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Curious if anyone has a trickle charger for the 24v battery that is solar powered and connected through the cigarette lighter? Plane will be outside for a few months and looking to keep the battery charged.

My plane sits outside so I bought a solar BatteryMinder to match my Concorde 12v and connected it to the battery with Anderson connectors. I use the connectors to power my poor mans Air Conditioner (converted igloo cooler) when it's not connected to the solar charger. It has kept my new Concorde well charged for over a year so far. Of course, this requires an A&P to sign off.

VDC, the BatteryMinder people, make a 12/24V solar charger. I plan to buy one at KOSH this year. It doesn’t work through the aux power socket but it’s a quality option. https://www.batteryminders.com/products/ Bottom of the page. Cheers, Rick

I use turo to rent cars. It’s a neat concept and way cheaper than enterprise or hertz etc not to mention most rental places will not have a BMW M3 or a Porsche 911 but turo does. I rented a model X tesla and i was amazed at the instantaneous acceleration you get from the accelerator pedal. That split second it takes for an ICE to get the next full air gas mixture from it’s low rev state plus the down shift to get the rpm’s into the power zone, the X has already moved 1 to 2 car lengths away. It’s very immediate. What’s not immediate is the charging. Getting solar panels last year really woke me up to the big energy guzzlers like electric oven a/c units but those are nothing compared to the beast of energy requirement of that tesla X! It uses more power to charge than all of my other house hold devices combined! I fine it hilarious that California is making all their vehicles electric when they’re right now telling people not to use their air conditioner to cool their house because of grid overload. when all these people get electric cars to charge on the grid no one‘s gonna be able to drive anywhere! Already there are youtube videos of people lined up for blocks waiting on fast chargers. At 240 i could charge the X in 10 hours less if i don’t come home on E where as the super charger will do it in 35 mins but unlimited charges stoped with the 2020 model and i cringe what the cost would be when you have to pay. I’ll probably get a smaller tesla maybe Y version to use around the city but i like my hybrid car the best compromise of ease of quick fill up but also great miles per gallon range.

We lived aboard a sailboat for three years cruising, not it a Marina except hurricane season. Most everything that makes it cruising and not camping relies on your battery bank, as they cost a LOT of money and improper care will kill a bank every year you get smart on their care and feeding. I had 1,000W of solar panels and that wasn’t enough to keep the bank full so I had a 165 amp alternator on a serpentine belt because you can’t pull that kind of amperage from a V belt, it will slip, two generators and a 125 amp inverter / charger and a standalone 60 amp charger, anytime an engine was running I was harvesting as much energy as I could to charge that bank and keep it healthy, as well as of course what I could get from Solar. Wind generators are mostly a waste of time, it takes a LOT of wind to make significant power and if the wind is that strong your in a protected anchorage hiding from it. So full time cruisers become battery smart out of necessity. Lithium is the Holy Grail for off grid, lightweight, doesn’t suffer from partial SOC cycling in fact you really never want to fully charge, lasts a LOT longer as in years longer and it can take just about as much charge you can throw at it, you can charge in an hour or two or less where AGM takes 5 hours no matter how big the charger is and you don’t have 5 hours of good Solar so no matter how many panels unless grossly oversized you can’t fully recharge a lead battery by Solar alone and if you don’t fully recharge the bank begins to die from sulphation. If your curious as to how fast is it possible to charge an AGM battery this article explains it, and the test battery is a Lifeline which is essentially identical to our aircraft Concorde batteries, both made by Concorde. https://marinehowto.com/how-fast-can-an-agm-battery-be-charged/ Anyway if we were still on the boat I’d certainly have a LifePo4 bank now and be much happier, but the Pandemic and my knees needing replacements, plus 2% Mortgage rates made ending cruising and buying a house make more sense.

