Same here. They work just fine! Leaky batteries have been replaces since this pic...

 

We just used an 18" pigtail that would break away. I never got how guys could drive off with the cord connected, it plugged in right under the drivers door and above the running board. It was different on the squads because they connected on the back of the box.

 

So the 2D chargers came in today. The NOCO GCP1E plug came in yesterday. I got the battery charger installed and drilled the hole for the NOCO plug in my bumper and got it all together. As soon as I plugged it in the charger started pulsing red... according the the instructions, that indicates that the charge is below 75%, how much I don't know... Also, before I got it all hooked up I added a fair bit of distilled water to most of the cells on each battery. I brought the level all the way up to the bottom of the holes. (I guess I should have got it charged up before adding the water... I'll check it all again in the morning and see what it looks like...) Also, for tonight I did just hook the terminals to the hold down bolts but I think I am still going to drill the positive side out and use a stainless nut and bolt and then connect them to those... I wonder what kind of metal those hold down bolts are and since they are black, and I wonder how good the actual connection is... Anyway, I sure do hope the little charger is green in the morning!

Oh, and by the way, does anyone know what side those bolts are on the negative terminal? Are they an M8? They cheated out on even putting a nut on their so I will need to pick one up if I don't have one...

 

I know it's often not done this way, and it basically works to connect to just one but to charge batteries in parallel ideally you connect your charger across the system rather than across just one of the batteries. This way the charger "sees" the average state of both batteries and switches modes appropriately, rather than seeing just one while the other is parasitic. So you'd extend one of your charger's leads so the negative connects to one battery, and the positive connects to the other. For you this would also mean you don't need to add a post anywhere, but you would need to extend one of the charger's leads.

 

So, I got up this morning and checked the charger… it’s still blinking red (which indicates it’s below 75% charged)… it’s been plugged up for over 12 hours now and I really expected it to be green by this morning. I grabbed my meter and checked the voltage at the terminals and it was 12.44V (which should be a little over 80%). So I checked the voltage at the bolts the charger is connected too and it was all over the place. I am going to go ahead and drill that hole this morning and install a stainless screw and connect to the actual terminals to see if that makes a difference. I’ll report back later!

 

The voltage is going to swing when the charger is connected, it pulses.

 

A smaller one-two amp model is going to take some time to bring a low battery back up to spec. They work fine on a good battery to keep them topped up. Here is the one I use and it does well on these larger trucks.

 

Ok... so I went and picked up some M6 bolts and wing nuts. I got the hole drilled in the positive terminal on the drivers side and got the bolt installed and then hooked the charger back up to the bolts on the positive and negative terminals. Plugged it back in.... and it still pulses red. Ok... so I disconnected it and got my meter out. The battery terminals at the post measured 12.6V. I then checked the passenger side battery... 12.6V. Then I checked using the negative from one battery and the positive from the other... 12.6V. Then I waited about 10 minutes. Left the hood up, the charger disconnected and the keys inside so the proximity thing didn't wake anything up. Then I got 12.58V checking all 3 ways I did earlier. I know using a meter is definitive, but it sure does give the illusion that the battery is pretty close to fully charged and not below 75%, at least according to the voltage...

So, I plugged the charger back in. Still pulsing red. So I grabbed a piece of 14 gauge wire and extended the negative lead on the charger so I could use the negative terminal on one battery and the positive on the other... it still blinked red, indicating it is below 75%...

I bought 2 of these, planning to install one on each of our cars. So, I opened the second and did the same thing. I used + and - from one battery, it pulsed red. I used the + and _ from the other battery, and it pulsed red. Then I used the piece of wire to extend the negative lead again and used both batteries... still pulsing red. Now, this was only for about 15 or 20 seconds I touched the leads to the battery terminals, which gave it enough time to cycle on, analyze and start to do its thing.

So I went back to the original plan, just using the battery on the drivers side and plugged it back in. After about 5 minutes I noticed the voltage at the terminals was read 13.05V. I used an ammeter and there was 1.93A coming from the charger going into the battery. I also checked the positive lead coming from the truck going into the battery and it was measuring 1.5A... so I assume this was simply sending the charge across the system to the passenger side battery too. I see that when the truck is running the voltage is reading up to 14.7V according to the iDash ECU battery voltage reading, but I will keep checking it to see how high it gets.

For now, I left it plugged in. Like I mentioned earlier, I did add a bit of distilled water to most of the cells on both batteries yesterday afternoon to bring the water up to the bottom of the holes (fish eyes). Maybe since I added the water the charger is reading the voltage as low? I don't know... I will tinker with it more this weekend and see if it changes, but if it's still pulsing red by Monday I will call and talk with NOCO.

Also, the hall sensor is on the passenger side battery, and this is connected on the driver side, so it is bypassing the hall sensor. I don't know if lead from the battery charger should be going through the hall sensor too? I don't know... it seems like I read something about this somewhere else. I don't see how it would matter though since the charger should simply be monitoring the battery and tending to them, but maybe I am wrong?

