A dead battery this morning prompted another small electrical project. I have a Hotronics Battery Disconnect installed and once the switch is thrown everything in the truck is electrically dead except the clock. The clock only draws a few milliamps, but when the truck isn’t driven for a few weeks the draw is enough to significantly drain the battery.
If driven daily the truck will spark to life almost instantly. After several days of inactivity the process becomes challenging since modern gasoline evaporates from the fuel bowl leaving the carb empty. After repeated attempts this morning the battery finally gave up just as the engine wanted to light.
Rather than installing an electric fuel pump (which I don’t want) to help resolve the problem, I decided on an easier approach that was free. I put in a winter/summer switch to select the power source for the clock. I installed a double throw, double pole toggle switch in the location formerly occupied by the fog lamp switch:
One side of the toggle switch routes hot power from the battery disconnect and the other side provides power from the cold side of the ignition switch. On the winter setting the clock will stop when the master power is shut down, and require resetting each time the truck is used (the same as having a wind-up mechanical clock). In the months when the truck is driven regularly, a flip of the switch will restore constant power from the disconnect solenoid and keep the clock running continuously.
In previous years my solution was to disconnect the battery when the truck sat for an extended period. This proved somewhat inconvenient especially when I forgot to disconnect the cable and ended up with a dead battery.