Ford E-350 battery questions

Beverley&Ken wrote:
June 2019, 12yr old Motorcraft battery becoming unreliable, even with maintainer hooked up. Finally had to replace with new battery (from Costco).

I would like to know who makes Motorcraft batteries ?!!!

The original battery in my 1998 E150 lasted 12+ years. No battery tender, but it was a daily driver. I did clean the outside once or twice a year. Even though it was considered "maintenance free", I pried the caps off and topped off each cell at the same time (very little water required).

The second battery did not last as long. Probably because I left the interior lights on 3 or 4 time and it was no longer a true daily driver any more (couple of times a week).

20 yo vehicle on 3rd battery ! :C

With COVID-19, it gets driven once every 2+ weeks. It starts, but I don't know about next winter.

klutchdust wrote:
Interesting, I would like to know why.

Not sure why, but I have anecdotal evidence. A friend of a friend maintains sewage pump station in a small community. Each has it own generator that starts when there is a power outage. Typical battery was lasting around 2 years. These were full size car batteries and were connected to some kind of "battery tender" 24/7.

After inserting the lamp timer in between the tender and the battery, the life of the battery more than doubled.

Yes, the chassis battery will lose the charge in a couple of weeks. I found mine would be dead in a week or so. Our Winnebago c-class is parked beside the house, plugged in when not being used. Biggest draw I had was the key fob unlocking coach door which also turned on cab courtesy lights for a minute each time. All powered by the chassis battery. Another draw was the step going in and out, unless I locked it out.
About 10 years ago, I installed a 'battery maintainer' on the chassis battery and plugged the maintainer into a coach 120 vac outlet, always on when RV is plugged into shore power, 98% of the time.
Chassis battery history, 2006 MH built on 2006 chassis in Feb 06. We purchased coach new in May 2007, had been sitting on dealers lot over winter with a dead battery.
June 2007, Ford dealer replaced with new Motorcraft battery under WARRANTY.
~2010, installed battery maintainer, to resolve same problems that OP is having.
June 2019, 12yr old Motorcraft battery becoming unreliable, even with maintainer hooked up. Finally had to replace with new battery (from Costco).

Ken

""Despite what others will tell you, no battery likes to be on a charger/maintainer, 24/7, weeks on end."

Interesting, I would like to know why. It reminds me of the thought that rubber batteries lose their charge sitting on a concrete floor.

Anyway, my coach is plugged to ground power, I plug a battery maintainer into a wall plug and it goes into the "cigarette lighter" port. This eliminated my dead battery problem.

Yes you can disconnect battery without hurting a thing.
No, you won't hurt the battery by having it hooked to a maintainer.

More importantly, figure out the issue because it's likely not normal.
How many batteries does the rig have?
Are you talking about the start battery, house battery(s) or both?

If it has multiple batteries, is the start battery hooked to the house for charging? Could be the RV draining it, as the "truck" shouldn't.

Bottom line, just hooking a charger to it or disconnecting the battery doesn't fix the problem, it just puts it off.

DrewE wrote:
It's definitely safe to wire through the lighter plug, and often convenient.

Disconnecting the battery won't harm anything--it's a necessary procedure for various vehicle maintenance and repair activities, after all--but is less desirable in as much as it resets the computer and undoes any fine-tuning it may have done to its internal settings based on the operation of your engine and transmission. If your dash radio is connected to the chassis battery, it would naturally also reset the time and presets and so forth. In an RV the dash radio might well be connected to the house battery, depending on the whim of the RV maker.

If your RV is connected to shore power while its sitting, or if you have solar to keep the house battery charged (assuming this is an RV), you might want to consider installing a Trik-L-Start. It's a sort of built-in maintainer for the chassis battery, powered by the converter or whatever charges the house battery.

The Trik-L-Start is a nice and easy way to go. That is if you keep your mh pugged in to 120 volts when stored.

CodyClassB wrote:
My Ford 2015 E-350 battery will need to be charged every 2-3 weeks.

Not unusual. There is typically around 0.100A draw when the ignition is off.

CodyClassB wrote:
Is it safe to connect a battery maintainer through cigarette lighter ? The cigarette lighter is always on.

Despite what others will tell you, no battery likes to be on a charger/maintainer, 24/7, weeks on end.

Simple solution is to connect the charger/maintainer to a cheap mechanical lamp timer and set it to run about 4 hours per day.

jdc1 wrote:
Your computers will have to reload every time you disconnect that battery. As for the battery maintainer?

I would not use the word "reload". I would say re-initialize.

It may drive a bit "different" while it learns to adapt, but, no you will not hurt anything.

Worst case, you may fail an emission test if you take it in right away for that test. It will need several hundred miles of all types of driving to "re-learn" its "sweet spot".

Have you checked out if you have something like an IOD fuse, description listed below

" ignition Off Draw (IOD) fuse is used to prevent battery discharge during shipping or long-term storage of the vehicle."

qq

It's definitely safe to wire through the lighter plug, and often convenient.

Disconnecting the battery won't harm anything--it's a necessary procedure for various vehicle maintenance and repair activities, after all--but is less desirable in as much as it resets the computer and undoes any fine-tuning it may have done to its internal settings based on the operation of your engine and transmission. If your dash radio is connected to the chassis battery, it would naturally also reset the time and presets and so forth. In an RV the dash radio might well be connected to the house battery, depending on the whim of the RV maker.

If your RV is connected to shore power while its sitting, or if you have solar to keep the house battery charged (assuming this is an RV), you might want to consider installing a Trik-L-Start. It's a sort of built-in maintainer for the chassis battery, powered by the converter or whatever charges the house battery.