I'm joining the "aux battery won't charge" club. Should I just delete it?

[ShadowsPapa]

What would you consider "long enough"? My commute is about 8 miles each way, half through town and the other half down a 55mph two lane country road. I've always worried about it being too short.

The oil and coolant need to be up to operating temperature for "several minutes". Some labs suggest driving for a minimum of 30 minutes before drawing out a sample to ensure fuel contamination and moisture are "burned out" first.

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[Splenda]

The oil and coolant need to be up to operating temperature for "several minutes". Some labs suggest driving for a minimum of 30 minutes before drawing out a sample to ensure fuel contamination and moisture are "burned out" first.

My commute is 8 miles and 15 minutes. Maybe I need to let it warm up for 5 minutes before I make the drive.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

My commute is 8 miles and 15 minutes. Maybe I need to let it warm up for 5 minutes before I make the drive.

The solution reminds me of a song.............. was a favorite of my father -

You never see what you want to see
Forever playing to the gallery
You take the long way home
Take the long way home

 

[Splenda]

The solution reminds me of a song.............. was a favorite of my father -

You never see what you want to see
Forever playing to the gallery
You take the long way home
Take the long way home

Love that song! Love Supertramp.

 

[Splenda]

I used to own a couple diesel F250s back in the day that had the DPF and would go into regen on my commute. There were days that I would drive any extra 20 miles just to complete the cycle. I'd never own another diesel vehicle with a DPF.

 

[Lunentucker]

I drove my last truck (1996 Chevy Silverado) for over 20 years primarily to work and back and never had battery problems (out of the ordinary), let alone other engine issues. I guess modern cars are a different beast. There are days I wish I'd just kept it. I love my JT, but in 4 years I've just got 21K on the engine. And that's with taking a couple of 1000 mile round trips to the Outer Banks twice a year. Never thought I'd own an EV but it makes sense.

There are several new EV pickups on the horizon.
Slate, Scout, and more.
Scout has my reservation deposit, but it is refundable.

https://www.scoutmotors.com/terra

 

[Blue Ridge]

I live in a small town called Black Mountain in western NC. After Helene, I was one of a handfull of people who had a vehicle that could even get to places that were flooded in to help people. I winched a fallen tree out of our street to even get out the first time (for everyone in my neighborhood). That's a crazy rare occurance, but we literally would not have had drinking water for days if I were driving a Honda Civic. Let alone anything to bathe in or wash dishes or boild some rice. And no power for 16 days made me so glad I had a capable Jeep with a full tank. Again, this hurricane was an outlier. But I now have 2 160 gallon tanks filled with filtered water, more lanterns than any one man could need, etc.. But I'm 56 and don't believe I've seen my last weather event.

I'd never bought a remotely new vehicle until I ordered this JT. In a perfect world, I'd prefer to take care of it the best I can and keep it reliable.

 

[Bananaman]

I drove my last truck (1996 Chevy Silverado) for over 20 years primarily to work and back and never had battery problems (out of the ordinary), let alone other engine issues. I guess modern cars are a different beast. There are days I wish I'd just kept it. I love my JT, but in 4 years I've just got 21K on the engine. And that's with taking a couple of 1000 mile round trips to the Outer Banks twice a year. Never thought I'd own an EV but it makes sense.

Loved my 1993 Chevy Silverado (except the crappy transmission they put in it, rebuilt 3 times). Had almost 300,000 miles on that 5.0 before giving it to my SIL.

 

[Russ2023]

If one battery could do the job they're expecting, they wouldn't have put in two. This system is all about maintaining consistent voltage, not the size or capacity of the battery.

Agree. I had the itch to take what I thought of as a proactive approach and delete the auxiliary battery but before pulling the trigger I spoke to the owners of the three top off-road shops around here that specialize in Jeeps and they all agreed that it would be a terrible mistake. Two of them commented on how many times someone had brought their Jeep in for a problem that turned out to be related to the delete of the aux. As far as engineering goes with these things I’m not overly impressed but I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt that they actually knew what they were doing and leave things be.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Agree. I had the itch to take what I thought of as a proactive approach and delete the auxiliary battery but before pulling the trigger I spoke to the owners of the three top off-road shops around here that specialize in Jeeps and they all agreed that it would be a terrible mistake. Two of them commented on how many times someone had brought their Jeep in for a problem that turned out to be related to the delete of the aux. As far as engineering goes with these things I’m not overly impressed but I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt that they actually knew what they were doing and leave things be.

