Overland / Off grid trailer charging.

The 7-pin tow connector on the Bronco includes a 30-amp auxiliary power line. Typically this is what campers will use to charge their batteries while you are driving down the road.

Any particular reason that you are aware of as to why the Expedition Voyager charges using an Anderson plug rather than the standard tow connector??

RagnarKon

The 7-pin tow connector on the Bronco includes a 30-amp auxiliary power line. Typically this is what campers will use to charge their batteries while you are driving down the road.

Any particular reason that you are aware of as to why the Expedition Voyager charges using an Anderson plug rather than the standard tow connector??

Hi and thanks for the response. It comes down to resistance. Although the 12 volt charging feed at the 7 pin may be fused at 30 amp, it is just not adequate to efficiently charge two 100 amp hr batteries. Wire gauge is key here, and I did not mention that 6 gauge is used for the run from the Bronco battery to the trailers management system. Think of jump starting a dead battery, the heavier cables will win every time.

Chip Carr

Hi and thanks for the response. It comes down to resistance. Although the 12 volt charging feed at the 7 pin may be fused at 30 amp, it is just not adequate to efficiently charge two 100 amp hr batteries. Wire gauge is key here, and I did not mention that 6 gauge is used for the run from the Bronco battery to the trailers management system. Think of jump starting a dead battery, the heavier cables will win every time.

Ah okay, so when you say it is a 30 amp charging line, it is actually using all 30 of those amps. Okay that makes sense.

Anyway, to answer the question the Bronco has a battery management controller that monitors the health of the battery, you'll want to make sure your cables are connected downstream of that sensor so that it can monitor the current being pulled. If you put it upstream of the sensor, the controller will just see the battery voltage dropping over time, assume the battery is going bad, and start shutting off features like Remote Start and the FordPass app features.

The reason why I was asking about using the 7-pin harness is because Ford did all of the homework for you, and it'll automatically shut off that Aux power line when the battery voltage gets too low to ensure the Bronco will actually start when you need it to. Obviously if you connect it directly to the battery you won't have that built-in safety net. But, if you connect it properly, at least the Bronco will be able to monitor the current being pulled.

Grabbed a photo from my winch install video for reference:

RagnarKon

Ah okay, so when you say it is a 30 amp charging line, it is actually using all 30 of those amps. Okay that makes sense.

Anyway, to answer the question the Bronco has a battery management controller that monitors the health of the battery, you'll want to make sure your cables are connected downstream of that sensor so that it can monitor the current being pulled. If you put it upstream of the sensor, the controller will just see the battery voltage dropping over time, assume the battery is going bad, and start shutting off features like Remote Start and the FordPass app features.

The reason why I was asking about using the 7-pin harness is because Ford did all of the homework for you, and it'll automatically shut off that Aux power line when the battery voltage gets too low to ensure the Bronco will actually start when you need it to. Obviously if you connect it directly to the battery you won't have that built-in safety net. But, if you connect it properly, at least the Bronco will be able to monitor the current being pulled.

Grabbed a photo from my winch install video for reference:

Thank you again. I'm not sure that it will draw 30 amps all of the time, just that it needs to be able to draw 30 amps when needed, hence the 6 gauge wire, which can safely handle a 55 amp draw. You are defiantly correct about the BMS and where to connect the leads. Ford has done some nice work with the aux switches and battery connection points, plus doing some prewiring for the aux switches at different points on the body. I just utilized the pre run wire to the glove box area for the hidden installation of a Midland MXT 575 GMRS radio using aux switch #2. Super simple. Anyway, I don't think there will be a problem with what I want to do but would love to hear from someone who is doing this, just for piece of mind.