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I'm doing a lot of long-term traveling and rturn to find the battery for my 98 civic DEAD. I coworker told me about a $25 trickle charger he uses for his Camry. My problem is that the 12v plug I have with the new trickle charger won't work. I think this is b/c the 12v accessory plug isn't connected to the battery when the car is off?

How can I switch this to make it live even when the key is out of the ignition???
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I'm leaving for another 3-week trip on Tuesday, so I'd like to make any mods over the weekend if possible.

Thanks in advance for any tech advice...

 
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buy a trickle charger that hooks directly to the battery. super cheap. and your electrical system is not at risk if the charger fries while you are gone. .

 
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You're best bet when going with a trickle charger is getting one that wires up directly to the battery itself in the engine bay. I believe they are called maintainers/sustainers. I used to work at a shop that sold ones that wired into the battery, and mounted under the hood, and then had a regular 120v Plug that you connected to an extention cord and then plugged the car into the wall outlet. Those ones were built for long-term storage type of applications, and I don't remember them costing all that much. Messing around with the ones that plugin to the 12v plug have always given me headaches, and sometimes dont have thick enough wires to back charge the battery properly. Hope this helps.

 
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Looks like I'm going back to the store to buy a different charger. Thanks for the help.

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if you want I can show you, i gotta switch mine over since home charger is a POS for the cell and my car one only works when the car is on.
I have a 2k1 but its a universal process. Basicaly run a constant 12 to the fuse box from the battery or fusebox under the hood, fuse it to the number of guage wire you use so that you dont burn the wiring,run the wire to the cig plug then just cut the old 12v ( not the ground ) and tap in. And your done you can prob just take a constant 12v from the fuse box inside without running new wires but the safe way is to run new wiring.