Better than New: The Refurbishment of N205J Mooney N205J is a 1987 M20J model “205 Special Edition (SE)”. It differed from other M20J “201’s” at the time in that it incorporated a few changes: 1. Fully enclosed gear doors 2. Rounded window lines 3. 28 volt electrical system 4. Electric cowl flaps with infinite adjustment 5. Upturned wingtips with forward facing recognition lights and aft facing position lights 6. Gear extension speed increased from 132 to 140 knots The 205 SE came right as the general aviation market was in decline, so only seventy-seven 205 SE’s were built spanning two years. N205J was previously owned by a business associate of ours. N205J was hangar kept most of its life. It had original factory avionics, paint, and interior and was a low time aircraft with only 1885.5 hours. It had Precise Flight Speed Brakes installed. So why did we put so much money into a 1987 Mooney? I am one of the owners of SureFlight Aircraft Completions which specializes in paint, interiors, and avionics. We made it a “project plane”. We worked on it when we had any gaps in our schedule. Now that it is complete, we have a demonstration plane to show and fly customers that showcases SureFlight’s capabilities. It’s an awesome Mooney to fly! First stop was Henry Weber Mooney Authorized Service Center at neighboring KLNS to perform the pre-purchase inspection. The important thing for us was to have a good airframe and engine to start with. We took care of some maintenance on the airframe, overhauled the prop, bought a new governor, put new gear shock discs in, etc. We had them complete an annual at the time as well. We had the engine sent out to Columbia Aircraft Services for an Inspect and Replace as Needed (“IRAN”) which included new Camshaft, Lifters, Bearings and Rings. While it was there, we had the engine converted from the Lycoming IO-360-A3B6D to the IO-360-A3B6 specification to eliminate the D3000 dual magnetos in a single housing, driven by a single driveshaft. The engine now has two separate fully independent Bendix magnetos. We had the cylinders removed to be sent out for nickel plating. After the engine came back, Henry Weber reinstalled it with new Lord mounts and made sure that the engine and engine cowlings were properly aligned. We added GAMIjectors calibrated fuel injection nozzles and then went to work on the full refurbishment of N205J. Avionics: The aircraft was equipped with a factory original avionics suite from 1986, except the addition of an Apollo GPS. It all came out. All the wiring was removed and replaced. A plastic panel is created to make sure everything looks correct before fabricating the metal: Yokes are painted black and a metal panel is installed: And then filled with equipment: · Fully Electronic panel; Eliminated Vacuum System · Garmin G500 flight deck with Synthetic Vision · Garmin GAD 43e autopilot interface for G500 · Garmin GTN 750 GPS/Nav/Comm Navigator with Telligence Voice Control · Garmin GMA 35c Bluetooth enabled remote audio panel · Garmin GTX 345R ADS-B In/Out remote transponder · Garmin GNC 255 Nav/Comm · King KFC-150 autopilot (the only thing that remained from the old panel) · L3 Avionics ESI-500 Standby Instrument with: Altitude, Attitude, Slip/skid, Vertical speed, Aircraft track, Synthetic Vision option, Navigation option. Magnetic heading option. · JP Instruments EDM 930 Primary computer for RPM, Manifold Pressure, Oil, Fuel, Battery, Engine data. · AirGizmos iPad Mini 4 panel dock · Nimbus Aviation Electroluminescent Circuit Breaker overlay. · ACK E-04 GPS Emergency Locator Transmitter · Guardian Aero 451-101 Panel Mount CO Detector · MidContinent MD93 Digital Clock/USB Charger. Paint: We painted a new King Air 300 for the Mayo Clinic earlier in 2016. We loved their colors. We knew that these would be the colors we would eventually use on the Mooney. Stripping: Everything that is not stripped is covered in foil. Windows are removed to be replaced with Great Lakes Aero Windows SC (Solar Control) Grey installed with Extra thick .250” windshield. All flight controls and gear doors are removed to be painted separately, airframe is etched and alodined in preparation for epoxy primer. After primer, an Axalta White Pearl base color is applied. N205J is painted in all Pearlescent paint which requires a clearcoat after each color is applied. This is one of the reasons pearlescent paints cost more. Paint Scheme Layout: Axalta Cumulous Grey Pearl is applied to undercarriage, wheel wells, airframe, and then clearcoated. Axalta Sable Pearl accent stripes are applied and then clearcoated. Final Prep for the Axalta Dark Blue Pearl: After all the pearlescent colors are applied and clearcoated, exterior placarding is applied, and the entire aircraft is re-sanded for a final overall layer of clearcoat. This gives the airplane a wet, glossy look and deepens the color, smooths edge lines between accent stripes, seals the placards, and it also provides a more durable and cleanable finish because you do not cut into the color when polishing. Flight controls are hung and painted separately: Cowlings and access panels are installed with new stainless steel hardware. Flight controls are balanced and then reinstalled. Interior: Unfortunately, we forgot to get some good “before pics” of the interior. It had blue velour seats with aged and yellowing plastic panels. Old seat covers off. Repaint the seat frames. New covers sewn for the new foam buildups. Upholstered seats with custom Mooney Logo headrests. We repaired cracks in several of the plastics, and repainted with a textured paint to hide any old imperfections. We decided against covering the panels in ultra-leather to save weight. We fabricated a hatch behind the hole for the windshield bar that holds the compass for easy R&R of the glare shield. Painted a flat textured black. Looks like new. The interior goes back together with repainted plastics, new carpet, new door seals, and new upholstered seats. After it was all complete, we put the aircraft on scales. The new weight and balance was 17 lbs lighter than before. We also performed the gross weight increase to increase the gross weight from 2,740 to 2,900 giving the aircraft a new useful load of 988 lbs. Mooney N205J – Ready for Takeoff! Update 6/21/2018 Since Garmin came out with the G500 TXi we updated the Mooney by removing the Garmin G500 and JPI EDM 930 and replacing it with the G500 TXi with integrated Engine Information System (EIS). Here are photos of the conversion: EDIT for 2021: L-3 ESI 500 removed and replaced with Garmin GI 275 backup instrument and a Garmin GFC 500 Autopilot.

