Tidying wires to multiple trickle chargers?

[Rich5ltr]

For those of you with multiple car garages, how do you manage all the wires to the trickle chargers or don't you worry? Trying to tidy the wires to & from three Accumates (a brand of intelligent charger) laying on the floor, plugged into the walls and clipped to car batteries. I thought about dropping the wires down from the roof but that sounds like it would be just as awkward. Anyone have a neat solution to keeping the collection on charge?

 

[kd3pc]

I use color tape to identify easily which charger goes with which cables. And ty-wraps to shorten the cables if needed. The rest wads up as it wants to.

Keep in mind, a charger needs to know the state of charge of "his" battery, so don't daisy a bunch of batteries and hope they will charge correctly. The charger also needs to know the battery technology and be able to charge that type of battery.

YMMV

 

[Rich5ltr]

What I'm doing is hooking each car up to an intelligent charger. The batteries remain in the cars with the charger just clipped in with crocodile clips. This keeps all the cars charged and ready to go but means there's cables draped across the floor to each car.

 

[Colin Len]

I'm also interested to see if anyone has a solution for this. I rigged up a magnetic disconnect for my car so that I don't have to pop the hood and attach clips (plus the battery is semi-hidden and the terminals don't easily accept alligator clips) but the wires are still running on the floor from the car to the outlet.

I too thought about something from the ceiling - perhaps something that can be retracted? Not sure why I didn't actually do some googling on this before. A quick search turned this up: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018IC0146/?tag=atomicindus08-20

You could probably take something like that and with some modifications connect your trickle charger to it in some way. That's just a quick example, my quick search turned up some other options too - a couple of which look to share a similar connector to my battery tender quick connects.

 

[bwringer]

This is a common problem among motorcyclists, too.

First, add pigtail SAE plug leads to each vehicle so you can easily plug and unplug the charger without opening the hood.

Secondly, why on earth do they all need to be plugged in at once all the time? Any decent battery isn't going to go instantly flat the second you park the car. Consider just using one maintainer, but move it every month or so. Much less to trip over and much less to go wrong.

Another tactic might be to switch to a maintainer that can be mounted in the car. Some allow this, some do not. The plug can be tucked in so that you can pull it out and easily plug in.

The ceiling drop is a good idea -- you could repurpose a trouble light reel, maybe even mount the charger in place of the trouble light if it's lightweight.

Or if you have to run the cords along the floor, you could put down plastic wiring channel (this stuff) so the cords are out of the way.

Or maybe even mount outlets into the floor in the correct positions. Not sure this would be practical in a concrete floor, assuming that's what you have.

 

[Strouty]

Some vehicles have stupid electronics that draw a battery dead within a few weeks of no use, mostly newer cars and trucks.

 

[bwringer]

Some vehicles have stupid electronics that draw a battery dead within a few weeks of no use, mostly newer cars and trucks.

Good point. I sort of pictured the OP with a collection of elegant vintage Jaguars, not an electrically incontinent modern vehicle.

 

[Strouty]

Yeah, my GF's mother has a BMW that gets a new battery almost every year. I have bought a battery tender, twice, but she looses it or forgets to hook it up, I gave up after the second charger was lost.

 

[Jeepster04]

Im in the same boat as you. Ive got a battery tender 4 bank charger that I use to keep everything topped off. Despite the bad reviews, its made it over a year now without issues. Ive always wanted to mount the charger on a small shelf that hangs from the ceiling then run the wires to each vehicle. Right now I have enough extensions (bought from battery tender) to charge a vehicle thats sitting in the driveway with the charger sitting in the back of the garage, its pretty handy.

It would be nice to have something similar to what Colin Len posted but like a lanyard that just pulled the slack back up to the ceiling. It would need to be locking, sortve like a retracting extension cord reel just smaller.

For now, my cables run in the floor....

 

[maxpower_hd]

I only have one car to worry about but I use my cord real mounted to the ceiling. Nothing on the floor.

 

[Rich5ltr]

Good point. I sort of pictured the OP with a collection of elegant vintage Jaguars, not an electrically incontinent modern vehicle.

Ha ha, 1958 Aston and 1933 Lagonda plus others...

 

[ishiboo]

Good point. I sort of pictured the OP with a collection of elegant vintage Jaguars, not an electrically incontinent modern vehicle.

Sounds like a fire hazard. I'd use battery disconnects if they were Jags.