Electrical Hookup for Trickle Chargers - 4 post Lift

[Mordi]

As part of my garage makeover, I am planning on a 4 post lift. I want to attach a trickle charger(s) on the lift post(s). I am thinking about a trickle charger to each vehicle The bottom vehicle has the battery under the hood, on the passenger side. The top vehicle has the battery located behind the driver seat. I do not want any electrical cords/extension cords on the floor of the garage.

There will be a 220V electrical drop that comes down from the ceiling (in flexible conduit) at the front left corner of the lift - for the post motor. At that location, a 110V line will also be available to power the trickle chargers.

Any ideas how to mount the trickle chargers to the lift posts so I do not have have electrical cords on the floor or drapped over the cars. Perhaps a single trickle charger mounted to the front left post and that can connect to two vehicles might be a good idea? Also, maybe an adapter that attaches to the cigarette lighter outlet instead of the battery might be a better option than attaching to the battery?

Any thoughts/ideas

Thanks,
Mordi

 

[Charles (in GA)]

On some cars, the lighter is hot only with the ignition on, I know Jeep Cherokees/Comanches are that way, and I've seen others.

I don't think I'd try to split the output of a trickle charger to two different batteries in two different vehicles. Modern trickle chargers switch on and off, or "float" with the battery and the charger would get confused by two different batteries, I would think.

You say you are going to have 240v at the lift, and expect to get 120v from it. You will have to carry a neutral out the cord to the lift to do this, and then you run into issues where you have a very large breaker designed to protect the lift wiring/system and it won't protect the small trickle chargers. I'd want to drop to smaller single pole breakers to protect the 120v circuit you are creating. I assume the lift circuit will be probably 30 amp?

Charles

 

[ovilla]

A perfect spot for mounting the trickle charger is to the front tire stop plates at the end of the runway. That would at least take care of the car on the ramps. To take care of the bottom car, you can also put a charger up inside the one ramp that doesn't have the cylinder cables going through it. The ramps have a curled lip all the way across the inside of each ramp so you can easily put a piece of steel or wood between the lips of the one ramp to hold the charger in place. Plus, even if a cord were to hang a bit, keep in mind that the ramps actually never touch the floor as they actually sit on the column floor plates. Finally, I just ordered a CTEK 300 so I'll let you know how I like it in a couple of weeks.

 

[stuckinohio]

How big are the trickle chargers you're looking at? Personally I wouldn't mount them on the lift, or at least make a mount that lifts off as you will probably want to use them on soemthing else not near the lift at some future point. For power I guess that depends on your set up with the lift. Are you planning to put an air hose reel on the ceiling near the lift? If so I would just put an outlet up there and mount a retractable extension cord that could be used for the chargers. I'd also put up a drop light at the same time too. Some drop lights have an outlet built into the light, but I still like the flexibility of the seperate light and power cords. This way you can use the power cord for the chargers, and still have easy access to power for a drill, shop vac, etc.

 

[kbs2244]

First, you need one charger per battery.
Second, they draw very little current, so anyplace you can pick up 120 VAC is a good place to put them.
Third, around here, in cold country, it is not all that unusual to see cars with a 120VAC plug hanging out of the grill. They are for block heaters in the winter time. You could follow the same idea with the 2 wire flat connectors you can get at Radio Shack. Permanently hook a small cable to the battery that will come out in a discreet place in the grill and then put the matching plug on the wires from the charger,

 

[Mordi]

All,

thanks for the replys guys

Charles
"I don't think I'd try to split the output of a trickle charger to two different batteries in two different vehicles. Modern trickle chargers switch on and off, or "float" with the battery and the charger would get confused by two different batteries.

I was not planning on doing this - I was planning on two separate trickle charger boxes - but I see that the company that manufactures the battery tender (Deltran) has two seperate independent chargers housed in the same box box - sounds interesting Also, if I am not mistaken, on a corvette, you can charge the vehicle thru the cigarette lighter

The lift circuit will be 30 amps - I had not thought about the large lift breaker not protecting the smaller trickle chargers

Ovilla - this sounds intriguing - do you have any pics that would indicate the placement of the chargers on the Bend Pak lift (this would help as that is the lift I plan to purchase)

stuckinohio - I don't have any future plans for the chargers so mounting them to the lift is not really a concern - I would think they could always be removed at a later date. But a removable mount for the chargers sounds pretty cool. I am planning on some ceiling outlets (i.e. retractable work light). I guess I could plug a retractable extension cord into one of them, but I was trying to not have cords dangling from the ceiling when I am not in the shop

Mordi

 

[silverbk]

http://store.schumachermart.com/sc-200a.html

This is the type of charger I use. I have one for my motorcycle and one for a truck that I don't use often.

On the truck I have the unit actually mounted under the hood, and I used the ring terminals.

For your setup all you would have to do is have a 120v outlet nearby. One of my friends has a retractable reel, like a droplight but with an outlet on the end, when he stores the car he just pulls it down from the ceiling and plugs it in.

 

[HOTFR8]

I would not mount them to the posts. You could mount them to the cars. The idea of the power point / lead from the roof is a good idea as I have done that to run my battery tenders on the two cars.

 

[JB740i]

Along the same lines as the block heater cord mentioned, I think they have the same kind of setup available for winch connections and for jumper cables? Not sure what it's called.