2015 Ford F-150 Aux 12V Power

[enelson]

I've been helping out a gentleman who purchased my Hallmark K2 load and configure his truck for the camper. We spent a while trying to get the Aux 12V on the 7 pin trailer connector working. There is steps to "name" a trailer which was supposed to get the "smart" controller to send power to the 12V pin, no luck. He took the truck into a shop where the mechanic tried for two hours to get the power working, no luck. Concluding the truck is missing the relay and fuse for the aux 12V, he tried to figure out where they are located. When he went to the spot in the fuse panel, the fuse socket was blanked over. Is this familiar to anyone?

 

[Bad Habit]

Seems like a simple enough thing, until you take into account that everything is now made to automate everything to point that it will only do what IT thinks you should do, not what you need.

I found a thread on F150Forum talking about the same thing. Didn't seem to have a definitive answer though. One said once he touched the brakes after naming the "trailer", it worked. Another said it only supplied voltage above idle. In any case it seems to need a complete circuit, with some sort of load on it in order to activate - maybe.

http://www.f150forum.com/f118/7-pin-connector-trailer-charger-288637/

 

[enelson]

I read most of that thread a few days ago.

I thought that a loading might be the issue. It depends on what constitutes a load since the camper only needs the 12V Aux and doesn't load the other pins. It would be interesting to be able to log the power in to see if above idle it does output power. Anyway, the camper has 180W of solar panels on the roof so during the summer there is plenty of capacity to use for now.

 

[Bad Habit]

Have him pull the fuses at the camper battery, and see if the truck powers the lights/fridge, etc. Of course it wouldn't surprise me if it only provided power when in gear and/or above a certain RPM.

 

[enelson]

I think he's going to have a friend ride around in the back while the camper is off with a volt meter. I was thinking he could just pull the fuses from the solar and the load and then see if the battery voltage increases after driving, assuming it wasn't already fully charged.

My fancy lithium battery management system logs the input current and I could just view the graph after driving in to work. I pulled that system and sold the camper with an AGM battery instead. It's set up standard Hallmark configuration now.

 

[Squatch]

When I had my Nissan Titan. You had to buy separate relays and fuse to get the trailer connector working. One kit just for 4 wire. Another to get the brake controller and charging circuits active. The dealers knew nothing about it either.