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I posted this in the Super Duty forum too. Should have just posted here. Anyway. I want to recommend a solar powered battery maintainer to a buddy of mine with one of these trucks. He has a parasitic draw that I'm trying to help him with, but I'm in CA and he's in rural TX. Maybe he can find the draw, but as insurance, I think a battery maintainer would be useful. He's off grid and only uses the truck occasionally. Any suggestions? Can he plug in to the 12v receptacle? If it needs to be on a battery, can it be just one?
Everyone I know got a 25% off coupon for Harbor Freight for this weekend, use that and get the solar panel kit, plugs onto your battery and will charge both even on cloudy days: https://www.harborfreight.com/100-wa...kit-63585.html
The tender only needs to be physically hooked up to one battery as they are wired together to act as one, single large battery. As long as the wiring between the batteries is in serviceable condition.
Small world. I put that exact solar setup on my 5th wheel kingpin and wired it into the junction box in it where the 12v lead from the 7 pin branches off to the battery
Panel and charger
Panel installed on kingpin
Before mounting the controller up under the kingpin where it's visible by just looking up
All charged up, no more worries about the gas detector, auto level, LP tank selector and other accessories' parasitic draws draining the battery again
Small world. I put that exact solar setup on my 5th wheel kingpin and wired it into the junction box in it where the 12v lead from the 7 pin branches off to the battery
Panel and charger
Panel installed on kingpin
Before mounting the controller up under the kingpin where it's visible by just looking up
All charged up, no more worries about the gas detector, auto level, LP tank selector and other accessories' parasitic draws draining the battery again
It could be I guess, since it's tied into the 7 pin junction, but since it's pretty much always topped off when I hook up I don't worry about it's trickle back feeding to the truck's AGMs
How large of a parasitic draw is he seeing on his system and is he letting the GEM go to sleep before testing? The PCM alone will draw 60 mA.
Alternatively he could just drop the negatives off the batteries if it's a seldom used vehicle and that would drop the parasitic draw down to 0. At a 5% or so self-discharge rate the batteries could sit for quite awhile.
Can the panel just be set on the dash inside the truck and plugged into the power outlet? If it has to be outside the truck I could see some hassle with it.
Brandonpdx, yes... There are panels specifically designed to be hooked up just like that. The only issue is if the only real considerations with having the panel on the interior of the vehicle is window tint or obstructions like snow, trees, etc.
