Private Aircraft Owners - Battery

[Colonel]

Winter is coming.  You're going to be flying
less and less often.

If you have no electricity at your hangar (or
tiedown), remove the battery from your aircraft
and take it home and keep it charged (see below).

However, if you have electricity at your aircraft,
go to Canadian Tire and spend $42.99 on one of
these:

[img][/img]

It's all you need: 3/4 of an amp.  It has the
brains to not overcharge you battery.

You don't need to pop open your battery box.
Do this:

[img][/img]

The black jumper goes on the ground, and
the red jumper goes on the hot side of the
master solenoid.

If you do this - even with your battery at home -
it will not sulfate, it will last much longer,
it will save you money, it will be ready to go
when you are, and it will spin your engine
right over.

I have more of these gizmos on my airplanes
and motorcycles etc than you would believe.

Anything with a battery that sees infrequent
use during any part of the year, needs one of
these to avoid becoming sulfated.

[Colonel]

Pop quiz:  why is the master solenoid mounted
inverted?  Is there a better mounting?

PS  Esp if you have a generator instead of an
alternator, you need a Battery Tender Jr.

[HiFlyChick]

Don't mean to hijack the thread to be too non-aviation, but do you leave it on your battery for your motorcycle all through the winter, or just on for a few days every once in a while?  I have a bad habit of neglecting the proper winterization of my motorcycle because I keep thinking I'll get a day or two to drive it and sometimes I do, but mostly I don't.  Last year my husband finally just winterized it since I never got around to it (and am also very spoiled by my wonderful spouse), but I don't recall what he did with the battery (if anything).  We have a charger, but I think it's a charge-from-dead sort that is not meant to stay plugged in.

Also, how long a time frame of inactivity would you say before you decide to plug it in - what I mean is, do you bother if you know you're going to drive it in 3 weeks time but want to keep it healthy until then?

[Colonel]

[quote]do you leave it on your battery for your motorcycle all through the winter[/quote]

Yup.  The battery tender is more expensive and
can be considered "constant voltage" (which it
actually isn't) and can be left on all the time.

The $10 chargers are "constant current" and
the voltage must be monitored and it must be
manually disconnected when the voltage rises
above 14.4VDC.

[Colonel]

[quote]how long a time frame of inactivity before you plug it in[/quote]

From a technical standpoint, that depends on
the chemistry of the battery and the temperature.

With zero draw (which isn't the case in a car,
which will draw up to 50 mA) after a couple of
weeks, you might want to zap it, esp if it's an
flooded lead-acid battery.

However, from a more realistic standpoint, people
don't fly as much as they think they do.  Someone
might think they're going to fly next week, and it
ends up being a couple of months - I see that, all
the time.

Just plug it in at the end of the day.  It's not hard.
That way, it will always be ready to go.  Here's what
my bikes look like right now (not winter):

[img][/img]

[ScudRunner-d95]

so why is it mounted inverted?

[Colonel]

It's the aerobatic version.