sean Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Hello My First Post!!!, Thanks in advance to all those that plan to help me with my problem. I need to get some direction on how to pass a cable from the battery box to the rear cabin. Does anyone have photos or can you send me a link to where I can see them. I read in a previous post that there are two grommets behind the battery box which can be used to pass the cable between the hood and cabin, anymore clues on how to do this. Also if i remove these grommets to pass the cable, do I have patch/cover the hole to stop water getting in? Can you point me to which fuse or wire I can connect to which will be energized when the engine is running, so I can stop the 2nd battery from draining the starter battery when the engine is off. Lastly, my 1 week old TC came with a dealer option, called an Upfitter Cable, can I use this as part of the above circuit, where is it installed, and any information that I can read. Is the cable the same as an Upfitter switches? Thanks again for your help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windguy Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 @sean - welcome to the forum. congrats on you new van. do you have a cargo or wagon model? where do you plan to mount the inverter and house battery? do you have specific plans on what you're going to power? what size inverter are you considering Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean Posted June 13, 2015 Author Share Posted June 13, 2015 Thank you. I plan to install at 1750 Watt inverter. and mount it on the cabin partition. I already have a kit, and the second battery but can't figure out how to get the cable from the positive side of the battery into cabin. I read that there are grommets behind/beside the battery box but haven't seen them and don't know where they come into the cabin.. Thanks for your help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenryan Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 Bumping this thread. Wondering is it really that difficult to get a wire from the positive battery terminal to the cargo area? I plan to install an aux. battery and need to charge it from the vehicle alternator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonShockley Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 (edited) Bumping this thread. Wondering is it really that difficult to get a wire from the positive battery terminal to the cargo area? I plan to install an aux. battery and need to charge it from the vehicle alternator. Not hard at all. I would suggest following the routing the dealer used when installing the tow kit wiring in my 2015 Wagon. There's a grommet in the passenger side A-pillar, and the rest of the way it's just under trim pieces. If you want to see photos, check out my threads on installing an accessory fuse box and USB power point. My wiring for those ran in the same areas and you can see the red trailer power wire in several of the photos. The grommet is behind the large foam piece in this A-pillar photo from the USB thread. The trailer wire is the one coming out of the large hole. If you need any detail pix in an area, let me know I can try snap some to help you guide the wire, but the drawings in the instructions are pretty good. Here's the dealer installation instructions: (of course the Ford sites didn't provide them, but an online parts supplier did) http://www.partscheap.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/instructions/ford/escape/2015_escape_Trailer_Wiring_SKFT1J_15A416_AC.pdf It covers a couple different vehicles so scroll down to the middle of the pdf for the Transit Connect specifics. It taps off the fuse block on the front bottom of the battery box so you may need to change the routing slightly to reach the top terminals inside the box. And the other end is right next to the cargo area fuse box so you can just exit the wire on that end through the fuse box access panel. A caution from observing how the dealer installed mine: The wire runs over some sharp metal edges around the hood hinge area and makes a tight S turn as it comes through the grommet at the base of the A pillar and goes down into the dash. Use some type of chafing protection in this area. I added some since the dealer left the wire unprotected but I didn't have enough slack in the installed wire to do it in one piece so I had to slide 2 pieces from each side as far as possible and hope for the best. Edited December 14, 2015 by DonShockley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenryan Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 Great, thanks! Will there be room for a 10 gauge wire along with the tow harness wires? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonShockley Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 Should be no problem. The trailer kit was a #12 and then my wiring added another #12 and an #18, so a single #10 in the area should be no issue. And there were only a couple tight spots with the 3 wires, like at the base of the B pillars and the hood hinge area. But the hood hinge spot was mostly a poor routing by the dealer. Had he gone around the bracket instead of between the bracket and where it attached there would have been plenty of room. Everywhere else was very spacious. Another suggestion: when I was looking at possibly going to the battery terminal to power my accessory fuse box, one of the options I considered was bolting to the buss bar going to the high current fuse box at the front of the battery box instead of the battery terminal. Less likely to damage the connection during battery swaps or other maintenance. But I never did actually remove any of the insulation on the buss bar to see if it was possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenryan Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 Again, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G B L Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 A 1750 watt inverter is 14.5 amps at 120 volts. At 12 volts the inverter needs 145 amps ten ga wire is no where big enough to handel the load. Even with a second battery the Alternator will put out over 80 amps trying to keep up. if you do run a wire from the front battery to the house battery fuse both ends. dirt huffer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenryan Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Thanks for the input GBL. I plan to use a 1000 watt inverter and will keep the wire run as short as possible. I will use the largest wire that is practical to run. I figured 10 will probably be minimum, but can't calculate that until I know the length of the run. Good advice to have protection on both sides, especially as there is a battery on both ends! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G B L Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 1000 watts is 83 amps at 12 volts, 6 ga would be the minimun 4 ga would be better. the inverter will be happier with bigger wire. Remember you will need to make the ground as big as the positive supply. Keep us in the loop! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booner Posted January 5, 2016 Share Posted January 5, 2016 I plan on doing this mod ( adding a "house" battery & inverter, powered by the alternator), to my TC later this spring, after I retire. I've done this type of install on a full sized van and ran it for 1.5 years with no issues. What I would suggest is using 4 ga. wire from the car battery to the "house" battery and then to the inverter. I would strongly advise using a digital 30 amp solar charge controller at the end of the run from the car battery to just before where those wire would have hooked up to the "house" battery. 