Battery tenders
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Junior User
Joined: Jul 2018
Posts: 92
Likes: 3
From: ANchorage
Battery tenders
My truck is likely to sit for weeks at a time in winter which I know is not ideal, but probably better for it than a daily 5 mile drive to/from work would be, especially in winter. I had a battery tender on my old truck that I would plug in to keep the battery topped off when I knew it was likely to sit for more than a week, but my new 2017 6.7 has dual batteries. My question is, are they isolated when the truck is off necessitating two tenders, or are the connected in parallel full time? I could go pull some cables and test it, but thought someone here might know offhand.
Senior User
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 471
Likes: 4
I had a Battery Tender plug attached to my old truck to the passenger side battery. Ran it just out the grill/hood. When it was going to sit I’d plug a tender into the plug and had no need to raise the hood, just place tender on hood so I see it and don’t drive off. If your truck sits outside they (Deltran®️ Battery Tender) makes a compact one that is water proof.
Junior User
Joined: Jun 2017
Posts: 78
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I dont understand why these trucks have such a high draw. I can't get a long weekend out of my truck at the airport without it being dead. Stealership just throws batteries at it and states doing a draw test would be on me since its not warrantied.
FTE Community Team
Joined: Mar 2017
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From: Florida
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Junior User
Joined: Jul 2018
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Same here, mine sits for a while and never any issue starting it.
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Laughing Gas
Joined: Dec 2005
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From: Seattle area
You could hook up an ammeter yourself to test the shutdown draw. Disconnect one battery + terminal and carefully set it aside (unconnected). Hook up ammeter between + terminal and cable on second battery. You'll want to hook up with alligator clips while the battery cable is still making contact, and then gently wiggle the battery cable off so the electrical path is then through the ammeter and power is never lost to the truck's electronics. If you just connect the ammeter to an open gap, you're gonna see a higher current from all the electronics powering back up (before they go back to sleep). See what the steady state draw settles down to. My bet is you have a bad BCM. Have you made mods with FORSCAN? You can actually cause this to happen if you adjust powerpoint timeouts and disable the BCP function. (Obviously not Ford's fault if that's the case)
Logistics Pro
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 4,334
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From: Mills River
Once the the problem is found and corrected, then it might be time to discuss who’s responsible.
HTH,
Jim / crewzer
Junior User
Joined: Jun 2017
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Trust me, the blank stare I gave that guy as he told me to that I would have to pay for the draw test was unreal. Going to try again with these jokers but they will not call me for at least a week and makes things tough to get to work. You would think in a city as big as Houston, you could find a dealer that could honor a appointment, a 30 second phone call with a reasonable amount of time and none of this nickle and dime nonsense.
Elder User
Joined: Jul 2017
Posts: 622
Likes: 6
From: Gladys, VA
I have the dual battery option on my 6.2L. It's not my DD so it sits a week or two before I get to take it out. Added the charger pigtail to the passenger side battery and plug in the BatteryMinder. Even though I have no doubt it would start I like both batteries to be topped off and desulfated.
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Mountain Pass
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 216
Likes: 0
This might not make a big difference on the truck batteries, but on an RV battery bank of multiple batteries in parallel (like the two batteries in our trucks) you should always charge with one lead on the first battery’s negative or positive and the other lead on the opposite pole of the last battery in parallel (in the case of our trucks just the second battery). So on the trucks I believe you should put a charger with one lead on the negative of one battery and the other on the positive of the other battery. It balances charging better.
Elder User
Joined: Mar 2017
Posts: 764
Likes: 30
hwheeler is indeed right.
The correct way to do a parallel battery charging system with a Battery Tender is to put the neg on one battery and the pos on the other battery.
Always go to the source for info! (open "+" comment #9)
Connecting Batteries & Chargers In Series & Parallel | Deltran Battery Tender
The correct way to do a parallel battery charging system with a Battery Tender is to put the neg on one battery and the pos on the other battery.
Always go to the source for info! (open "+" comment #9)
Connecting Batteries & Chargers In Series & Parallel | Deltran Battery Tender