Charging off car battery

[Doglover]

I have seen a lot of people on Bobs videos charging off their car batteries. How do I do that without running my engine? My car won’t charge through my cigarette lighter unless it’s running. 
Can you tell I’m a newbie??

 

[John61CT]

Charge what?

Batteries just store power, you need to make sure you don't pull your Starter batt down too far or you get stranded.

And doing this often will wear it out quicker, replace with proper Deep Cycling battery, or even better set up a separate House batt.

 

[Trebor English]

I have seen a lot of people on Bobs videos charging off their car batteries. How do I do that without running my engine? 

What are you trying to charge?  If you have a big battery on the floor in the back seat area that's different from a cell phone.  

Somewhere inside the car there is a fuse panel.  It is probably not too far from the brake pedal.  There you can get always on without the key on 12 volts.  That's good for a cell phone.  

If you want a big battery you need to run a fat wire from the alternator or the engine battery to your new house battery.  You need a fuse at each end of that wire.  You need a switch, manual or automatic, to disconnect the two batteries.  

What is it that you want the electricity for?  How often and how long do you expect to drive?  What kind of car is it?

 

[Doglover]

Oh my gosh John and Trebor you guys are killing me. Lol

Last night I was just thinking if I could charge my cell phone or I have a small rechargeable battery that is supposed to be able to jump start my car battery if it goes dead. I never tried it.

I drive a Toyota Scion. I plugged my phone charger in the ciglighter and noticed it wouldn’t charge unless I started my car.

So that is why I asked the question?

I’m not trying to charge anything big. I just wanted to know if there was a way I could use my cigarette lighter to charge my phone without starting my car.

Thanks for responding.

 

[Weight]

You could turn on the car without starting engine. If your engine is not running, you are just discharging the starter battery to charge the phone battery. If you leave the usb device for too long of a time, it will kill your starter battery.

 

[John61CT]

Yes small devices like a phone can be charged with the vehicle turned off no problem.

Just wire the charger to an always-on circuit from your fuse box.

You could rewire your stock ciggie port but would need to be careful with other larger-amp loads

not to run the Starter batt down too low.

With a jumpstarter or other battery / powerpack, I would only recharge tgat while driving, or from mains.

Not sure what you found funny?

 

[DannyB1954]

On my truck there are 3 slots in the fuse box for the cigar lighter fuse. If I put the fuse between the middle slot and the slot to the right the outlet gets power always. If I put the fuse between the center and the one to the left, it only gets power when the key is on. Have a look in your fuse box and see if you have similar. Other than that you can install another outlet.