For those of you who have steering wheel locks, and have to leave the key in a position that causes slow battery drain while towing. The standard three options seem to be fuse pulling/switches, battery disconnects, and in-line chargers from the coach. But has anyone ever used something like this, plugged into the 12V outlet, to prevent battery discharge?
Amazon.com : ECO-WORTHY 12 Volts 10 Watts Portable Power Solar Panel Battery... (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017K6PH1S/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A5KU5HDAPDC75)
Obviously there is a cloud/rain limiting factor, but for the sake of the discussion let's assume the weather is nice. Would this do the job?
The amount of battery drain with the key in the accessory position seems insignificant to me for the number of hours driven per day. With many vehicles towed four down, there is a recommendation for starting the toad after a prescribed number of miles to lube the transmission. Anytime we stop and leave the coach unattended, we lock the toad along with the coach removing the toad keys. After a wiring failure back to the toad, I switched on the toad parking lights for driving several hours at night. Again, without any starting problems after stopping.
Pierce
How about letting the toad idle while it's being towed?
LOL
"Idle toads are the devil's workshop"
P
Towed Honda CRV thousands of miles with ignition in "acc". I had occasional dead battery when I forgot to turn off ignition when I pulled into a campground at night. The next morning the Honda battery would be dead. I had no disconnect switch or built in charging system. After several of these hassles of getting a hot start from my coach batteries which in my last coach were hidden up under the engine, or from a neighbor. I bought one of the hot-start battery accessories which I kept plugged into the 120v system in the water manifold bay. This proved to be the perfect answer to my problem.
I don't believe towing the vehicle with the engine running in idle will produce enough juice to charge the battery, nor will one of the little dashboard solar panels (I've tried both).
Actually that is what I do...
The '04/'06.5 Scion xB's limit you to 55mph (Manual trans. in neutral- engine off) and you have to stop for 5 minutes and let it idle after 200 miles. I said screw this and idle the toad driving whatever speed..
My thinking is that when towed without front input shaft of tranny turning.. no lube to all of the tranny. ie: idle it and the combination of the input and tail shafts turning while being towed should keep the oil doing it's thing..
I just lock the car with spare set of keys.... and add 5 gal of gas every other day
On my 2001 Grand Cherokee the steering wheel unlock does not turn of the accessory side of the switch. I use the brake buddy which uses power so I do run a power wire to the Jeep form the coach. Many hours of night driving would not make the solar an option for me.
I think the best bet is to follow your owners manual. I tow a 2013 chevy sonic with the car in neutral the ignition in on, not acc and I pull the required 2amp fuse . At 500 miles or less I run the engine for 5 minutes and then away I go. No issues so far.
I have a solenoid wired inline with the battery that is switched on/off with a switch inside the Jeep. I switch it off when we tow with the ignition in the acc position.
John