Electrical Jeep/Van Battery Charging

[jandl]

Hello All

I have replaced the trusty Pathfinder with a new Jeep(2014) and have a question about van battery charging. Installed are a Cetek 250 Dual and a Cetek Smartpass in the van for battery control/charging. I understand the Jeep has the "smart" alternator that drops the voltage down so may not fully charge the van's batteries so does anybody know if I need any additional items or will the Ceteks compensate for the lower output voltage.

Jeep's only a week old (well, I class the date I pick it up as the birth date) so haven't had the opportunity to take pics yet as I know 'it didn't happen or you have not got" until pics are posted

 

[Ss--ss]

G'day, I know with my prado 150 that the alternator did the same thing by dropping the voltage. There was a mod you could get through the prado point forum & ebay which I got & has been running for 4 years. It charges my dual battery system a lot better..its a fuse/diode that just replaces the factory fuse in the fuse box... I'm not sure about jeeps maybe try a jeep specific forum?

 

[Dove]

May not be the same but Ranger owners are able to turn off the smart charge feature on the alternator.

 

[boots33]

Hello All

I have replaced the trusty Pathfinder with a new Jeep(2014) and have a question about van battery charging. Installed are a Cetek 250 Dual and a Cetek Smartpass in the van for battery control/charging. I understand the Jeep has the "smart" alternator that drops the voltage down so may not fully charge the van's batteries so does anybody know if I need any additional items or will the Ceteks compensate for the lower output voltage.

Jeep's only a week old (well, I class the date I pick it up as the birth date) so haven't had the opportunity to take pics yet as I know 'it didn't happen or you have not got" until pics are posted

The cetec d250 with the smart pass should be all you need to keep it all going ok. That setup will be able to supply a very high amount of current through the smart pass (provided your wiring is heavy enough) to bring flat batteries up quickly . Then it will use the higher voltage available from the d250 to finish topping them off.

As long as the cetec is not supplying other high drain items like the 3way fridge ( see this thread for a discussion on that) you will be ok.

Also you may need to change how the d250 is wired as it could have problems with drop outs due to the lower voltage available.
See this thread for the details.

The first stop may be to contact your Jeep dealer and see if the smart alternators profile can be changed as @Dove has indicated can be done to Rangers. If that is possible it would make everything work as it should.

The diode replacement as indicated by @Ss--ss has been a popular mod for other vehicles for some time. It works by replacing the charge controllers fuse with a diode. the diode introduces a small voltage drop and the controller is tricked into thinking the battery voltage is always around .5v lower than it really is, thus (in theory) it increases alternator output. Some swear by it others say it is of little use. Either way you would possibly void your jeep warranty by fitting one. (if they are available for the jeep)

 

[BigSkiddy]

Hey @jandl, try this thread.

http://www.jeepgarage.org/forums/showthread.php?t=63061

 

[jandl]

Thanks for the replies, a lot of interesting reading. From what I have gathered from the reading is I should be right with the current set up as I also have a solar panel on the roof of the van and that supplies 17v (I think) to the d250 so hopefully that will top up the voltage to 14.4v when required. The 3 way fridge runs through the 12 pin plug as Per the standard Jayco wiring. Worked well on the Pathfinder so hopefully does as well on the Jeep.