"Newer" Ford trucks don't charge house batt's?

It depends on what is hooked up. This post has the details.

https://www.thedieselstop.com/threads/2017-f450-not-charging-trailer-batteries.623818/

I don’t know about a problem with lithiums. People say they charge them driving. I think that’s closer to BS.

Bert the Welder wrote:
Also, while we're at it, same guy:
The BMS in lith batt's is a big drain on the batt's.....
BS or no BS?

Complete BS.

I have a pair of Battle Borns that I pulled out of an RV when I sold it in March. They have been sitting in a heated space since March, with no charger on them. I checked the voltage about two weeks ago, they are sitting at 13.2.

There is a delay - when starting, approximately 45 seconds elapse before the alternator is applied to the battery system.

It's been years since I last checked this, but it could easily add to the pot of misunderstanding when sourced from an RV dealer.

Ford has several charging systems and so far is the only manufacturer who puts disconnecting relay on trailer charging wire.
Early Powerstrokes with7.3 engine would not start charging till couple of minutes after engine start. That was due charging voltage killing glow plugs, so instead of making better GP, they solved it by running the engine on battery power till GP would be no longer needed.
That was pretty annoying for me, when I had my truck sitting for months and occasional engine starting was actually killing the batteries, instead of charging them.
Newer trucks have it improved. but each designated aux battery charging on diesel will have delay timer.

Bert the Welder - Ford's website has access to manuals / upfitter or body builder information etc. - but generally the little blue "charge wire" is not capable of carrying the significant amperage required to charge batteries in less than days...

LiFeO4 batteries can accept charge at very high rates that can overload an alternator if the charge rate is not regulated.

I am looking at using a DC-DC charger to charge batteries from the engine alternator. Watch the input requirements of these vs your alternator capacity. Ray on the "Love Your RV" u tube channel installed one and shows how they work. Their RAM truck has a high amperage connection terminal under the hood.

A rule of thumb we used in heavy trucks was to not exceed 50% of alternator capacity when adding stuff like inverters and fridges etc The alternator does not put out full capacity at low rpm / idle.

I have found solar to be pretty much useless in western Canada in winter.

Because of their fast recharge capability lithiums are particularly suited to "mechanical" charging I'm thinking.

Ford also puts automatic circuit breaker on charging circuit, what usually is 30 amp.
I had a situation once, when I had badly depleted camper batteries and the charging breaker would cycle on/off for long time.
I did like 3-4 hr of driving that day and was surprised that the batteries were low, before I tough what might happen and fire up generator.
Camper converter cycles on/off as well when batteries are low, so took long hours for recharging.
Now I carry additional charger to speed up house batteries recovery.

Both BS

There are limits to either but giving a blanket yes/no is BS.

I would check the wire gauge on the factory charge wire, the one on the chev is too small to do much. I ran a new 1/0 100 amp charge wire from under the hood and am using DC to DC chargers with four Trojan T-105s. The Redarc DC to DC chargers work great, I am going to run two of their 50 amp units in parallel, they also incorporate a MPPT solar controller that the unit will give priority to if there is solar power being generated.

Thanks guys. I can see an RV tech mistaking the truck not charging if there is a delay, especially if they just start the truck and test right away and turn it off. They'd see zero and assume it didn't charge. But the irony is he said he worked for Ford.....so one would think......
And if it's a towing module, as mentioned in Jim's link, one would think that plugging in the TC would act the same as a trailer, to the trucks computer, if it's to do with the lights.

And I assume the truck charge wire going back to the bed plug is going to be dry spaghetti gauge. But r&r'ing it is something I'd be asking for written conformation from Ford that doing so isn't going to affect the new warranty! ;)
But I assume running a bigger wire to the bed plug is pointless if the wire from the plug to the camper is too small as well. Heck, maybe the plug itself is a choke point. But that's a chat for a separate post.

As for the BMS. That had a bit more logic to it. If the little on-board computer runs, it needs power. But given I hadn't seen any dismay expressed here or else where over it, I thought it smelled like a goofy statement.

Why is it people can't just be straight up? Seems RV sales guys are even dodgier then stereo type used car guys.

noteven wrote:
Bert the Welder - Ford's website has access to manuals / upfitter or body builder information etc. - but generally the little blue "charge wire" is not capable of carrying the significant amperage required to charge batteries in less than days...

LiFeO4 batteries can accept charge at very high rates that can overload an alternator if the charge rate is not regulated.

I am looking at using a DC-DC charger to charge batteries from the engine alternator. Watch the input requirements of these vs your alternator capacity. Ray on the "Love Your RV" u tube channel installed one and shows how they work. Their RAM truck has a high amperage connection terminal under the hood.

A rule of thumb we used in heavy trucks was to not exceed 50% of alternator capacity when adding stuff like inverters and fridges etc The alternator does not put out full capacity at low rpm / idle.

I have found solar to be pretty much useless in western Canada in winter.

Because of their fast recharge capability lithiums are particularly suited to "mechanical" charging I'm thinking.

Thanks. I'll look him up and try to find the vid's. It certainly seems like having something like the DC2DC is needed for the "new" type batt's.

And yes to the solar problem on this coast. It has to be accounted for that many reports on solar charging are from more Southern regions, where the sun is high, the skies are clear and there's nary a tree for miles. Bringing a gen. is a must if not driving much. And the ability to charge higher/faster would be best, as well as not doing damage if you don't charge to 100%.