 

Ideally the negative charging cable should go to body ground upstream of the hall sensor. That way the truck reads the actual battery voltage and doesn't get confused by the higher voltage output of the charger when connected directly to the battery.

 

Yeah I understand how the hall sensor works, but being that the charger is (ideally) only occasionally used, and has its own brain I didn’t figure the truck needed to know. The truck can’t stop the charger from functioning, and the charger should simply be reading the voltage from the trucks batteries and making corrections based off of that reading. I could be wrong but I am assuming that the truck and the charger are doing their own thing and can’t really do anything about the other, which is why I haven’t run the charge lead through the sensor.

There is a hall sensor in the EMS in my camper, but the EMS controls the electricity coming through the sensor based off of the hall sensors readings. Same way as the shunt at the batteries in my camper, it’s controlled by the rest of the Victron system. But even if I ran the charge lead from the charger through the hall sensor on my truck, the truck couldn’t actually do anything about it since the truck and the charger use their own “brains” (for lack of a better word… lol). Or can it? Does the truck actually need to know that the batteries are being charged/maintained when it’s not running? And if so, why?

 

Have you measured the resistance between the battery terminal wedge tightening bolt that you are using, and the battery post itself?
Nevermind... I started this question well over an hour or two ago, and during that time, you reported abandoning the wedge tightening bolt and drilled a hole directly into the battery terminal raised boss, it sounds like.
Nevertheless... I do recommend anyone else using the plastic wedge tightening bolt to measure the resistance between it and the battery terminal.

The question below still stands... only because I haven't quite grasped all that you have done most recently:
Are you leaving both batteries connected to the truck, while charging with a Noco 2D 2 amp trickle charger?

 

Yes, both batteries are still connected to the truck. The whole reason that I started this was because I fear that my batteries aren't staying maintained well, for 3 reasons:

1. I have a dash cam that uses parking mode (it is now disabled though).
2. My daily drives each day are very short. 3.5 miles, and about 5 minutes at best each way.
3. Cold weather has hit...

I noticed that my drivers side mirror started having issues opening occasionally, and it seems to open slower than it used too, particularly when the truck was off. So I checked the battery voltage a few times and noticed once it was 11.8V and other times it was in the low 12's. This is when I disabled the parking mode on the dash cam so it wouldn't draw any power when the truck was off, but even still the voltage was reading low when the truck was off. So I figured I would simply get a battery charger/maintainer to keep on the truck and see if that helped. It seems that these batteries on the Super Duties don't have the best record, but I am trying to figure out if between my short drives and the dash cam parking mode enabled, if this was sun demanding to much from the batteries and I wasn't giving it enough back. Or, are the batteries just (going) bad?

I like the idea of having a battery charger "permanently" mounted with the plug on the front of the truck for ease of use.

My issue now is why does the battery charger think that the batteries are "below 75%" when my meter reads that they are almost full. I've tried 2 different NOCO 2D chargers and get the same results, so I don't believe the chargers themselves are bad. Maybe the charger is reacting this way because the batteries are still connected to the truck? If this is the case, what's the point in having a battery charger that attaches the way this one does?

EDIT TO ADD:

So I just went and installed the second NOCO 2D on my wires car. Before installing it I checked the voltage... 12.65V. Not surprised as she drove about 4 hours last night and the batteries are only a few weeks old. Hooked up the 2D... and it started pulsing red, which again, indicates it is "below 75% charged."

So I don't know... it's doing the same thing on her car that it's doing on my truck. And yes, both vehicles still have the batteries connected to the vehicles...

 

Ah, this means that you are trying to charge one (1) big ginormous battery (same voltage, double the current capacity in amp hours) with your little 1.75 amp trickle charger.

Yes. By both batteries being connected to the truck, both batteries are connected in parallel to each other, making it one huge swimming pool that you are trying to refill with a small syringe. The water evaporates almost as fast as your little syringe can refill it.

Because the Noco 2D is not a battery charger. It is merely a battery maintainer. Your batteries need to be charged first, in order for the maintainer to maintain a state of charge. There isn't enough current output capacity in your 2D to match the current demand of two batteries in parallel, combined with the parasitic loads of the truck's computers and modules phoning home and doing their thing.

Get a real battery charger, and charge up your batteries, individually, and disconnected from the truck. Then your 2D will be of use in maintaining that state of charge.

A real battery charger should be sized to approximately 40% of the amp hour rating of the battery.

You would be better served getting at least a 23 amp rated smart charger, and charging each battery individually, in situ, but with both truck leads disconnected.

The BXT-65-750 battery has a 140 minute Reserve Capacity rating, according to Motorcraft. The amp hour rating of this battery isn't published, but that isn't a problem, because we can roughly calculate it from the Reserve Minute capacity.

Reserve Minute capacity is determined by applying a 25 Ampere sustained load at 80° F (27°C) until voltage drops to 1.75 volts per cell, which in a 6 cell 12 volt battery amounts to 10.50V battery voltage.