Solar chargers almost always don’t have the amperage to charge anywhere near 1C, charging from completely dead to 100% SOC at 1C would take 1 hour, Solar chargers almost always if properly sized can’t go from depleted to full in a complete Solar day, ideally you size your bank to use 1/3 rated capacity daily for a long life and to get you through the cloudy days and you size Solar to replace that 1/3 daily. So there just isn’t anywhere near the amperage available to cook off a battery, but any decent charger can be set to limit current of course But that’s neither here or there, we are talking about floating a Lead Acid battery, and many chargers have a “lithium” mode that locks the charger to one voltage, which is what you want to do. A lead acid battery is self regulating, if voltage is correct it will only accept the correct charge current regardless of how many amps the charger is capable of producing, lead acid is simple, one reason they are still around But it doesn’t matter, if you can get 1/2 amp or so set to float voltage, you have accomplished the mission in this case. 1/2 amp at 26V is roughly 14W, maybe 16 as there are losses of course, 16W isn’t too hard to get from 50W of panels, even on an overcast day, heck 50W is probably overkill, half that’s probably good enough. Only point is that for maybe $100 or so if you desired you can easily put together a Solar battery tender for your 24V aircraft battery. Is it worth it? Who knows, maybe, but aircraft have sat on ramps for a long time without them, depends I guess if you like to tinker and enjoy projects.

They aren’t hard to find. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=24+volt+solar+battery+charger&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_7zMjqKv-wIVvhKtBh13dQpJEAAYASAAEgLk5PD_BwE&hvadid=176943843731&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9030089&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=3704199109942003103&hvtargid=kwd-5222237735&hydadcr=7806_9761249&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_5xaqy3j21k_e https://www.pulsetech.net/catalog/product/view/id/15119/s/sp-24-6-pulsetech-24v-battery-solar-pulse-charger-maintainer-6w/category/4718/

Apparently the voltages for GA batteries are different than automotive batteries of the same type due to differences in the specific gravity of the electrolyte. It's supposedly aviation specific to give the batter better energy density. So, if I could adjust the voltage then that might work. As I understand it though, these controllers are designed to charge a battery for use with another load for the purposes of providing stable power via solar. I am not sure the voltage would be adjustable as it's an integrated charge circuit not just a fixed voltage? Maybe I am wrong there? https://www.batteryminders.com/why-an-aviation-specific-charger-maintainer/

I’d contact Concorde to be sure what the proper float voltage is, I’m using 13.2V from Concorde’s Lifeline batteries which are I’m told pretty much identical. 99% sure that an AGM’s float voltage is lower than a flooded battery and a just generic float charger is flooded voltage. Just looked Trojan flooded float voltage is 13.5V for a 12V battery. My best guess is to buy a good adjustable PWM controller and connect it to the panel of your choice, I think good small quality programmable PWM controllers like a Renogy is well less than $50, and program it to the voltage you want. ‘This one maybe? Haven’t read it’s specs but as long as it’s voltage can be programmed it ought to work, but there are others of course https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Wanderer-Amp-12V-24V/dp/B07NPDWZJ7/ref=sr_1_4?crid=JS7ZLU0XTAR2&keywords=renogy%2Bvoyager%2B20a%2B12v%2F24v%2Bpwm%2Bwaterproof%2Bsolar%2Bcharge%2Bcontroller&qid=1668477487&sprefix=solar%2Bpwm%2Bcontroller%2B24v%2Caps%2C221&sr=8-4&th=1 Or Concorde may know a supplier, can’t hurt to call and ask. They are good, helpful people. Concorde is a smallish US family owned business, no multi nationals or Chineses here, if you look at the Company phone tree you’ll see I believe Godfrey a lot, that’s the family name that started the company in the 70’s. But if you call you’ll get someone in the Company who knows what they are talking about, unless things have changed.

