Wander the West: K7MDL - Viewing Profile

Just got back tonight from a 11 day, 3700 mile road trip with my 19 yr old daughter in my 3 week old 2013 JK Unlimited Sport S. Love the new seats (2013 models), engine and transmission, 3.73 limited slip diff. Stock tires not so much.

Started and ended in Seattle. Wallowa lake in NE Oregon, Hells Canyon FS roads, punctured the stock P255/75/R17 tires on the rocky roads there, Craters of the Moon, Got new tires and wheels in Salt Lake City area (BFGs TA-KO A/T, Load Range E 285/70/R17 on 17x8.5 rims with 4.5" offset, snowflake on side) then on to Moab for a few days, onward to Teluride and up to the power house at the falls (lower 2-way segment of the Black Bear Pass road), camped at Alta lakes nearby, then Ophir Pass, Silverton/Howardsville mine tour (Old Hundred Mine), Red Mountain Pass and ghost towns/mines, Corkscrew Pass, Hurricane Pass, California Pass, Engineer Pass and Lake City, CO for the night, on to Monarch Pass, Independence Pass, Aspen and Dinosour National Monument for the night and morning tour, then camped at Grand Teton NP, did the circle tour in Yellowstone yesterday and stayed in Butte, MT. Today stopped in Missoula to see friends of my ride-along daughter at U of Montana, stopped at older older daughters place in Spokane and got a Gonzaga campus tour and dinner at the falls, then home in Seattle.

Saw/photographed a wolf (2 feet away), many bison, and elk. Wolf went sauntering by the Jeep down the side of the road on north shore of Yellowstone Lake. 30 minutes later on our return by there a ranger was out there with a tranq gun looking for him.

The floor boards get very warm. Plenty of shielding underneath, but it gets real hot under the hood and transmission hump. Plenty of power for the freeway passes, and is quiet and smooth. Like the selectable gear and downhill assist feature in 4-Low, really works. Has a variable speed radiator fan that sounds like a jet engine when up near or at full speed. Kicked in a few times in the steep rocky passes. Engine coolant temps stayed normal.

Before I left I put 500 miles to break it in, put on Ace Engineering rock sliders/steps, stuck on door sill protectors, installed a SpiderWebshade Ultra mesh shade top and found a new 2012 takeoff soft top on craigslist and got that on - it has the Sunrider fold back top. The shade and top was used often, was nice combo. Hard top is hanging by pulleys in the garage.

So 2 thumbs up on the new 2012/3 model. Sold my RAM 2500 and Grandby combo last month to do a lifestyle swap with the Jeep. The jeep made every route easily, only scraped bottom once in Moab. Stayed on Easy to Moderate rated trails and roads. 2" lift in the cards later but probably after bumpers and winch to get the spring rates right. Also need to size for carrying my trail motorcycle on the hitch carrier. Need mud flaps for gravel damage control and mud on door reduction.

Ramblinman, on 15 August 2012 - 07:33 PM, said:

If the truck is off and it stays very warm or hot then something seems worng to me. If it is hot only while the truck is running, then that is due to the coil being energized and it will get very warm. How warm is too warm though, probably best left for the manufacturer to advise on. But if I cannot hold a finger on the unit for a minute or so withoiut fear of getting burned I would be concerned.

Wrong polarities, especially if there is not proper fusing or breakers, can cause nasty problems including frying connected appliances. I recommend you disconnect the wires, verify their polarity vs wire color. Once that is established, re-examine the posts on the relay - consult the manual if you can. Only the positive side is switched. The only reason for negative to be on the relay is to power the relay coil.

Having a 7 pin RV connector is not unusual, especially if the truck it went on once had a full size camper. I used a 7 pin also. Allows the use of a commonly available connector and has room for marker light and other wires, compatible with rear bumper wiring also. There are certainly other connector options.

Do you have a solar charger on your camper battery? 13.22 for a battery not on a charger, or many minutes after a fresh charge is too high. Seems like there is a solar charger or AC charger in the mix.

Now if the truck side of the separator is above 14 when the truck is on and the camper battery is still closer to 13 then the separator is not closing, or it is wired wrong.

If I was there in person, I would trace the voltage on both sides of the separator truck off, measuring voltages as you have done but also noting wire colors and polarity, making a schematic drawing and noting the colors and voltages, then run the truck and remeasure the voltages. I would look for any other wires on any of the terminals and ensure I knew what they lead to, such as fuses, solar chargers, loads. Seeing your 27V and the 0.5 volt difference I mentioned is hard to address without more information like the above things (colors, tracing, loads, chargers, etc).

I would also verify the separator contacts are closing when the starter battery voltage crosses the setpoint, and opens when it falls (truck turned off).

What makes you think there is no charging going on to your camper battery?

Voltages seem fine though the 0.5V drop across the Separator seems high. Not sure the 27V reading is valid. Looks like you managed to read 2 12V batteries in series, not parallel. Given everything else looks decent, not sure why you would see 27V which might indicate the last battery is wired backwards. You would need to note the polarity of each voltage measurement and wire color and ensure nothing is fishy there.