I'm about to throw some ham gear into my truck and the conventional thinking to supply the 12V DC is to go straight to the battery top post connectors. Newer (don't know starting when) vehicles have a Battery Monitoring System (BMS) which use an Electrical Load Detector (ELD) so the computer can know the battery's state of charge. Discharging from the battery posts directly without going through the ELD bamboozles the computer. This can be very bad if you have Auto-Start-Stop. It sounds less bad without Auto-Start-Stop.

I've been reading K0BG: Wiring & Grounding which I believe to be thoroughly credible. The ELD is installed in the battery's negative ground line. So,,, if I have an ELD I should wire my gear to the positive battery post and the battery's negative lead where it is grounded. If I don't have an ELD I'll just go to the battery's top connector.

My question is does my 2011 6.2L engine have an ELD or not??

 

I honestly don't know if there's Load Monitoring at the battery. However, I've been running ~1200 watts (peak) of aftermarket Audio Amps wired directly to the positive battery terminal with 2 AWG stranded cable. It's grounded to a single point on the chassis. It's been running for the past six months with no issues.

 

Thanks Righty. (Southpaw here.) I have been positive that wiring to the posts would work. The question is am I giving up something that I don't need to, e.g. "... more precise fuel-air adjustments for changing accessory loads (AC for example) ..." from the article I referred to. Will I get poorer fuel consumption? If I had Auto-Stop-Start then the then I'm sure I'd care. I'd hate for the engine to be turned off without sufficient battery power to restart the engine.

I'm trying to get past the 20th century!! Too bad can't do it without over-thinking.

 

By Auto-Stop-Start are you referring to the cars that shut down at stop lights to save fuel?

RWNJ

 

Yes. That is a driving force in changes to electrical systems.

 

It turns out that the ELD is in the main fuse box on the positive side of the house. Therefore having the negative lead at the battery's ground connection has no advantage. I will proceed to use the battery post connectors.

Thanks,,,

n4lbl