Remember, this is the internet. It makes a flea look like a man-killing tiger or worse.
anything that happens is magnified and multiplied.
You get the "me, too" group.
And worse - you get those who simply don't understand automotive electronics or power systems.
You'd be amazed at the number of people to this day on fakebook in the AMC Eagle pages who have trouble figuring out the most simple of things when a battery goes down. Suddenly it's a crowd throwing mud at the wall to see what sticks - you need to replace this, it's a bad engine ground, check the fuse, and on and on - no troubleshooting involved (and that's because you must know how things are supposed to work in order to figure out why they aren't working)
Everyone wants to be out there with the right answer or a solution. It's a race to the bottom in too many cases. And the poor fellow with a dead battery has spent $200 bucks only to find out he had a bad glove box switch allowing the light to stay on and drain the battery, or maybe it was a simple connection issue, whatever. 90%+ are wrong answers - but they'll keep tossing 'em out there anyway. One of these days, they'll be right. I mean - even a blind squirrel................

 

[ttn333]

Bypassed the aux battery about a year ago and have had no problem. Knock on wood. Start stop still works and is still annoying. Aux switches are working as the should. Will probably plug the mini jl tazer back in to turn off ESS.

 

[Andy29847]

Remember, this is the internet. It makes a flea look like a man-killing tiger or worse.
anything that happens is magnified and multiplied.
You get the "me, too" group.
And worse - you get those who simply don't understand automotive electronics or power systems.
You'd be amazed at the number of people to this day on fakebook in the AMC Eagle pages who have trouble figuring out the most simple of things when a battery goes down. Suddenly it's a crowd throwing mud at the wall to see what sticks - you need to replace this, it's a bad engine ground, check the fuse, and on and on - no troubleshooting involved (and that's because you must know how things are supposed to work in order to figure out why they aren't working)
Everyone wants to be out there with the right answer or a solution. It's a race to the bottom in too many cases. And the poor fellow with a dead battery has spent $200 bucks only to find out he had a bad glove box switch allowing the light to stay on and drain the battery, or maybe it was a simple connection issue, whatever. 90%+ are wrong answers - but they'll keep tossing 'em out there anyway. One of these days, they'll be right. I mean - even a blind squirrel................

The only thing wrong with your answer is that it discounts the amount of trouble Jeep owners have had trying to get battery issues repaired at the dealership.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

The only thing wrong with your answer is that it discounts the amount of trouble Jeep owners have had trying to get battery issues repaired at the dealership.

Touché
LOL
Yeah, you mean like the tech and service advisor who swore the reason my batteries were down in my 2020 was because of the winch - and - they FIXED IT by moving the winch ground from the top of the IBS over to the body ground - where the batteries are also grounded to anyway.

So let's add dealership people to those who don't understand automotive electric systems - even those they work on daily.

 

[Andy29847]

Agree. I had the itch to take what I thought of as a proactive approach and delete the auxiliary battery but before pulling the trigger I spoke to the owners of the three top off-road shops around here that specialize in Jeeps and they all agreed that it would be a terrible mistake. Two of them commented on how many times someone had brought their Jeep in for a problem that turned out to be related to the delete of the aux. As far as engineering goes with these things I’m not overly impressed but I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt that they actually knew what they were doing and leave things be.

I have yet to hear or read about anyone that has had trouble because they switched to just one battery. On the other hand, there is a new thread here every day where someone with the Jeep 2 battery system is having trouble.

Have you had any battery or electronics trouble after switching to just one battery? | Jeep Wrangler Forums (JL / JLU) -- Rubicon, 4xe, 392, Sahara, Sport - JLwranglerforums.com

 

[10ecHarry]

Naturally, the truck's warranty ran out 2 weeks ago. But I've been trickle charging it for several months now, and that usually fixes the issue for a while. Some YouTube videos I've watched recommend just capping off the aux battery and its wires, but I've seen Google recommendations to never do that and just replace both batteries. My main battery seems good, btw. If the aux was easier to get to, I'd be more inclined to keep it, but even getting to it to trickle charge is a pain. If it matters, I have 3 of my 4 switches hooked up to front lights, a winch, and onboard air. I use all three once in a while, but none regularly. As far as I can tell, all fuses look good. I want to simplify things and not have to worry about any electrical issues. Thanks!

DELETE.

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