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Question about adding onboard batt charger


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My new Transit Connect will become a camping vehicle. It will not be a daily driver, so I purchased a small onboard 2amp smart charger to keep main battery up, should It sit for awhile. My question is this why is it recommended to mount the ground terminal to the chassis ground lug instead of the battery negative terminal ?. What is the difference ? Inquiring minds want to know. Thanks in advance for your response.

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Thanks. I really couldn’t understand why Ford was so adamant about this. Of course they don’t want me to install in the first place. They don’t want anyone to do anything to the vehicle. Typical I guess. I’ve had good life out of batteries on my motorhome, motorcycles, and front end loader keeping them on smart chargers. 

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That's really all part of the "right to repair" fight that's been ongoing for several years now. Some OEM's are attempting to make things so complicated or locked-down that you need to bring it to them for repair work and I've even seen them arguing that it's an IP (intellectual property) issue, hilarious!

 

The ground post on the strut tower is just fine, it has like a one-foot-long cable that connects back to the negative battery post (at least assuming a Gen 2 TC). I have tow-truck-style detachable jumper cables utilizing an Anderson plug zip-tied to the grill and guess where I hooked up the ground wire? Yep, the chassis ground on the strut tower due to relative ease-of-access. But if you want to go through the hassle of putting your battery tender directly on the negative terminal, that's your prerogative, lol. 

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I installed a homemade "trickle-charger" permanently in my van. Positive wire added to Batt POS post clamp and NEG alligator-clipped on NEG stud outside of battery housing. The charger is an old 12VDC [nominal] 1amp power supply.  My old [previous] mechanic, who also did some electronics hobby stuff said anything under 2 amps would never be a problem and could be left "on" for even a few days. The battery will simply stop absorbing the charge when it is full.  No need for fancy {read: expensive} 'smart' chargers when $5 +/- electronics parts can do the job just as well.

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12 hours ago, rodent 66 said:

why is it recommended to mount the ground terminal to the chassis ground lug instead of the battery negative terminal ?

 

 

Because it's less work.  You don't have to take off the air box, fuse box, and remove the entire battery.  As for grounding, you will be fine.  The battery's negative post connects to the ground lug.

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