Rewiring accessories to use the 2nd battery?

[greiswig]

Been camping a fair amount with my 2016, and one thing I notice immediately is that any time you leave a door open, the lights are on. Probably computers are awake, too, but lights are on for sure. I can turn them off, but it's a pain. Oh, and none of the 12V ciggy outlets work.

I've got a second LiFePo battery in there that is supposed to be running accessories at stoplights when the engine stops, anyway. And which is virtually never used for that because I turn off the feature.

Is there a decent way to have the cabin lights run off that, instead? Or is even the idea of putting the BCM on relay-running duty going to throw its little head into a tailspin?

If not, how about running some cigarette lighter sockets off of that, so you can charge phones without the engine running and not drain the starting battery? Will that, too, throw things off to the point where a computer somewhere freaks out?

 

[f1racer328]

There’s a relay you can pull, then jump the terminals and it’ll give your power outlets constant power.

I pulled it a while ago and have no regrets. I can take a photo possibly tomorrow to show you.

 

[greiswig]

Ah! That makes a lot of sense for the ciggy outlets. Thanks for that!

Any thoughts about the cabin lights? Maybe a configuration I could do with the GAP tool to stop them staying on forever once a door is opened?

 

[Michael Gain]

Ah! That makes a lot of sense for the ciggy outlets. Thanks for that!

Any thoughts about the cabin lights? Maybe a configuration I could do with the GAP tool to stop them staying on forever once a door is opened?

You can put them in hunting / camping "mode". Hold down the center button for ~20 seconds. The cluster will tell you that the lights are now off. Only down side is that the lights wont turn on at all. It never really bothered me and I left them off all of the time.

 

[greiswig]

You can put them in hunting / camping "mode". Hold down the center button for ~20 seconds. The cluster will tell you that the lights are now off. Only down side is that the lights wont turn on at all. It never really bothered me and I left them off all of the time.

Had no idea! There are a lot of little easter eggs hidden in this thing. Thank you!

 

[djkaosone]

You can put them in hunting / camping "mode". Hold down the center button for ~20 seconds. The cluster will tell you that the lights are now off. Only down side is that the lights wont turn on at all. It never really bothered me and I left them off all of the time.

To turn them back on or enable the door lights again, same thing hold for a few seconds until the dash shows the lights are enabled.

 

[djkaosone]

If not, how about running some cigarette lighter sockets off of that, so you can charge phones without the engine running and not drain the starting battery? Will that, too, throw things off to the point where a computer somewhere freaks out?

I wouldn't suggest running anything serious off of your start/stop battery. That thing is only there as an interim battery source when your truck isn't running in between stops. For long term camping and boon docking, I'd suggest getting a dedicated auxiliary battery dedicated for providing power to everything else, and maybe a solar panel for extended boon docking.

 

[greiswig]

I wouldn't suggest running anything serious off of your start/stop battery. That thing is only there as an interim battery source when your truck isn't running in between stops. For long term camping and boon docking, I'd suggest getting a dedicated auxiliary battery dedicated for providing power to everything else, and maybe a solar panel for extended boon docking.

Only reason I'd do it is that I replaced it with a higher-capacity LiFePo, and don't really use it for its intended purpose.

 

[txfromwi]

There is a video on UTube that I stumbled on a while ago, in it an Aussie added a full sized second battery and he gives all the details - sorry you will need to search for it..

 

[ar077]

So glad my D5 has only one battery and that it was easy to disable the automatic stop-start function.