1. The digital 30 amp solar charge contoller is "smart", meaning that if the house battery is low on charge, it will allow for a full 30 amps of power to the "house battery, but as the house battery gets close to a capacity of charge, the charge controller will lower the amount of power to the house battery, thus protecting it from overcharging 2. The Charge controller will allow power to flow only in one direction; from the car battery to the house battery, thus protecting both batteries 3. The charge controller will show you the amount of charge in the house battery. I connected my + and - 4 ga. wires to the car battery terminal posts, and then a 50 amp fuse on the + wire as close to the terminal as possible. I also mounted another 50 amp breaker on the base of the passengers seat and used that as an "on/off" switch. This would allow me to turn off the power going to the house battery for what ever reason. This is the charge controller I used --> http://www.amazon.com/Sunforce-68032-Coleman-Digital-Controller/dp/B004RCX91E/ref=sr_1_36?ie=UTF8&qid=1451980789&sr=8-36&keywords=solar+charge+controller Sunforce (68032) 30 Amp Coleman Digital Solar Charge ControllerAnd I based everything I did on what I learned from this guy (Steve Harris at)-->http://www.battery1234.com/ You'll want to listen to the 2nd battery bank show. I purchased his video and learned a heck of a lot about batteries, and how to power my house from a battery bank and from my truck, and he goes into great detail on how to set my truck up as I've tried to explain above. I'd be real interested in how things work out for you in your Modification. As I said, I did this to a full sized van, but will be doing it to my TC later this spring best of luck, Booner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenryan Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 I can see a possible problem with using a 30 amp solar charge controller. If you have a big house battery and it is low, it could easily call for more than 30 amps of charging power (remember the alternator is 150 amps). It would be like hooking the charge controller to a large solar array, much larger than it is rated for. Maybe the controller would not be harmed, I don't know. But certainly your charging current would be limited to 30 amps. I have had good luck using a simple battery combiner like this: http://www.colehersee.com/home/item/cat/211/48530/ This simple device is just a relay (switch) with voltage sensing circuitry that is used to connect the batteries together in parallel. The way it works is when the relay senses charging voltage (usually around 14 volts) the relay closes and the two batteries are connected in parallel, and both batteries are charged as needed. On the other side, when there is no charge current, the relay opens and the batteries are no longer connected, protecting the vehicle battery from being run down. In addition there is a manual override switch. You would use this if for some reason the vehicle battery was drained and you wanted to use the house battery to either bring the voltage up on the vehicle battery, or even to start the vehicle, if the wiring is large enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G B L Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Very good Information. The Alternator regulator will take care of both batteries when they are combined. If there ever are solar panels involved then that woud be the place for the charge controller. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williaty Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 (edited) I can see a possible problem with using a 30 amp solar charge controller. If you have a big house battery and it is low, it could easily call for more than 30 amps of charging power (remember the alternator is 150 amps). It would be like hooking the charge controller to a large solar array, much larger than it is rated for. Maybe the controller would not be harmed, I don't know. But certainly your charging current would be limited to 30 amps. I have yet to see a SCC that isn't capable of limiting current to protect itself. Perhaps if you got a sufficiently cheap Chinese knock-off, but even the $20 SCCs from eBay have current limiting. Recharging the battery at 30A might not be a bad thing. For a house battery, you'll want a deep cycle battery, which don't like to charge as fast as a Starting/Lighting/Ignition battery. Most traditional flooded lead acid deep cycle batteries want to charge at C/10 to C/20. With a 30A input, a C/10 charge rate means you'd have to buy at least a 300Ah battery, which is a BIG mother to fit into something as small as the back of a Connect. You might actually want an even smaller SCC to get down to a battery size that you can package more easily into the back of a Connect. Of course, if you're using a AGM or other sealed battery, your charging current usually is allowed to be much higher so you can charge a smaller battery at a higher current. Of course, then you won't be able to supply that 1.7kW inverter from the battery, but that's a different story. Not to mention the parasitic drain from the idle current of an inverter that size will run the battery down rapidly. Honestly, that's an insane size of inverter to use in a compact automotive installation. What on earth do you want to run from it, Sean? Edited January 9, 2016 by williaty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ophus Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 i think the solar charge controller is a mistake as well, it is just spending extra money you do not need to spend! all a SCC is, is a voltage regulator, it regulates the voltage coming from 1 or more solar panels, this panel voltage is any where from zero to over 100 volts DC depending on the number of panels you have and how there wired plus how much sun is hitting the panels at any given time! the solar charge controller is a voltage regulator, and there is already a voltage regulator built into your transit connects alternator, You do not need 2 voltage regulators for the same alternator! Also i would choose a different cable routing for for the wire/wires from your transit connects battery to your inverter battery! i have saw wires get hot and the insulation melt because of bad connections, or the wire that was used in the first place was too small of wire gauge for what somebody was trying to power! this can happen without blowing any fuses! If the inverter battery wires get hot and cause other nearby wires to melt as well, this could lead to very expensive repair bills that will not be covered in any warranty when the entire transit connects wiring harness has to be replaced! as to how to route the inverter battery wires i do not know? my best guess would be under the vehicle along a frame rail or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MingZhentianxia Posted September 16, 2019 Share Posted September 16, 2019 The controller refers to a master device that changes the wiring of the main circuit or the control circuit in a predetermined order and changes the resistance value in the circuit to control the starting, speeding, braking, and reversing of the motor. It consists of a program counter, an instruction register, an instruction decoder, a timing generator, and an operation controller.Model: AFC8503 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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