Bongo Fury

I've just had to replace the starter battery in my Bongo as it was about to fail, and was recommended to use a trickle charger to keep the starter battery topped up. My Bongo lives at a friend's house and I only use it once a month or so in winter (usually every week or two in summer so it's less of a problem then), so I need a solar-powered trickle charger that I can put on the dashboard and plug into the cigar lighter (ideally).

I only want to use it as a trickle charger for the starter battery, not for the leisure battery or to power anything else. Can anyone recommend one?

Have a look here:

http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... =3&t=52930

The cigar/cigarette/12v auxiliaries socket is not normally live, once the ignition switch is switched off beyond "AUX", so if you want to use it for solar charging, get an electrician to re-wire it so it is. Maplins have a good deal on their 2.4 watts output panel, at the moment http://www.maplin.co.uk/solar-powered-1 ... ger-223251.

That should be enough power to just offset battery self discharge, or there are loads of all powers available through eBay, Amazon, etc., and bigger ones also at Maplin.

Having measured the out put of various small solar panals anything less than a 10watt jobby will be a waste of money especially in the winter.

Regards Gray.

check alphabatteries.co.uk they have different solar panels in stock & good prices on leisure batteries up to 50% off at the mo

GrayRX8 wrote:Having measured the out put of various small solar panals anything less than a 10watt jobby will be a waste of money especially in the winter.

Regards Gray.

True, if onboard devices in standby mode, consume a significant amount or power, you might need more - but a 2.4 watts (0.2 amps at 12 volts), nominal output, solar panel, with due allowance for reduced daylight hours, average UK light levels, etc. will otherwise easily keep a good condition Bongo sized battery topped up.

You can check the standby drain current in your particular Bongo, using a multimeter able to read up to a couple of DC amps, in series with the battery. A vehicle with say 0.1 amps standby drain current (typical when just keeping onboard electronic system back up batteries charged up ) should be fine - with a 2.4 watts output panel able to provide that amount, with sufficient power remaining to offset battery self-discharge. An active alarm/immobiliser, or other similar active systems (e.g., remote start receiver) onboard, will require a bigger panel though.

A panel of any reasonable output will at least extend the time before a battery runs flat enough to not start the vehicle, and that may be all that's needed anyway.

Thanks Ron, useful info!

I've bought a 4.8W panel from Maplin, and am going to ask my brother-in-law to re-wire the cigar lighter so it can plug in there and sit on the dashboard. When the AA man checked the drain on the battery there was virtually none (my alarm/immob runs off my LB); it was just a month of non-use in the cold combined with a cheap original battery that caused the problem.

Will update after using it for a while to report on its performance!

Nice one! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - including lots more good Bongoing.

Ditto for all forum members, have a really good one!!

Ron Miel wrote:True, if onboard devices in standby mode, consume a significant amount or power, you might need more - but a 2.4 watts (0.2 amps at 12 volts), nominal output, solar panel, with due allowance for reduced daylight hours, average UK light levels, etc. will otherwise easily keep a good condition Bongo sized battery topped up.

I have a 4.8W Maplin panel, I measured that on bright sunny summer day, pointed directly at the sun it gave around 100mA at 13.5V so I doubt if a 2.4W panel would be any real use during the winter.

Hi
Rhinoman...
That's a little less than I'd have expected one of those panels to produce...not a lot less , though....they really don't do anything unless directly pointing at the sun on a nice summers day....Small panels just don't work...to do any real good, you need a tracking panel , nearly the size of the Bongo roof.
One of these might look good on the dashboard though!!!:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crookes_radiometer

Cheers
Helen

http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... ilit=solar



see link above to a thread whereby an 80 watt panel was fitted and on first runs out was charging both batteries and running fridge / tv etc for weekend stints. Not been updated for a while but seemed promising.

Further discussion with my father-in-law (retd auto mechanic) has also revealed that my original battery was not up to the job: he said you need a minimum of 95Ah for a diesel engine and mine was only 90Ah so it was being stretched to its limit every time the engine was started, which is why it only lasted 18 months. You learn something new every day!

bongo frenzee wrote:Further discussion with my father-in-law (retd auto mechanic) has also revealed that my original battery was not up to the job: he said you need a minimum of 95Ah for a diesel engine and mine was only 90Ah so it was being stretched to its limit every time the engine was started, which is why it only lasted 18 months. You learn something new every day!

Some people claim to have got on ok with a 75amphr battery, but I agree with you that a 95ah battery is sensible on a diesel Bongo. I wonder if some glowplug problems are actually due to inadequate battery power.