Maintaining Battery While Car is off road

Hey guys

Done quite a bit miles on my diesel golf in past year, so decided to give it a bit rest. Purchased second city petrol car just to do run about in it, so my Golf sat on my drive unused. Now my main concern is battery draining while car not in use, how can I maintaine battery to prevent going flat.
I did start car up today after week not using and it did struggle for bit but fired up anyway.
Starting it up every week and leave to idle on my drive? Is it correct way?


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Or trickle/maintenance charger for battery...

I don't have facilities to trickle charge it. Car parked in open air. I just wondering, how long will be enough to leave it idle to charge battery.

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I believe there are companies that make solar powered trickle charges. I haven't seen anyone talking about them in a while though. Maybe it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Just thought I would mention it as it may be worth looking into for your situation.

Something like this. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Schumach...MI_fOChvn01QIVFrjACh0UkgFpEAQYASABEgJzivD_BwE

Nice one, thank you. Will definitely look into solar powered.

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You might need to make your console 12v socket live all of the time.

bakili said:

I don't have facilities to trickle charge it. Car parked in open air. I just wondering, how long will be enough to leave it idle to charge battery.

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At idle, the alternator will not sufficiently charge the battery, and short trips around town aren't much better. It needs to be driven at highway speeds, especially if it's sitting most of the time.

If a plug-in trickle charger isn't an option, you may have to disconnect the negative terminal, though I don't know if doing so will cause any issues with the control units.

The Fed said:

You might need to make your console 12v socket live all of the time.

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Use a solar power panel utilising the cars obd socket, they work perfect in my Hilux and Golf

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Solar-Batt...sr=8-2&keywords=solar+car+battery+charger+obd

Shane_Anigans said:

At idle, the alternator will not sufficiently charge the battery, and short trips around town aren't much better. It needs to be driven at highway speeds, especially if it's sitting most of the time.

If a plug-in trickle charger isn't an option, you may have to disconnect the negative terminal, though I don't know if doing so will cause any issues with the control units.

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bakili, I agree with Shane's opinion that your car's alternator will not generate sufficient current to replenish the battery at idle rpm, and short trips will only compound the problem. Also, leaving a car idling for long periods simply isn't a good idea. Next up -- routinely disconnecting the battery -- invites all sorts of electronic mischief. I don't recommend it. Thus, practically speaking, you have two options: Periodic long drives -- 20 miles or more; or better solution for you, recharge the battery periodically.

Since you've ruled out a trickle charger, the next practical option is to hook-up a regular battery charger and monitor the state of charge. These days virtually all battery chargers have some sort of status gauge to accommodate and monitor this very practice. In my experience (over 30 years, including Navy deployments), recharging a battery once a week for about a half hour will do the trick. You can run an extension cord from your house/apt. and you're in business. The harder part is training your wife/GF to do this for you, but that, too, becomes easier with practice. I also like the solar option, but I don't have any experience with that.