2015 f150 problem

[psw757]

Hi
On maiden voyage with f150 toad and it goes great however had a dead battery even though I have a 15 amp charge line installed. Indicator light is flashing telling me it is putting out power. It is the rvi brake and charge line. Everything in truck is off, radio, climate, lights. Any suggestions?

Tail lights are diodes and I don't even think aux brake was applied the entire trip .

I have a week to figure it out for the return, annoying!

[BFlinn181]

I think the flashing light just indicates it's connected, it doesn't guarantee it's working at it's 15 amp maximum. I'd check amperage draw when you have everything off as you say you did. Something is demanding a lot more power than you think to kill the battery in a day's driving.

You might want to put a battery cut-off switch on the battery terminal and run a separate wire to a power outlet for the brake system.

[Ranger Smith]

According to the manual it is charging when flashing. I'd connect it to the motor home and start the motor home and check the battery on the ford to see if there is charge voltage there.

Maybe a call to RVi support can help you figure it out and they can tell you exactly how to test it.

[SuperGewl]

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Need more information on your Charge line, what type it is and how exactly it is hooked up?

[BFlinn181]

The "15 amp charge line installed" what we need explained. If it is truly conducting 15 amps of charging voltage, the battery wouldn't go flat unless you left high current draw items on in the toad. (rear window defroster?) Is '15 amp charge line' the capacity of the fuse on little box with the blinking LED? A 15 amp fuse is the highest capacity the circuit can handle, not the actual charging rate. If the two batteries are 15' apart or more, the minimum wire size for 12v 15 amps would be #14 or #12.

Climbing on my soapbox, I find these 'toad-charging' devices to be a deceiving, superfluous item at best, a fraud designed to remove cash from your pocket because folks don't understand the 'magic smoke' of electricity and batteries. Think about it, your RV has an engine mounted charging system, the alternator and voltage regulator that are connected to multiple batteries in the RV and charges all of them without the little boxes with blinking LEDs. The voltage regulator manages the output of the alternator to generate only the energy needed by the vehicle and batteries. Batteries only accept a charge when they have capacity for the charge, their internal resistance rejects excess charging. Now add another battery to the system, in your toad, and nothing has changed. Argument can be made that overcharging will boil a battery and damage it, but that only happens when long term overcharging happens, a condition not produced by a properly operating voltage regulator and alternator. During the seconds you engage the starter, a high current draw from the starter will pull energy from whatever batteries are connected, perhaps causing the battery in the toad to send dangerously high amperage through the small gauge wires back into the RV. There are two ways to prevent that. One, put a large diode in the circuit (my guess as to what's sealed in the little black box 'charger') to stop the flow of electricity back up the charge wire to the RV. Second way would be to install a 10-20 amp auto reset circuit breaker in the wire. If too much current tried to flow through the circuit, the breaker would open. In a short time, the CB would close and all would be right with the hook up again. Cost of the auto reset breaker, $6. Cost of the "toad charger" $50. The name 'charger' is the fraud, a charger actually creates a current that adds energy to a battery. The little box only passes power through from the RV circuit to the toad battery. Folks have said, "I like the blinking LED to tell me it's working." Radio Shack has $3 blinking LEDs, you could even install it where you could see it, instead of under the hood of the toad. Off my soapbox.

As I said in my first post, the LED blinks when it gets electricity, it doesn't indicate that the connection is sufficient to pass 15 amps of charging voltage. (+13.9 v) With distance and multiple connections between the two systems, I'd suspect there's resistance causing a voltage drop and you're getting the threshold voltage needed to blink the LED, but insufficient voltage to charge the battery.

[psw757]

I will have to dig into this some more, planning on calling rvi today.

Some more specific details of what I experienced. I'm assuming battery was dead however, the lights inside and exterior all worked and the audible alarm and msg on display all worked. The only thing that wouldn't work was the ign button and had a solid green light in it. I would get the communication lost msg on my brake monitor and lights on brake itself were out.

Just seems odd to me, im trying to figure out what else could be drawing power. What outlet are you using for power? There are three in mine up front.

I think there is a warning note in manual to not disconnect battery.

