I'm looking at a trickle charger for the Mini,

any recommendations?

AutoBarn has a Projecta 12V 1600mA for $60

Thanks

Too damn small IMO, mine (made in Norway) is 10A to start, then falls back to trickle or zero.
1600mA sounds big, but it's only 1.6A, ffs!

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

I've got a little Battery Fighter that I use on the bikes and its excellent for long term storage when you don't use them often enough.

I'll be getting one of these for the cars, though.

http://www.ctekbatterychargers.com.au/ctek-mxs50.html

You can get them online for less than that.

Tim

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1951 Morris Commercial J Type Van
1955 BSA C11G
1961 Morris Mini Traveller
1969 Triumph TR6R
1977 Leyland Moke Californian

I bought two chargers/trickle chargers from aldi for $25 each or something.

They are brilliant. A battery I have in one of the bricks I thought was cactus. Now I have these the battery is back healthy again...

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My mate Dave got one of those too, they are a good unit.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Hey Poeee was that a one off from aldi or a regular. I had a recent RACQ Battery last about 5 years when it died had to charge it weekly and finally bit the bullet. Thought that was decent enough for $140 odd battery that I had neglected fairly regularly.

No fun breaking down on the ED at 530 in the morning ... The 2nd time in a fortnight sealed its fate.

As a general battery health question my brand newy is disconnected sitting in my car and will be for a month b4 I get to drive it again. Should I trickle it to full when I get back or go for a cruise to get it back up.

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PrOuDlY aSkInG qUeStIoNs FoR uR aMuEsMeNt

Hey Poeee was that a one off from aldi or a regular. I had a recent RACQ Battery last about 5 years when it died had to charge it weekly and finally bit the bullet. Thought that was decent enough for $140 odd battery that I had neglected fairly regularly.

No fun breaking down on the ED at 530 in the morning ... The 2nd time in a fortnight sealed its fate.

As a general battery health question my brand newy is disconnected sitting in my car and will be for a month b4 I get to drive it again. Should I trickle it to full when I get back or go for a cruise to get it back up.

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PrOuDlY aSkInG qUeStIoNs FoR uR aMuEsMeNt

A one off, but you would think they would do them again. I bought 4 in the same transaction. Two for me, two for dad.

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I've got the base model Ctek. I only rate it as average and useful only as a standard trickle charger. My mates have the up-spec one that has the de-sulphation (spelling?) cycle so it can restore a dud battery. They all rave about them. One runs a mechanic's shop and he took a pallet of old batteries that were due for the recyclers and made about 3/4 of them useable again. The other 1/4 steyed rooted. Good value then. Just don't get the bottom of the range one like I did.

M

I have 2, a projecta 1600ma maintenance charger which I got to use on cars that I was doing a big job on and would sit for over a week, it meant the battery was full and the car would start easy, not good for charging a flat.
The other is a ctec 3600, I use that at home, it's great because if its left on a tired battery long enough it will make it perform better. Not good for a quick top up but it will fully charge a 550cca overnight.
The more expensive ctec's do really good things for batteries.

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Dean Hutton's first car was a Mini.

I recon mine is a Projecta 1600. I bought mine for maintaining my speedboat battery which sits most of the year doing nothing, its a 600 CCA. It won't charge big batteries but will charge small ones. My maintenance charger is left on the boat battery for months at a time. I think mine is great for the $55 I paid. If you can afford to spend more then Redarc here in Adelaide make some awesome products that are made here in SA, I used to sell raw materials to them. But they are expensive. Stick to the Projecta one I say.

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TOO MANY MINIS AND NOT ENOUGH TIME

I also have two of the projecta trickle chargers that Autobahn currently have on sale. One above the front bench and one near the back of the garage (a consequence of having had both front and rear engined cars).

I haven't had any trouble from mine. I bought a couple of extra long sets of leads (ordered in) from Battery world.

I have also considered buying a top of the range Ctek (like an XS7000 or similar) for their anti-sulfation options. If you were only buying ONE charger, I would pay the extra money and get the CTEK, but if you just want a trickle charger, the Aldi or the Projecta would be fine.

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A lot of the trickle chargers claim you can leave it connected and it shuts itself off when it needs to without any issue to the battery. This would probably be your best option as you will need some good CCA's available when it comes time to start it again without issue, before you get a chance to take it for a decent drive; unless you use a jump start battery or jumper leads.

There is nothing worse than finishing work on your car, wanting to test it then flattening the battery just trying to get it started!

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