Why I had to Install a Battery Tender for My Jeep

 

My Jeep is a 2019 Jeep Cherokee TrailHawk which is mostly towed behind my Motor Home, it is driven very little, and sits sometimes for several weeks without being driven. I would go to start the jeep after it had been sitting for a week or more. The battery was low on charge, and it would not start as the battery voltage was to low and the battery was run down. I checked, and there was no electrical short in the wiring or nothing was left on to cause the problem. I bought a new AGM Battery which is expensive and a couple of weeks later I had the same problem. Here is what I learned.

Because of the electronics in the Jeep, and if the battery is not kept fully charged and is discharged a little bit, then the jeep will not start. It has something to do with the way the electronics in the Jeep are set up by the Manufacture. (this is normal) If the Jeep isn’t driven enough to keep the battery fully charged It won’t start when you go to use it. Driving a short distance to and from the store or once a week is not enough to keep the battery fully charged. There are two things you can do for this problem. You can either disconnect the battery, (a pain in the where it hurts) or you can install a Battery Tender or Minder.

I did not want the hassel of unhooking the battery and maybe having to reprogram everything. So I bought a Foval Automatic Smart battery Trickle Charger 12V 1000 mA Which has a 4-stage charging program (Initialization, BulkCharge, Absorption Mode, and Float Mode) with ISM Adaptive Charging. ISM= (Infinite Sequential Monitoring). I chose this charger so I could leave it plugged in to shore power when the jeep was not being used to keep the battery fully charged. I did not want to overcharge or ruin my new AGM battery in the jeep.

I installed The Foval automatic trickle charger under the hood of my Jeep where it was out of the elements and harsh weather. In the picture above you can see where I used snap ties to secure the charger in place on the face of the firewall below the hood. I ran the wiring from the right side of the charger to the battery located on the drivers side of the jeep (not shown). The wiring on left of the charger is for the wiring to a 110 volt ac brown extension cord which I spliced into the Foval charger and ran down to the front of the jeep where it is plugged into 110 volt AC outlet.

Here you see where the plug from the battery charger comes out the front of the Jeep and is plugged into a 110 volt AC outlet Via an extension cord.

This is the 30 amp 110 volt AC outlet on the side of my garage where I plug in the battery charger using a 30 amp to 15 amp adapter and extension cord. until next time.

Mel