Marinco mod
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Marinco mod
Hey all,
I installed the Marinco mod a few years back on my 2001f250 SD. It is working great. Question, can I run a small battery tender into the back of the Marinco plug as well? The really cold temps here in Wisconsin are really hard on my batteries.
Any help/advise is much appreciated.
Cameron
I installed the Marinco mod a few years back on my 2001f250 SD. It is working great. Question, can I run a small battery tender into the back of the Marinco plug as well? The really cold temps here in Wisconsin are really hard on my batteries.
Any help/advise is much appreciated.
Cameron
Tuned
Joined: Jul 2015
Posts: 286
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I don't see why you couldn't run an onboard tender right off the Marinco. Neither the heater, nor the tender will take that much power, so the supply cord and the plug should be able to handle it easily. I have an onboard on one of my vehicles and it works quite well.
You'll need to run a line to each battery and not just to one. Otherwise the one being charged will get overcharged and the other will be undercharged. The overcharged one will off-gas cause lots of localized corrosion. I just "y'd" my tender output to each battery. It works great.
You'll need to run a line to each battery and not just to one. Otherwise the one being charged will get overcharged and the other will be undercharged. The overcharged one will off-gas cause lots of localized corrosion. I just "y'd" my tender output to each battery. It works great.
Last edited by U9000; Feb 21, 2019 at 04:48 PM. Reason: adding info
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Thanks for the responses.
So I have one for yes and one for no. I guess I need to figure out what the draw for each would be. While I am wanting to run only one extension cord outside, but if the amperage is too high, it will have to be two.
Thanks again!
Thanks again!
Lead Driver
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 7,092
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From: San Diego, CA
I second DND58's recommendation. I am OCD when it comes to things like that and would have a plug just for that function.
Depending on the amperage you could run one cord to the truck and then put a multi-plug on the end of it and have two short cords (one to each plug).
Just my .02
Depending on the amperage you could run one cord to the truck and then put a multi-plug on the end of it and have two short cords (one to each plug).
Just my .02
Tuned
Joined: Sep 2006
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From: Southwest WA
...........................................You'll need to run a line to each battery and not just to one. Otherwise the one being charged will get overcharged and the other will be undercharged. The overcharged one will off-gas cause lots of localized corrosion. I just "y'd" my tender output to each battery. It works great.
I have had a Battery Minder Plus "permanently" wired to the driver side battery for many years and have not noticed any problems so far (Just went out to measure the voltage on each battery and they both have 13.62V while still plugged in).
The two batteries are connected with a pretty big factory cables and I am wondering (as long as the battery terminals are maintained and in good condition), how addition of separate relatively tiny battery minder charging wire to the passenger side battery would help?
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Tuned
Joined: Jul 2015
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You're running the charge into one battery, then back out of it and off to the second battery. While I know the electrical connection is a solid link between the tender and the second battery, the first battery is shouldering the load of the second one being charged. Both my 250's had gassing issues when I had the tender hooked to only one battery and now neither have gassing issues when the tender is hooked directly to both batteries.
Look here: Connecting Batteries & Chargers In Series & Parallel | Deltran Battery Tender at 2 batteries in parallel and 1 charger. My pigtail setup is essentially doing the same as this.
As far as the wattage and amperage issue, the tender is at most 4 amps, with most being 1.25 amps. The block heater on most of the trucks is 875 watts, so that is between 7 and 8 amps. So the most you'll see is 11 or 12 amps at full charge with the biggest tender. Don't worry about doing it with 1 extension cord, as long as the cord is rated for 15 amps or higher.
Look here: Connecting Batteries & Chargers In Series & Parallel | Deltran Battery Tender at 2 batteries in parallel and 1 charger. My pigtail setup is essentially doing the same as this.
As far as the wattage and amperage issue, the tender is at most 4 amps, with most being 1.25 amps. The block heater on most of the trucks is 875 watts, so that is between 7 and 8 amps. So the most you'll see is 11 or 12 amps at full charge with the biggest tender. Don't worry about doing it with 1 extension cord, as long as the cord is rated for 15 amps or higher.
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A lot of good discussion here. I'd just like to add a thought: Do you see a situation where you'd want to plug in just the tender (without the block heater) or just the block heater (without the tender)? If so then you'd want to use a separate Marinco for each to make the choice easy.
The only logical reason I can think of to separate the two would be to conserve electricity. Say the truck is going to be parked for a week in super cold weather. Maybe you don't want to pump 875 watts into the block warmer the whole time, but do want to keep the tender going. Then at the end of this freezing slumber, you want to plug in the warmer so you can use it the next day, you wouldn't want to have to crawl under or open the hood etc. to reconnect wires.
Maybe the same concern is solved by having inline switches exposed somewhere easy . . . ?
Just a thought.
The only logical reason I can think of to separate the two would be to conserve electricity. Say the truck is going to be parked for a week in super cold weather. Maybe you don't want to pump 875 watts into the block warmer the whole time, but do want to keep the tender going. Then at the end of this freezing slumber, you want to plug in the warmer so you can use it the next day, you wouldn't want to have to crawl under or open the hood etc. to reconnect wires.
Maybe the same concern is solved by having inline switches exposed somewhere easy . . . ?
Just a thought.
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