Keeping the tow vehicle’s battery healthy

'Conditioner'?

All you would ever want to know https://www.ctek.com/

strictly speaking they have a recondition function .... but conditioner is near enough

Going into Park mode on mine automatically puts the handbrake on

It was questioning a too generalised inaccurate statement.

You can only 'condition' flooded type batteries with a CTEK or any other of the same ilk, an AGM battery like I have in my towcar takes no benefit at all from the reconditioning mode, it just does nothing of any use as an AGM doesn't suffer from stratification.

I have a power pack which I have used in the past mainly on other peoples cars/motorhomes when I have been running rallies.  

I am not at all technically minded but why, when using a jump start, are you advised to put positive of the jump lead on to the positive of the battery and the negative on to a good earth and not the negative battery terminal ?  Will it do the battery to be charged any harm if you use positive and negative terminals ?

One of the reasons to connect the positive terminal first and then use a negative earth point, may be due to sparking ignition of battery gases.

When you connect a slave battery with higher level of charge to another battery, there will be discharge to the other battery. You may see this as sparkling as you make the final contact. Lead acid batteries give off hydrogen gas when charging, which is highly explosive. By not using the negative terminal directly, it reduces the risk of explosion.

Yes I understand thanks for that. I also understand that this method is much preferred when jumping an AGM battery as opposed to a lead acid battery.   My power pack has an on off switch so there is no power at the leads until I attach to the battery and switch on.

I was thinking of getting one of these really small lithium jump starters which can also be used as a 12V supply and USB power bank.  These are made with very short jump leads which would only reach the positive and negative terminals on a standard size battery. 

Our Volvo will run its battery down in about 10 days if not used.

We hook it up to a 4.5watt solar panel and can happily leave it for several weeks with no problem.

We have a car ,which we only use in the spring and summer and will be our tow car when we have a tower fitted .to keep the battery in good condition I recently bought a C-Tek charger and conditioner and it seems to be working a treat.

regards Brian

I'm surprised that so many have issues with flat batteries after the car has been stationary for relatively periods of only a couple of weeks.

When we went on extended holidays overseas or when work sent me on an overseas assignment, my car would sometimes be laid up in the garage for up to 2 months at a time, but the only one I ever had a problem with was a Lexus RX which had a very small battery for such a big car (because there wasn't enough space under bonnet for anything bigger, the battery was identical to that of a Nissan Micra), but even that would last over 4 weeks so long as it was in good condition to start with. The battery of my current BMW will last a good deal longer than that.