Hybrid towing

EB Expedition wrote:
It was mentioned in a couple of recent replies that a charge line was installed. I have a six pin connector at the cmax, but only using four pins. I believe the other two are for ground and +12v. Can you please explain how you connected your charge line to your tow vehicles? Did you hardwire directly with 12volts from the rv six pin connector to the battery positive and ground.

Check the wiring, but you should already have ground wired in. That would be one of the 4 pins you are already using.

Sooo, really all you should have to do is use one of the extra pins on your six pin connector to run a +12V line to your battery. Run a wire from the + terminal of your battery to one of those extra pins on the six pin connector. Preferably 10 gauge, and you definitely need to put a fuse on it, right near where it connects to that + lug under the hood.

Even though you probably already have ground wired in, you may want to look at beefing up the ground wire that goes from your 6 pin connector on your Cmax to where ever it connects to the ground. Reason being, you now could potentially be pushing a bit more current through there to keeping the battery charged up.

Then, on the MH side, you'll have to find a fused 12V wire to wire to that pin. If your MH came with a 7 pin connector (most do), one of them will be a 12V line, and you should be able to use that. Thats what I did, made it pretty simple.

RViBrake just came out with a cool product, their Toad battery charger that makes wiring a charge line a bit more simple. This device includes most of the wiring you'll need for this, and protects it with a fuse and diode so you don't have to fool with installing an inline fuse. Price is pretty reasonable too, at $50. I may well add this to mine, one of these days.

On my cmax the battery is buried in the back and I only have a positive connector under the hood and common ground lug post near the battery positive terminal used for jump starting the car.

My Fusion Hybrid has exact same thing - battery in back, positive and ground lug under the hood for jump starting. Those lugs are what I wired our charge line to, it worked great. Made it very easy to run the wires to the connector on the front.

Anyway, hope this helps. I would definitely try to get this done before your next trip, as you don't want to deplete your starting battery any more than is absolutely necessary, or like mentioned before, you'll get to replace it sooner than you want to.