Using a 12V Accessory Port for a Battery Tender

[Portesse]

Hello. I have a battery tender that I was going to plug it into the 12V accessory port in the left side storage compartment. The owners manual wasn't clear to me if that is how to keep the battery charged. The owner's manual said not to use the 12V port to charge a dead battery. My battery is not dead so I assume I can use the 12V port to trickle charge the battery? I could take off the right side panel and charge it directly to the battery? What do you say?

 

[Ceesie76]

If the 12v accessory port in only 'live' when the ignition is on (I believe it is) then you can't trickle charge the battery with it. Most chargers come with a pigtail that you can attach to the battery, then plug the charger into whenever needed. So you only have to take the side cover off once.

 

[mjnorris]

When my gps tracker was installed incorrectly and kept draining my battery I was plugging in my battery tender that way on my 2013 model. I have not had that issue with my 2019 model so I don’t know if the outlet is live with the ignition off on the gen2 version but it worked on my gen1.