CTEK charger; advice please

[snowie]

I have recently bought a CTEK charger so that I can keep my vehicle and habitation batteries charged over the winter months.

 

I've accessed the van battery; in the cab, between/in front of the seats, and have paused for thought!

I attach a pic that has me a little undecided.

 

The negative connection is straightforward, but the positive is complicated by the number of options for fixing the lead, complicated particularly by what I guess are a couple of inline fuses.

 

Should I be cautious, or is it impossible to screw anything seriously?

 

I'm using the CTEK accessory lead that bolts permanently onto the battery terminals, and plugs to the charger

 

Advice appreciated

regards

alan b

 

Ducato X250

[StuartO]

You should be able to connect your CTEK using its crocodile clips to any of the terminals on the terminal plate connected to the LH battery terminal in your photo; these things are all connected together and are merely a distribution device, to allow multiple connections to be made to that terminal.

 

Batteries should be charged once per month during storage.  A CTEK charger can be left attached continuously and if your leisure battery carries any load this would be a good idea.  If there is no load however, to save you buying a second CTEK, just swap over between leisure and starter batteries once per month, leaving them on charge in turn.

 

[Alanb]

Hi Alan,

 

My X244 Ducato has a similar fuse holder on the positive battery terminal. This fuse holder is fitted with 3 midi fuses and the brown 70A midi fuse, designated by Fiat as F73 for converters use was unused. Unfortunately your vehicle seems to have a cable connected to the brown midi fuse. This would have made a good connection point if fitted with a 30A fuse.

 

As this does not seem possible, you may wish to consider plugging into the power socket on the dash.

 

For a simple way to make this socket permanently live, please see my recent post under "Radio Wiring".

 

If for some reason removing the relay is not possible you could use an "Adda fuse" to feed the socket

 

I would advise against connecting directly to the battery positive, but if you do go down that route, DO DISCONNECT THE BATTERY NEGATIVE BEFORE STARTING WORK.

 

 

[snowie]

Thanks guys; I have the charger connected using the croc-clips lead at the moment, but want to fit a secure connection that I can just leave there permanently and pull out from under the floor panel.

I'll use A or B on the pic' to avoid the fuses, and disconnect the negative before starting work, thanks for advice ,

regards Alan b

 

Next project; a similar connection to my 2 leisure batteries.

[Derek Uzzell]

Snowie

 

I just connected the red lead of the CTEK connector directly to the clamping-bolt on the battery’s positive terminal using an extra nut and locking-washer, and connected the black lead of the CTEK connector to one of the threaded studs on the quick-release clamp on the battery’s negative terminal (with another nut and washer, of course).

 

If you have a ‘coded’ radio, disconnecting the battery will lose the code.

 

If you attach the CTEK connector’s black lead to the battery’s negative terminal first, then attach the CTEK connector’s red lead to the battery’s positive terminal, you should be OK without needing to disconnect the battery itself. (I never bothered to disconnect the battery before attaching the CTEK connector, but when I’m doing this sort of thing I’m very careful to avoid ‘shorting’.)

 

 

[Alanb]

Alan,

 

May I repeat my advice not to connect directly to the battery.

 

The Ducato is designed to provide fused connections at the battery to all electrics except the starter motor.

 

Any un-fused connections will degrade the protection originally installed. This includes the connections made by your converter between the inline fuses and the battery terminals. You may have to live with these but do not make it worse.

 

For a simple connection you could connect to the load side of the brown, 70A midi fuse. This will give some protection, and is I believe, the supply to the RHS fuse panel (Fiat "CFO"). On my vehicle his panel supplies windows and locking, but not much else of consequence. Connecting as I suggest would give some protection against any short circuit that may develop. This is a particular risk as you are proposing to leave a loose live lead in your battery component. There is a remote risk of fire or explosion should a short circuit occur. In these circumstance you insurers could refuse to pay out.

 

My personal inclination would be to go for using the dash socket, that I outlined in my previous post.

 

For further information the orange 150A maxi fuse supplies the essential circuits via Fiat fuse panel CVM, in the engine bay, with the LHS fuse panel CFB being supplied in tandem via CFM Fuse 01.

The remaining pink 125A midi fuse at the battery is probably for the alternator.

[Uncle Bulgaria]

My motorhome is kept in secure storage with no hookup available. Although my habitation charger does provide a trickle charge to the vehicle battery I use a MXS 7.0 CTEK to top up my vehicle battery every 3 to 4 weeks. I connect to the vehicle battery via the 12V power socket on the dashboard (which is always live). The socket supply has a 10 amp fuse. I run a separate mains power lead to the cab to power the CTEK charger and isolate the habitation battery by disconnecting the earth (negative) lead using a battery isolator switch. This arrangement has worked well and avoids having to access the battery which is under the driver's seat.