A unit of charge, or a coulomb, is 1 amp x 1 second, so we need to convert the 140 Reserve Capacity Minutes into seconds by multiplying the minutes by 60 seconds in a minute. 140 x 60 = 8,400 seconds.

Next, we multiply these 8,400 seconds by the current rating used to determine the Reservice Capacity (25 amps). 8,400 x 25 = 210,000 coulombs, or units of charge.

One hour is 60 minutes, each containing 60 seconds. 60 x 60 = 3,600 coulombs per amp hour. Divide 210,000 coulombs by 3,600 coulombs per amp hour = 58.33333 amp hour rating for one BXT-65-750.

However, you've complicated matters by charging both batteries together in parallel, so the voltage remains the same but the current capacity doubles. 58.33333 x 2 = 116.6666 amp hour rated big azz battery.

Applying the battery charger rule of thumb of 40% of the amp hour rating of the battery, you need a 46.66 amp charger.... or a 50 amp battery charger. The big roll around box kind found in truck service centers.

But you can easily cut that requirement in half by simply charging up one battery at a time. 58.33 amp hour rating x 40% is 23.33 amps. So a 25 amp rated battery charger will do the trick.

I use a CTEK Multi US 25000 eight stage smart charger. It is rated at 25 amps.

If you like the NOCO brand, and are already invested in NOCO interconnects and trinkets, then consider NOCO's Genius Pro 25, which is also a 25 amp battery charger.

Once your batteries are charged up, then your little NOCO 2D will be able to maintain them from natural self discharge, while keep up with parasitic loads imposed by the truck.

 

For now, I left it plugged in. Like I mentioned earlier, I did add a bit of distilled water to most of the cells on both batteries yesterday afternoon to bring the water up to the bottom of the holes (fish eyes). Maybe since I added the water the charger is reading the voltage as low? I don't know... I will tinker with it more this weekend and see if it changes, but if it's still pulsing red by Monday I will call and talk with NOCO.



Not sure how full you filled your batteries, are you calling the fish eyes the fill well?

 

@Y2KW57 thanks for the response! I appreciate your help! I will admit, this is a little over my head here, but I will try to respond...

I do understand that I am charging/maintaining a larger battery since there are actually 2 batteries in parallel.

I think one thing I did not take into consideration was the parasitic draw eating up some of the "charge" being sent to the batteries from the NOCO. In my mind, the (quick) way I was hoping this would work is that first off my batteries wouldn't actually be as low as I hope they're not. But then, at night when I plugged it in, the 12 hours or so that it was plugged in would get it back to basically "full."

Routinely, my daily drives are quick, like I mentioned already. However, on occasion I do take longer trips... sometimes to complete a regen (which I need to do now) and other times just because... For the past 12 years I have been driving the same way daily, but this is the only vehicle that I may be having issues with the batteries staying charged. However, I do realize that this truck also has a much higher demand than the last (very basic) vehicle I had... so this has me trying to figure out:

1. Are the batteries on my truck just bad? It's not unheard of...
OR
2. Are my driving habits not enough to provide the batteries with enough power to keep the batteries good based on what they demand?

Do others have issues with keeping batteries "good" when routinely driving such short miles every day? Is this an actual thing, or have I thought of something that isn't actually a problem?

Also, while I do understand that I am using a very small "charger" to "maintain" a fairly large battery bank, what I do not understand is that my meter is reading a "topped off" charge voltage, while the NOCO device itself is reporting that it is reading the charge as "less than 75%." These are 2 pretty drastically different readings, and is what is feeding my concerns now...

I do understand that simply throwing a meter on a battery (especially while still hooked up) can be misleading, but is it this misleading? Or is is more complicated in that the NOCO charger is smarter and is reading something completely different?

Maybe my best option now is to just have the batteries load tested?

The truck still cranks just fine. Nothing is giving me any indication that the batteries are "low" other than the slow mirror opening, and the few times I noticed the SYNC3 screen saying something about low power mode or something when getting in and cranking it up (although I never received a "deep sleep" notification on my FordPass app).

My initial thought process wasn't to "charge" the batteries since I was hoping that the batteries weren't to the point that they needed real charging. I was hopping that they simply needed a little extra "maintaining" when the truck was shut down, but maybe my batteries aren't benefiting from even this 2 amp battery charger/maintainer? At this point I am not really invested in the NOCO stuff as all I have is a GB150 jump pack and now these 2D chargers, which are all one piece and not able to accept add on parts. But, I do like the NOCO stuff... Maybe you are right though... maybe I need something more... although, this brings me back to, why? Again, is it because of bad batteries, or am I just using my batteries more than I am recharging them? I guess if that is the case, then I do need something more?

I will say (again) too that I like that I can bolt these down and have it set up to use the plug on the front of the truck... no need to pop the hood. I wonder if one of the larger chargers can do the same? I guess I will need to check it out. Until then though, I just need to figure out if my batteries are good or not.

Also, what kind of effect does adding (distilled) water have on the charging status? Could this have any sort of effect on how the charger is reading the voltage? Here's a photo of how much water I used from the gallon just to top the cells off...