rjstractor wrote:
I think a question worth asking is "why does the battery need to be disconnected?" If it's just a simple matter of battery drainage then either disconnecting the battery or rigging up a charge line handles the problem. But if Ford wants the battery disconnected to disable electric power steering, stability control, ABS, the transmission control module or anything else that has the potential to complicate 4 down towing that's a different matter altogether. I have no idea if any of those things are actually an issue, but it's probably worth checking out.
It's a different vehicle and different year (2017 Explorer) but one reason I heard is that parts of the transmission shifter are electronic as opposed to a physical link from shifter to transmission. By disconnecting the battery, it prevents the possibility of the transmission jumping from neutral to some other gear.
I don't know enough about the inner workings of transmissions much newer than about 1990 but if that is really true, it makes sense.