Anybody have a pirep on using a solar charging system for their plane. Our T hangers do not have electricity. I was thinking about getting one and extending the cord so the panel can be outside. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

SOLD. Nose dragger electric tug. Set up for Mooney or similar, easily pulled my Ovation in and out of the hangar. 24 volt system, variable speed control. Solar trickle charger included. Located Baltimore MD. $850. SOLD, thanks.

It is a Nose-Dragger. See their web page at Dragger. As for the model, well, it’s a bit of a hybrid. It started out as a stock nose dragger. Then… 1. The handle was extended to better fit under the Ovation’s nose and spinner. 2. That shifted the CG so the battery was moved aft for operator comfort. 3. The original puny gel-cell was replaced with a Concorde 24V aircraft battery removed from a Cirrus at 85% capacity. 4. The tug seemed a tad slow so a motor drive gear with a few more teeth was installed. 5. Originally it was a single speed - on or off. A PWM motor speed controller was added so the tug’s speed can go from a slow oozing to a moderate walk 6. A 24 volt solar trickle charger takes care of topping off the battery in the hangar which had no 120V Electrical service. All of the STC and 337 forms are available. Will deliver for fuel costs.

Time and Time again I’ve stated that the Gubermint needs to stay the hell out of it completely, did they subsidize gas stations? Then why should the subsidize car charging? If they stay out of it, whatever is superior will become predominant I got zero tax infinitives for our Tesla and took no tax rebate for the charger etc. My reason is I believe if it’s left up to free enterprise, they will get it right, there is money, real money to be made on car charging and people who will build them to make a profit will put them in the correct place etc. Government? Likely every Congressperson will get them in their areas but not where they are needed. I’m convinced if the Government gets involved, they will F it up like they did NASA. I’m in complete agreement, but that’s a Government problem. not an EV problem. I know how I vote, it’s not for the types that believe in big government, and if one starts saying how we need to subsidize anything, they lose my vote, because I firmly believe if you want to screw something up, get the Government involved. Solar as an example, I lived on mostly Solar power for years on our boat, I can tell you from experience it’s at least ten times as expensive as grid power with batteries and inverters, super efficient refrigeration etc. and we really couldn’t do it 100% we still had to have generators, get three rainy days in a row and your batteries are dead, two really unless you turn everything off and sit in the dark What Solar does on houses is make grid power more expensive for those without it, eventually maybe if there is enough of it, it will drive grid power high enough to where Solar makes sense money wise

I also get about 3.5 hours on my iPad mini. Below is a link to the battery pack I use. My wife loved it so much that she bought two more to keep around the house. https://smile.amazon.com/Portable-Charger-Anker-PowerCore-20100mAh/dp/B00X5RV14Y/ref=sxts_sxwds-bia-wc-rsf-lq2a1_0?crid=2UTC6JNJ6NTPS&cv_ct_cx=anker+battery&dchild=1&keywords=anker+battery&pd_rd_i=B00X5RV14Y&pd_rd_r=8abb7cda-68bf-433c-972e-354eb3006b50&pd_rd_w=ehGz9&pd_rd_wg=V6Tac&pf_rd_p=52f9c563-bb87-44f4-9d9d-e1c03402d90f&pf_rd_r=3QGMRVXW5GSZME9N86EB&psc=1&qid=1609610662&sprefix=anker+batt%2Caps%2C1255&sr=1-1-d3e58e83-6458-471c-a87e-175495b96a10 We used it extensively to keep 3 phones and 2 iPads charged up while at Oshkosh and it performed beautifully. It was paired with the solar charger linked below. We would charge the battery during the day and then charge the devices from the battery at night. I have also used the solar charger sitting on my glare shield while flying just to try it out, but I've never flown long enough to actually need to use it. https://smile.amazon.com/Anker-Charger-PowerPort-iPhone-Galaxy/dp/B012YUJJM8/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2BJ95G66KPSVI&dchild=1&keywords=anker+solar+charger&qid=1609611067&sprefix=anker+solar+%2Caps%2C252&sr=8-3 P.S. Don't forget to use Amazon Smile and route your donations to Mooney Summit!

