Dan's stradale at FONE

If you are referring to bobafett - I believe Dan is currently in Spain. So they must be holding it for him till he gets back

 

Yeah, I saw his car in the parking lot as well. There was a huge pickup truck infront of it so not many people will see it. They also had an F50 inside which looked amazing.

 

I was there Fri. and Mon., saw it get driven in around closing time. Maybe it got dropped off during the weekend when the place was locked up. They are religious about squeezing cars in at night.

 

Yep - I'm in England and Lisa had an "issue" with the car on Saturday. The car double locked itself of its own accord whilst she was at a gas station. It would not respond to either key - she couldn't even open it with the key in the door!

This is an undocumented security feature in the event of a battery disconnect (or in our case low battery charge). FoNE are not sure why it happened, their tow guy (who was excellent according to Lisa) jimmyed the window and got in the car and it started right up with the key.

Understandably having been at the gas station for a couple of hours, Lisa wasn't especially keen for a repeat, so she had them bring it into Steve et al at FoNE for a checkup. We're expecting a new battery kind of fix.

We were in the UK for quite a while and its just been standing. Time to fit the trickle charger I didn't order the factory one since its best part of a thousand dollars. So Steve will be putting on the aftermarket one for about 200.

It was outside because it had been towed in when they were shut.

 

$200 for a Schumacher battery tender?!? Insanity. I wrote this a couple of years ago:
____________

The "Battery Tender" by Deltran, and sometimes marketed under other names, is intended exactly for this purpose -- to maintain the battery. I've used one on my motorcycles for several years, and the 348 and 355 as well with no problems. More info can be found here: http://www.batterytender.com/index2.html

It comes with two methods of attachment to your battery -- regular alligator clamps (like on jumper cables), or a connector where the ends terminate in metal o-rings (like a washer). Each method connects to the charger through a little plug-together connector. The o-ring connectors, intended for semi-permanent mounting, slip right through the bolts used to attach your terminals to your battery. Then simply tie down the length of the wire, until you have only the other connector poking out into the trunk. Thus, when you're in the garage, pop the lid, snap the two connectors together, and voila!

Alternatively, one can get a charger that attaches, piggyback style, to the battery (the most popular is manu. by Schumacher, and sometimes marketed as a "factory" charger, e.g. Ferrari); the 120v plug is located inside the car; you just have to connect an extension cord when needed.

Why do I consider the Deltran method better? Well, I'm presuming that the Schumacher is also a computer controlled charger like the Deltran. The primary advantage of the Deltran, in my mind, is that you don't have the charger sitting in the car -- only the wiring. Thus, (a) it's lighter, (b) you can use one charger for more than one vehicle if you alternate, (c) the wire coming out of the trunk is thinner and you can in fact close the lid with the wire dangling out, if you wanted to do so, you can put the cover over the car, (d) I guess if the car gets stolen, you didn't lose the charger as well, (e) if the circuit breaker (or whatever) inside the Schumacher fails, it melts INSIDE the car, right next to your battery; I'd prefer to have the thing melt down outside my car, not in it!!, and (f) another "clean" method of attaching a battery tender is to go to Radio Shack and buy a cigarette lighter adapter with a 9 foot cord attached. Then wire this into the "hard wire" connector kit, by removing the o-ring connectors and splicing in the cigarette adapter instead. No having to pop the hood anymore, just remove cigarette lighter and plug in, provided that the cigarette lighter is POWERED when the key is off.
_______

Do a froogle search; the best price appears to be $33.95.
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?sourceid=navclient&q=deltran+battery+tender&scoring=p

vty,

--Dennis

 

Actually my 200 number was a made up random no. A WAG as you'd put it

I haven't actually spoken to FoNE yet, but what I want them to do is put something in so that I (or Lisa) don't have to unscrew the footplate in the passenger footwell behind which the 360 battery is located.

This sounds like the Schumacher variety you describe - I'd have thought 50-80$ plus a bit of labour to fit would be between 100 and 200 $ ?

 

For what it is worth.. When I took delivery of my 360 Spider from FoNE back in 2002 they had installed an aftermarket battery tender "for free." They also threw in a car cover. I would lean on them for a "free" tender.

--Chris
PS. I realize (and they should too) that when you pay almost 200 grand for a car nothing is free.

 

That's the idea behind installing a Deltran - you can route the wire to wherever you'd like, or, instead, use the cigarette lighter adapter and it's easy as pie. The Schumacher requires it to "piggyback" onto the battery itself, then you have to route the wire out to somewhere (trunk?) where you can plug it in, methinks. On the 355, I wired the Deltran connector to the jump points under the right cover in the engine bay (nowhere near the battery in the front right bumper area). When I plug it in, I just pop the rear lid, and voila, plug in the charger. I can even close the lid and put a cover on the car.

vty,

--Dennis