MTFCA Forum

Good thing the Model T is Negative ground so you don't have to reverse the polarity of the socket you put on the car. I have added a cigarette lighter socket to my T to power my Garmin.

I've done the same in one of my T's and plan to do the same in the two others.

What kind of cell phone will not hold a day's charge? Mine is not that new, but it lasts me 2, sometimes 3 days before needing a charge at home.

Allan from down under.

Allan, the answer to your question lies not in the kind of cell phone, but in the circumstances of a Model T tour.

A cell phone, when it's just lying there or sitting in your pocket, is in constant communication with the closest tower. The stream of data going back and forth is automatic, and it's significant. You don't even know it's going on, until a message arrives and the human-interface portion of the phone is activated (the screen lights up and the bell rings).

When you're moving, each time you move from one tower to another tower the phone has to go through a complicated re-establishment routine. And, if you're in a place with no service or weak service, the phone "scrambles" to find service - sending out streams of "hellos." All this takes power!

As you can imagine, this is pretty easy for your phone when you're driving down an Interstate highway, with cell towers liberally sprinkled all along the route. That's what it was designed to do easily.

But, think of a Model T tour. You're on roads that have few towers, if any, and you're moving around. That means your phone is constantly searching for service, and often finds none. But it keeps searching. That takes the maximum amount of power the battery can put out. The very best you can ask for under those circumstances is very limited battery life.

There are two 'fixes' for this problem. One is to plug the phone in to a power source, as seen in this video. The other, simpler answer is to keep the phone turned OFF until you need it for some reason. This can give some folks the heeby-jeebies, because the idea of being without instant communication just doesn't feel safe these days. And of course, if you're using the phone as a GPS, you're taxing its capabilities to the max!

I hope this answers your question, though.

I wasn't sure my phone and Garmin would charge on six volts, so I installed 6-12 volt converters for those. It's nice to know I didn't have to do that.

Using navigation or speedo app zaps the battery pretty fast on my phone. I think I may install a charger if it will charge on 6 volt. Momma will be happy to.

Thank you Peter. My phone and I must live in a different world.

Allan from down under.