Solar Trickle Charger via the Cab Diagnostic Port

[Greatdaen]

My tractor is used intermittently so I wanted to add a solar trickle charger to help keep the battery level up. I picked up one of the $20 units from horrible freight.
What I wanted to avoid was having to open the engine bay and attach alligator clips to the battery. And then have to reverse those steps every time I wanted to use the tractor. My solution was to attach to the battery via the diagnostic port in the cab.
Pin 1 is +12V
Pin 4 is Ground
Pins 2 & 3 are data (do NOT connect to these)
The connector is a TE (Tyco Electronics) 4-pin Circular Plastic Connector - I think it was P/N 206429-1 but it may need to be the opposite gender. Do your homework. You can get these for a few bucks. Ebay, Digikey, Newark Online.
I added this connector to my solar charger lead. I leave the charger behind the seat at the rear window. It doesn't seem to move around while using the tractor. When I park and shut down I just connect to the data port. I do not run the tractor with the charger connected. Although I doubt this would be problematic other than getting tangled in the lead.
This is a clean installation and because it is simple to attach, it gets used.

 

[reaperman]

It sounds like you accomplished your desire. Many of us open our rear door every time we start our machines to check the fluids. I admit getting alligator clips on the battery can be pain especially since the positive terminal is hard to access. But placing the alligator clip on the starter nut (also the positive battery cable) is a better option than trying to access the + terminal.