Took Snoopy to visit my mom and install a solar charger in her car (since she hasn’t been driving anywhere).

It is my understanding that a lead acid battery benefits from being kept at full charge. I have the de-sulfating battery minder that is specific to my concord battery, and I have the permanent charger receptacle installed on the plane as well. My battery is 6 years old and has been on a de-sulfating charger from day one. My last battery test was 4 months ago, and the 30 AH battery still has 112% capacity. I am sold on a quality charger/tender. Battery Minder also has solar powered units, which is pretty cool.

Not sure if this is a great solution for you, but BatteryMinder has an aviation charging setup that includes a small solar panel to keep your battery topped off... BatteryMinder desulfating solar charger

We have a small (maybe 12 can) Coleman soft side that we take drinks and snacks in the plane. Going to bring my bad boy with me this time. Will probably freeze water bottles and put some wet ice on top. It works well as a fan even with no ice as KP states above. I have the Rav power solar charger. I like it. It lives in the airplane now as part of my emergency pack These little camping lanterns are worth their weight in gold. I got a little power brick that will charge my iPhone 3-4x on a single charge. I have a tiny freebie one that I could carry with us during the day that would do a single charge but was more than sufficient. The mooney caravan had a generator last year. Nothing like carrying a 4 year old a quarter mile to the potty after midnight along the road. But it’s oshkosh and you can’t trade those memories for anything :-) Here’s a copy of our packing list from last year. This was for a 4 year old and her dad. Hammer for tent stakes Navdata Cash Tent Foldable stroller Camping chairs Tarp / footprint Picnic blanket (waterproof backing) Camping mattress x 2 Sleeping bag for Olivia and Brad Sun hat for Olivia and Brad Sunscreen Bug stuff Shower stuff - shower shoes (Olivia flip flops at dollar general) Toiletries / wipes / body cleaning wipes flashlights lantern Batteries AAA and AA Solar charger Rain jacket : umbrella Fleece / jacket Trash bag / laundry Ponchos Towels / washcloth Cooler beer hydration water drinks Gatorade powder whiskey whiskey for party Breakfast items / snacks /lunch for flights Toys books Airplane ground screws Large wrench for ground screws cutting boards for wheels First aid and survival equipment Life jackets

There are literally gold I-watches. I am sort of really confused what's the appeal of an I-watch. I mean who wants to charge their watch every day? One more thing to charge - t keep charged - to babysit the battery status, to bring your charger on travel, etc. I know it will be like 930pm and I will be wanting to get somewhere on time and my I-watch batteries would go dead. I have a really nice titanium-case Citizen watch that is for real water proof (WR 100) (unlike many other "water proof watches" I have had that were not...) and it is "auto-wind" in the sense that it is auto recharge from solar in the face - "eco - drive" so you never change batteries and never charge it - and - it just...tells time. That's what I like out of a watch - it tells time. I don't need to wake it up, or choose from menus - I just rotate my wrist so the watch is in view - gaze my eyes upon it and read the time from my lovely analogue titanium watch.

This topic comes up every now and then... in different forms... https://mooneyspace.com/search/?q=Solar charger&sortby=relevancy&search_and_or=and Best regards, -a-

I use one of these for aux power supply. Works well. Take a charge with you wherever you go. The EnergyBar 250 is a lightweight solar battery charger that packs an incredible 25 hours of portable solar power for smartphones, 3-4 hours for a laptop, or up to 10 hours for LED televisions making it the best portable power bank. -Tom

I had a SuperTug3 which was overkill but great in that it doesn't turn the nose wheel. With 11hp gas engine and several gears it will tow a Mooney up a vertical wall, almost. I use an electric nose dragger on the Ovation now & like it a lot -- but I did buy it used and modified it extensively. Added big battery, a handle extension, electronic speed control, solar trickle charger. Reliable, strong, quiet & starts instantly. Dual driven wheels with no differential makes it a bit hard to steer smoothly. Pulls strong even on poor traction surfaces. http://dragger.com/nose-dragger-draggers/

A solar battery charger works great for an airport car. Ive had the same battery in my airport car for 5 years with no issues. Lee

And it is solar powered and has a little USB a charger if needed in a pinch.