've never trickle charged my cars as I've always given them a run out on average once a week. I'll still do this as long as there is good weather but am not so keen on doing this with the GT4 when the temperatures really drop because of the Cup2 tyres (I wouldn't use it enough to make a set of winter tyres worthwhile).

 

[Ray]

Hi Guys,

I am struggling trying to place a photo on this thread. I have some images on the imgur site but where the blazes is the URL. I dont use hosting sites as I dont trust them so this is the first time I have done this.

Ray

 

[Ray]

This is how my charging setup looks.

Ray

 

[PHB1969]

I have a similar set up to Ralphs although I do not use that much cable. I take my connector to the rear of the batter, up and onto the tray with just about 10cm cable/connector laying on the tray top.

If I knew how to post photo's I would but I cannot.

Ray

Hi Ray

do you connect to both battery posts or do you connect to the positive and an earth point for the negative?

I have a permanently wired connection on my Vx220 and just plug in as you do. Probably need a charger for the 718. I do have an Optimate are they any good?

Thanks

Paul