trickle charger for 2005 corolla ascent sedan

[juicyleong]

hi everyone,

i was searching forums for a topic on trickle chargers but there are none listed. is it just my lousy search skills? i'm stressed about posting a new topic in case oldies shoot me down for repeating an over-discussed issue.

anyway i just purchased a 1 year old boring corolla ascent sedan - totally generic nothing fancy like what many of you guys own, but i'll be going overseas for 8 weeks soon. should i just disconnect the battery (and are there any ramifications of that? i'm not particularly mechanically inclined.) or should i buy a solar powered trickle charger to hook up to the cigarrette lighter? i know that for some cars you have to remember to disconnect the trickle charger when turning on the ignition and for some you have to hook up the charger directly to your battery itself.

what's everyone's opinion on this?

by the way, i've also been searching the forums like crazy for a list of recommended mechanics in the area but can't come across a consolidated thread on this. are there any melbournians here? should i just cross reference lists of toyota accredited mechanics against the racv licensed mechanics and blindly trust any that fulfil both criteria? or should i take it back to my old sexist racist lying b*5tard of a mechanic in the east where my old ford died tragically? (i really wouldn't like that.) if there are women about the forum please recommend some mechanic that won't call me gerlie and subject me to unnecessary humiliation. (or is that asking for too much?)

cheers,

joyce

[snakesau]

Why not just get a friend or family member to take it for a drive once a week?

[NEWJAK]

try a jaycar electronics store!!!

i know they have them as i bought one for my ducati

[juicyleong]

insurance for my car doesn't cover any other driver but meself and my housemate is particular about using her own vintage car so she wouldn't drive it anyway. i also don't really wanna bother her with starting my car twice a week or something, just better if i didn't have to ask her to do anything for me during the time i'm gone.

where's the jaycar outlet in melbourne?

[Rainman]

Here's a link to their site:

http://www.jaycar.com.au/stores.asp

[kelvin33]

perhaps as k her to fire up the car once a week and idle it

perhaps ask her to fire up the car once a week and idle it

[CAP]

Last year I went to europe for six weeks and my car still started - Just. But I do have a trickle charger for my Jet Ski and it works fine.

Basically you have a connection that stays permanently on the terminals and then when in the garage you connect it to the outlet/transformer that plugs into a socket (Kind of like a phone charger but a bit bigger). You can pick these up from most car parts places such as Auto1, Supercheap, Autobarn etc.

But simply unplugging your negative terminal will do the same thing and save on your power bill :D

[BigBum]

I made a mistake once by leaving my car as it was without touching it for about 6 weeks. Came back and the battery was drained flat due to the alarm siren going off for 2 or 3 days straight. So I recently did what '1ZZ-FE' said and just disconneted the negative terminal on the battery before leaving for overseas again, came back reconnected it and all was good :D

[NEWJAK]

personally i would buy the trickle charger as it keeps the battery in peak condition and also helps keep away the effects of sulphation in the cells of the battery.