Auxiliary Battery Charging

Hi from a nearly newbie here. At the moment I have a 2010 Jaguar XF V6 (Petrol) but will very shortly have a 2015 Outlander PHEV GX4H. I have two questions which I hope someone can help me with.

The Jaguar other being very thirsty its systems had a big drain on the batteries and, in the winter particularly, It had to be contacted every week to an CTEK smart charger. From my limited research I won't have to do this anymore. However before the charger disappears into the garage could I use the charger on the auxiliary battery if it ever get fully discharged and if so do I just attach it the battery terminals in the boot?

I used the Jaguar to tow a small (1250kg) caravan and will now of course use the Outlander. Unfortunately I don't get the car till next week once the towbar is fitted and go away with the caravan on a 200 mile round trip at the end of the week so no chances of a try out before hand. It looks it would be best until I know the car better to start off in the 'normal' mode and then switch on the 'charge' mode and leave that on until near the end of the journey when I should turn off the 'charge' mode is that correct or does anyone have some other better advice? I'm not sure if I will able to charge at my destination yet!

I'm sure once I have the car I will have other questions but in the meantime many thanks for any help which will be much appreciated.

Regards Mummylula

My understanding is that the aux battery is charged from the main battery whilst the car is running. It also charges once a day from the main battery if the car is not used.

We plug ours in every night, well on every return home actually and, indeed, leave it plugged in even if not used, so the aux battery will be maintained fully.

As to towing, sorry I don't so can't offer any advice, however, for longer journeys I let the car do its thing until on the motorway and then select save with about half a battery left which gives EV running at our destination. This maximises the petrol engine running whilst maintaining the battery as necessary but not, in my opinion, wasting fuel charging the battery unnecessarily. On our return I do the same if possible and cancelling save to run the battery out on the last few miles to home and plug it back in. Other than that we just drive it! We never charge whilst away from home as the costs are horrendous now!

We only use the 'brake' paddles for long downhill descents.

Hope that helps.

You certainly could use the CTEK to charge the auxiliary battery if it ever needed it, but you would have to be doing something very strange, or have a faulty car, in order to need it.

Hi and thanks for the replies maybe its time to ditch the charger and maybe sell it on good old fleebay!

As to the question on towing still trying to find as much as I can but I might put it on a different discussion or on another Forum.