[Randyman1]

[walt2137]

Originally Posted by psw757

I will have to dig into this some more, planning on calling rvi today.

Some more specific details of what I experienced. I'm assuming battery was dead however, the lights inside and exterior all worked and the audible alarm and msg on display all worked. The only thing that wouldn't work was the ign button and had a solid green light in it. I would get the communication lost msg on my brake monitor and lights on brake itself were out.

Just seems odd to me, im trying to figure out what else could be drawing power. What outlet are you using for power? There are three in mine up front.

I think there is a warning note in manual to not disconnect battery.

PSW I don't know about the 2015 F150 but the 13 F150 has a warning in the owners manual that a dead battery could cause the truck to shift out of tow mode.

[psw757]

Rvi had me plug the brake in to see if compressor was running more than normal indicating a leak and would put a high draw on battery. I eliminated that potential issue.

I checked the power coming from the coach and it was good. 12.5-13v.

The only other thing I can think of is what outlet in the f150 stays hot all the time? I've read about certain ones being on a one hour delayed timer.

I have 3 up front in lariat. One on dash, one in center console and one in front of shifter in the bin with sliding lid. Maybe my power is turning off to brake? Just not sure what effect this would have on the ign button being steady green and not working though.

I'm stumped!

[luvlabs]

Your voltage coming from the motorhome is too low. Did you measure this with the MH engine running or just the batteries? I use a ToadCharge and it does not pass a voltage to the car battery unless the voltage from the motorhome is in the normal charge voltage range - 13.8 - 14.2 volts. I don't know if the RVi brake controller works that way or not - ask RVi.

If your MH voltage output is what you say it is with the engine running, the gauge of the wiring is too small. You should be using 10 ga wire for this circuit.

[BFlinn181]

I agree with luvlabs, 12.5-13v won't charge a 12v battery. At least 13.8v is considered a charging voltage, anything less will prolong the period before it goes dead, but it won't overcome internal resistance of the battery and charge it.

[the trainguy]

Originally Posted by BFlinn181

I agree with luvlabs, 12.5-13v won't charge a 12v battery. At least 13.8v is considered a charging voltage, anything less will prolong the period before it goes dead, but it won't overcome internal resistance of the battery and charge it.

This is exactly what's happening with me.

I have a 2012 F150,essentially the same truck as you have.

I installed the same 15 amp "toad charging module" as you.

I have been happily towing my F150 for 2 years now without a mishap.

Last month I pulled the truck out of the garage to connect it up to the rv for a trip to the Smokey mountains.

Although I hadn't driven the truck in several months it started right up and I hooked everything up and we left.

Normal procedure for flat towing the F150 is to set it up for "Neutral Tow" and turn the ignition key off but leave it in the steering unlocked position.

Been doing it that way for two years ,no problems.

This trip however we overnighted at a campground in Virginia and did not unhook.

I noticed the next day while driving in the rv that my remote brake light indicator on the rv dash was not
Illuminating when braking like it always had before.

It's wired directly off the brake pedal stop light switch in the truck so it gives absolute confirmation of the Air Force One braking system applying the toad brakes .

Come to find out the truck battery was dead.

I checked the fancy toad charging system and it was powered up and working.
Problem was the voltage was never high enough to actually "charge" the truck's battery.

All this time during previous trips it had been fully charged before I hooked it up it and the small load on it while towing in "tow mode" never discharged it that much.

Except for this last time where the truck had sat for some time with,unbeknownst to me ,a half discharged battery.

I now make sure that the truck battery is fully charged before connecting it for flat towing.

Otherwise it's been a terrific lifestyle!!

Bob

[psw757]

What 12v outlet are you all using?

[psw757]

I think I may know what is now going on but not sure the remedy. I'm surprised nobody with smart key has had this happen.

I checked voltage from coach 13.7-14.0 at truck battery 13.05 amps. Brake uses only mili amps when not braking so there isn't a big draw.

It appears that at 1 hour and 10 minutes of driving the truck goes to sleep and I lose my 12v power outlets in truck and won't start unless I lock via fob and then unlock and start, seems to reset the sleep mode clock.

Any ideas here? Doesn't seem to be a dead battery and explains why all my lights, radio etc... Still worked.