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USMCRet's avatar
USMCRet
Explorer
Sep 30, 2015

Anyone towing a 2010-2012 Ford Taurus?

I'm going to convert my 2012 Taurus into a toad and have encountered a couple of oddities in the area of maintaining battery charge.

I've done the procedure outlined in the owner's manual; ignition to acc position, shift selector to neutral. (although, that doesn't really work. The ignition has to go to the "run" position in order to get the selector out of park. I then return ignition to acc.)

What I'm finding is the battery is going dead within an hour of doing this. Is this typical?

Thanks,
Ed

3 Replies

  • willald's avatar
    willald
    Explorer II
    Sep 30, 2015
    Well, it just means that something, somewhere, is staying on in your Taurus when towing it (with key in ACC mode), and that is draining the battery. Not uncommon at all.

    Your choices to solve this go something like this:

    1. Find out what is causing the drain, and turn it off when towing, if you can do so without hurting anything. Usually done by pulling a fuse or installing a switch of some kind.

    2. Disconnect the battery whenever you tow.

    3. Install a charge line from Motorhome to your toad, to keep battery charged.

    I personally recommend option #3. Tis the easiest, simplest solution, and costs very little. I had to do that with my 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid that we tow, and its worked great. Battery stays completely fresh and charged up when towing.

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