I have seen 25' 2 wire (zip lead) 16ga cords with the triplex receptacle. I have some in my Christmas light stuff. You can always buy the plug cap, receptacle and cord to make up anything you want.
I have almost 300 feet of extension to a Xmas tree light on property. 3 extensions mostly 16 gauge. I bought a nice 100 foot 12 gauge extension at my hardware store for $25, but I suspect it was marked wrong LOL.
Greg
I looked for the receptacle at HDepot and I had a choice of one outlet or a very big one for 3. At least in the store. Once I was going to mail order, I did get 16' from Amazon, but they didn't have anything longer than that.
Something like this maybe?
He wants something more like this
Nope.
That's good. I don't remember how I missed it. Maybe because it is
3-conductor which I don't need, but much better than nothing. I found it in black too. I'm going to get one.
Could you elaborate on that solar cell setup? Where can I buy one? I'm having a slow leak problem that no mechanic can seem to diagnose. After about a year, the battery won't crank after sitting up overnight. I installed a battery cutoff switch to disconnect the battery overnight so that my car can always start the next day. But I like your solar solution better if it can keep my battery charged. Thanks.
battery cutoff switch
Have you tried googling for solar car charger?
To fix the actual problem, have you used an ammeter on each fuse circuit to find out which one is drawing? I'd hook the meter up so that you can read it with the car closed, locked, etc. Then leave it for half an hour and see what it reads. Modern cars have alarms and such, so you could see maybe 50ma or so draw as normal. Something is drawing a lot more than that to run the battery down overnight. A competent mechanic should be able to find the problem circuit, then you have to see what all is on it and take things off it, to the extent possible to further isolate.
The sun doesn't shine at night. I'm not trying to be a smart ass. The solar trickle chargers usually put out 5 to 10 watts. Assuming you have reliable sunlight they are useful if your car sits for days. Many new cars have onboard electronics that pull a few mills all the time and the solar charger offsets those.
If your battery is draining down overnight you have a problem a solar charger won't fix.
This one will keep a charged battery topped up, but does not put out enough to charge a flat battery:
Good point. I totally missed that.
While yes, it will certainly work for "topping up", just a general note that you should take any of the solar panel output labels with a great deal of skepticism.
(Not just Harbor Freight).
also, of course, keep in mind that the (what used to be called) cigarette lighter might, or might not, be cut out when the car is turned off...
My Toyota Camry and Tacoma both cut off the socket when the car is turned off. Others may do so also, or not, I don't know.
Any car that drains the battery over night should be relative easy for a mechanic to find the problem. However, most now are just part replacers , especially if it is anything electrical.
As mentioned there is no sun at night to use the solar chargers with.
True enough, but...
But chances are the battery is just slowly draining out for 23 hours/day (assuming one hour of driving) and it's probably taken a week or more (numbers for illustrtion) for the cumulative effect to deaden it.
So... an extra six hours of daytime charging at a low trickle rate might very well be enough to keep it in the safe zone.
(we all do know that diodes and other simple-and-quick "one way" valves for direct current do allow a bit of backflow, right? so yes, that solar panel, at night, might actually be doing some draining...)
Thank you for your prompt response. While I'm excited about the prospect of using a solar panel to maintain a trickle charge, the solar solutions I've come across so far have problems for my usage:
1.) My cigarette lighter outlet doesn't stay on after the ignition is turned off, so my only recourse is to permanently connect the solar panel to the battery posts. 2.) The alligator clips for the battery posts are too obtrusive and would interfere with my current battery post connectors. There needs to be a solar trickle charger with better integrated battery connectors. 3.) The instructions to these devices state that in order to prevent damage to the trickle charger, it's supposed to be disconnected before starting the car and while driving. So how am I supposed to disconnect it from the battery before starting the car? Others have said that it works fine while starting the car.
Any diode worth using will have so little 'backflow' it would take years to drain a car battery. The battery would self-discharge at a rate so much larger than the diode would allow that it would be un noticiable. About like the weight of a fly landing on the car making it weigh more. Sure it does, but no practicl way of telling the added weight.
I have a small solar panel I hook to my riding lawn mower in the winter when it is not used for seveal months. The panel is not even in direct sum most of the day. The first start of the year , the mower engine turns over very fast.
Likewise, the car I use it on has the cig ligher off when the car is off. What I do is to connect the alligator clips directly to the battery terminals. The cord is long enough in my case that I can put the solar panel inside the windshield.
You'd probably need to fab something up to fit your requirements.
I just pop the hood and disconnect it.
It's just to keep a trickle charge on the battery to "float" the charge. In my case at least it works. The battery used to regularly go flat before I started using the solar charger, now it's always ready to go.
In such cases, including my own, it's a little less convenient since you need to connect directly to the battery with the supplied alligator clips.
+1
The solar thing for all practical purposes can only add, not drain.
The battery would self-discharge at a
The other thing Danny thinks the battery is draining over many days, while the OP clearly said it happens overnight. I had that happen with the BMW X5. I spent a lot of time screwing around to find it, when I should have known where to start. I knew the stupid variable speed electric fan in front of the radiator didn't work, but the X5 works well enough without it. The other thing, I thought I had heard a mysterious little noise from the dash when the car was off a couple times. I should have started with those, instead I pursued the general case. Turns out the bad variable speed fan has power applied to it all the time and the failed electronics in it was drawing current even though the fan wasn't moving. The other problem was a transistor drive module that controls the HVAC blower speed. That worked, but it was also flowing current to the blower when it was off. The little noise must have been the rare occasion when there was enough current to move the motor just a bit.
It should be possible to find the source of the problem with the OP's car. You're right, today many alleged mechanics are incompetent. I have a friend who had a Honda CRV. The AC didn't work, he had taken it to shop that specializes in AC. They spent hours, told him they couldn't find the problem, they thought it was an electrical computer thing, so they took it to another shop that specializes in that. They also couldn't fix it. I said bring it over here, let me look at it. I had him put on the AC and I took a look at the clutch. It wasn't spinning, so I probed it with just a test light. Voltage at the clutch. I got a hammer, tapped the clutch a few times, had him try it again. Voila, AC working.
That one is so basic, it boggles the minds how any shop that does AC work couldn't identify and fix it. He kept the car for another couple years after that, no more problems with the AC. I did instruct him to run the AC once a month on moderate days, just to keep things moving.
I guess things have improved since my days working the lab with George Steinmetz...
My impression was more that it started off (for illustraion) on Sunday with 100 pct charge. Not driven at all. So Sun eve it's at 95 pct, Mon morning at 90.
(Using "20 percent" as the cutoff needed for starting)
Driven a bit Monday, so Mon eve 92 pct, Tues morn 85.
Drops down a couple more percent each day.
Finally, the next week.. Mon morning 21 pct, mon eve 23, Tuesday morning... 18 percent. So... nada...
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