SkyP
Senior Member
Played around a little today with the battery charging to the Deka Gel battery in my ATC from my 2020 F150.
With the BMS (battery management sensor) plug attached I was getting only about 2A into the camper battery at 13.2 V.
Unplugged the sensor and I was getting 10A at 14.7 volts- quite an improvement.
Full disclosure I only have an 8AWG wire from the Ford battery to the SAE pigtail that ATC supplies out the right front lower corner. The pigtail appears to be 10AWG into the ACR and on to the battery nearby, about 3-4 ft.
On the Ford forums lots of people have run with the sensor disconnected for a year or more to resolve dead battery issues. Doesn't seem to harm anything from all reports.
I will eventually probably end up with a true DC to DC charger- undecided right now which one and how big. Probably will go LiFePO4- been very pleased with the Battleborn in my Camplite travel trailer.*
*I was struggling with excess tongue weight- removing 140lbs of 6V golf cart batteries from the tongue and replacing with a 30lb LiFePo4 in the very rear of the camper worked great.
With the BMS (battery management sensor) plug attached I was getting only about 2A into the camper battery at 13.2 V.
Unplugged the sensor and I was getting 10A at 14.7 volts- quite an improvement.
Full disclosure I only have an 8AWG wire from the Ford battery to the SAE pigtail that ATC supplies out the right front lower corner. The pigtail appears to be 10AWG into the ACR and on to the battery nearby, about 3-4 ft.
On the Ford forums lots of people have run with the sensor disconnected for a year or more to resolve dead battery issues. Doesn't seem to harm anything from all reports.
I will eventually probably end up with a true DC to DC charger- undecided right now which one and how big. Probably will go LiFePO4- been very pleased with the Battleborn in my Camplite travel trailer.*
*I was struggling with excess tongue weight- removing 140lbs of 6V golf cart batteries from the tongue and replacing with a 30lb LiFePo4 in the very rear of the camper worked great.