Hello Everyone,
I am a new Radical Owner and discovered this Forum after not getting an answer from the dealer.
I purchased my new SR3 a few months ago and am glad there are knowledgeable Radical Owners that might be able to help.
I am new to Radicals so please be patient with my description of my question as there must be an easy answer that eludes me so far.
I have the Silver Box that supposed to charge the starter battery in the side pod but I am not sure what to plug in where to power up the silver box and charge the battery. I was told by dealer rep that I use the cable provided for the fuel pump out procedure (which works great) and hook it up to a battery or charger but neither dealer nor manual did give instructions where to plug it in exactly to power the Silver Box. I read the few posts by CharleyH and looked at the diagram but still could not figure it out.
I located two plugs near the silver box that would accept the "charging cable" plug. All of them have "12 Volt Outlet" written on them. All of them are without power unless Master Switch is on but if I turn Master on the Polarity is reversed if I go by the cable used for the Pump Out Procedure and I do not want to plug Charging Cable in any 12 Volt Outlet Cable and hook up to a Charger or Battery to check if Power comes on at Silver Box unless I know that this is the proper plug.
Sorry for the confusing description but I cannot find any information on which plug powers this Silver Box and thought I ask first before doing so as I got nowhere with dealer after many attempts as they told me they just don't know?
I also assume there is no charging setup on the main battery in the engine compartment and I just run a pigtail/Anderson Plug to it to charge this one if needed.
I probably have many more questions as I am getting familiar with this car and now know where to ask and want to thank everyone in advance for any insight and help.
As a last note because this is a Radical Forum I have to praise Radical and especially the SR3 as this is the one I have. I have race cars from Superkarts to LMP2 cars and the speed of the SR3 surprised even friends of mine who are very experienced racers. Hats off to Radical. If you can master this car it can be faster than some very expensive high hp race cars on certain tracks.
Frank
Hi Frank (@2020sr3), Welcome and congratulations on the new car! What chassis number did you get? Is it in the Registry yet?
I am very surprised that the dealer you are working with couldn't answer this question but there are plenty of people here that can yelp. The way the charging system works is that the battery in the back of the car is charged by the engine driven alternator and the battery in the side pod is charged by the silver box that you noted. Any time the master switch is on the silver box is powered and is charging the battery in the side pod. So you don't have to do anything else to charge it. some cars also have an Anderson plug (or two in the case of the 24v cars) on the side of the car that can be used to attach a trickle charger or to jump the batteries.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Charley
Hi Charley,
Thanks for the quick reply. Your explanation makes things clear now. I was looking for the imaginary plug that obviously does not exist. Dealer otherwise is very helpful and easy to deal with and I guess I just asked a question nobody ever asked them. Maybe they looked for the imaginary plug also after I asked them how to trickle charge starter battery as that is what I thought the silver box is designed for after reading the manual. I guess Radical wanted to make the car customer friendly and automate the process which is a welcome surprise compared to my other race cars. Just will add two pigtails in case of need to trickle charge batteries like you suggested.
I appreciate all your info on this forum. It helps tremendously with maintenance & understanding the car as the manual is fairly limited and I plan to keep the car for a long time.
I am pretty sure I run into more issues I need help on in the future now that I know who to ask.
The car is Serial#01231. I did not post any info in the Registry yet.
Thanks,
Frank
@2020sr3, I am happy to help.
Your car isn't in the Registry yet, so if you have a chance please add it using this link. https://radicalsportscarregistry.com/add-car-to-registry/. Or id it is easier you can email me pictures and any information you have on the car such as engine size, options, location, etc. and I will be happy to add it for you.
Charley
Will do as soon as I get a chance to take pics.
Thx
