Flat towing-running the engine?

[BradnChristine]

Not really complicated. Two of us here have thousands and thousands of miles flat towing Ford Hybrid vehicles. Both of us agree that you should mash the throttle pedal to at least get the ICE engine to run momentarily. Shift the shifter into reverse, drive, reverse, drive than back to park. Should take a minute or a bit longer ( just like Ford recommends). Then put it back into neutral tow and head on down the road.
What we both also agree on, and learned early on, is that your 12v battery WILL go dead on a longer trip. Be it that you plug in a brake system that runs off 12v or just that the Maverick uses a bit of power while in neutral tow.....your 12v battery will sooner or later be dead. Just a small jump pack will usually start it right up. But there is a way that you can fix the problem so you never deal with it again. Install a 12v charging wire from the coach to the Maverick jump post under the hood. Don't need to run an additional ground wire, just tap into the 7 pin round battery charging wire circuit. Done

To add to this, I used a "toad-charge" unit on my C-Maxes, and now a Hopkins Battery maintainer on my Maverick. It takes the +12 volt line from the 6-pin tow cable and fees it through the unit that has a 5A fuse AND a diode in it to prevent power from being taken from the Maverick back out to the motorhome.
While it is generally always referred to as a "charge wire", it is NOT simply a wire running from the motorhome to the towed.
The Toad-charge was nicer and had a circuit breaker instead of a fuse, but the manufacturer died and they are now pretty much unavailable. The Hopkins worked fine on my 2622 mile, 2-1/2 week trip.
https://www.amazon.com/Hopkins-39332-BrakeBuddy-Vehicle-Maintainer/dp/B004RCXB8A/ Here is the older Toad-charge...if you can find one. You don't need the cable if you connect the two items to the charge wire from the 6-pin.

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[realshelby]

On my Cmax and the Maverick I have run the wire from the battery charge circuit of the motorhome directly to the battery ( in the Maverick I used the under hood jump post). I checked and confirmed the battery charge circuit from the motorhome is fused and good to go. I did add a diode on the Maverick circuit as some thought it was a good idea. Never seemed to matter to the Cmax, it never had a diode. May or may not help the Maverick.
When I was getting ready to get the Maverick towable, I looked closely at these "toad charge" type of packages. I would have bought the one....that is no longer available. But I cannot see where they really do anything that I didn't do by adding my diode?
There are certainly more ways to get the job done than a single choice. I think most will eventually agree that adding a charge circuit to the Maverick that works while towing is a MUST have.

 

[Haroldko]

Not really complicated. Two of us here have thousands and thousands of miles flat towing Ford Hybrid vehicles. Both of us agree that you should mash the throttle pedal to at least get the ICE engine to run momentarily. Shift the shifter into reverse, drive, reverse, drive than back to park. Should take a minute or a bit longer ( just like Ford recommends). Then put it back into neutral tow and head on down the road.
What we both also agree on, and learned early on, is that your 12v battery WILL go dead on a longer trip. Be it that you plug in a brake system that runs off 12v or just that the Maverick uses a bit of power while in neutral tow.....your 12v battery will sooner or later be dead. Just a small jump pack will usually start it right up. But there is a way that you can fix the problem so you never deal with it again. Install a 12v charging wire from the coach to the Maverick jump post under the hood. Don't need to run an additional ground wire, just tap into the 7 pin round battery charging wire circuit. Done

Thank you sir, To the point and very helpful. Great advice.

 

[Mrk]

Not really complicated. Two of us here have thousands and thousands of miles flat towing Ford Hybrid vehicles. Both of us agree that you should mash the throttle pedal to at least get the ICE engine to run momentarily. Shift the shifter into reverse, drive, reverse, drive than back to park. Should take a minute or a bit longer ( just like Ford recommends). Then put it back into neutral tow and head on down the road.
What we both also agree on, and learned early on, is that your 12v battery WILL go dead on a longer trip. Be it that you plug in a brake system that runs off 12v or just that the Maverick uses a bit of power while in neutral tow.....your 12v battery will sooner or later be dead. Just a small jump pack will usually start it right up. But there is a way that you can fix the problem so you never deal with it again. Install a 12v charging wire from the coach to the Maverick jump post under the hood. Don't need to run an additional ground wire, just tap into the 7 pin round battery charging wire circuit. Done

How did you connect the battery charging wire to the under hood positive jump pin? Size of nut?

 

[realshelby]

I used 14g wire. Cut off about 2" of insulation, doubled over the wire. Then clamped it to the post with a small u bolt clamp made for wire rope.

BUT....

The more I think about the charging wire and how Ford has the battery set up I am going to go directly to the battery positive post when I get back home. Ford has a battery monitor that is attached to the positive cable. I am suspicious that it may have an ability to effect charge state even in neutral tow. So, going directly to the positive post on the battery ( in effect behind the Ford battery monitor sensor) it might maintain a more even charge in the battery while towing. Or not, but there is no downside to doing this.

 

[Darnon]

The more I think about the charging wire and how Ford has the battery set up I am going to go directly to the battery positive post when I get back home. Ford has a battery monitor that is attached to the positive cable. I am suspicious that it may have an ability to effect charge state even in neutral tow. So, going directly to the positive post on the battery ( in effect behind the Ford battery monitor sensor) it might maintain a more even charge in the battery while towing. Or not, but there is no downside to doing this.

The BMS monitor is on the negative post.

 

[realshelby]

Well, I will have to see what is needed to go directly. I have read that the jump post isn't directly hard wired to the positive post. But I have not verified that. I assumed the battery monitor might be inline. But you know what happens when one assumes.....

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