Battery charging

[cabman]

Any auto electricians here?

I keep a 45cv tractor/giro in France to keep the place tidy.

The tractor also has a hydraulic front-end-loader.

In order to access the battery it's necessary to lift the engine cover.

Engine cover can only be lifted with the front loader raised. Front loader can only be raised with the engine running.

It hasn't happened yet, but eventually I am going to faced with a flat battery!

I have the idea to attach a red wire permanently to the positive terminal and a black wire to the engine block and run these two wires  to an exterior point with the ends insulated, but ready to clip to the battery charger if and when required.

Any snags? 

[Bugsy]

Get yourself a pair of race connectors as shown here

Perfect for what you need

Gary

American website but you can get them easily from good auto electrical shops.

[tracteurtom]

Cabman,  If you connect a lead permanantly to the positive pole of the battery, you need to fused it, otherwise there is a big risk of fire if it accidently gets shorted to deck. Otherwise your idea of wiring in a  pos and a neg directly to the battery that allows you to connect a charger is good.  I did the same on a kit car that sat in the garage for months on end and I used one of those intelligent float chargers that allows you to keep the charger permananently on,  this - in theory - is also good for the battery. 

However  I think you have another problem because, one day the battery is going to fail and charging it wont be of any use.  You need to suss out how to connect another battery to the tractor and the suggestion of using one of those "race"  (ha ha does it go faaaasssst !) connectors is good but may be unnecessary if you can get access to the starter motor ?  If you can, then  just jump lead to the solenoid, but beware of all the safety stuff and never ever connect the battery charger here or leave a jump lead clip unattended here, because if the croc clip slips and shorts the starter you could end up with the tractor starting in the middle of the night and if you left it in gear............................  [:'(]

Another problem with the Anderson style "race" connectors is you will need very thick cables (40mm2 min) and connecting these to the tractor battery is messy and difficult to do safely (easy on a race car with a tiny battery) and even then you might find that the losses are too great to crank the heavy diesel engine at a rate fast enough to start.   That said, these connectors if fitted to your tractor, turn it into a very useful tool for starting dead cars !