Ranger Mods

I have a 2019 Ranger Wildtrak 3.2 which had the tow pack installed as standard.
Early this year I installed a 20A DC-DC controller in the van and wired it through to pin 8 on the 12 pin connector so that the battery could be charged by the vehicle and this worked fine on my first trip.
On the next trip I noticed that I was not getting power from the car and a quick check showed that I was not getting any power from the car on pin8. I checked the fusible link (F87) and checked that I was getting voltage to the fuse.
Yesterday I decided to investigate further and uncovered the tow module (under the passenger seat) and verified that I was getting voltage at the input on the Wh/Red wire from the fuse but no output on the orange wire to the trailer connector. I went further and pulled the circuit board out of the packagaing, expecting that some current surge had fried a relay or something, but everything looked fine. Whilst in the car I checked the voltages on the board and found that there was no signal to the relay to actuate and then traced the signal trace back to one of the larger chips.
While reading one of the Ford service manuals I noticed a line where it said that if there is an overcurrent condition on any of the outputs, the module will disable that output.
So it occurred to me that I may need to re-enable it through Forscan, but have no idea where to look.
Can anyone help?.

Allan

Is pin 8 capable of carrying 20amps constantly?

RossPat wrote: ↑Sat Nov 12, 2022 7:08 pm Is pin 8 capable of carrying 20amps constantly?

I dont really know, however It has a 40A fuse for that cct. Pin 9 has a 20A fuse and is an unswitched connection. The wire from the fuse to the tow controller looks like 4mm, but the wire down to the trailer connector is only 2/3mm.

I don't think the wires are heavy enough
There have been many posts about the plastic melting around the pins
I ran 100 amp wire from the battery to a 50amp Anderson plug on the towbar
Ran another inside the tub to run gear
One hundred amp is probably overkill but I don't get much voltage drop
Starting battery is 14.4v and at 2 batteries half way to the back of the van it is 13.8/9 volts
No dc 2 dc charger but smart charge is disabled

Check if there are any DTCs in Forscan for TRM module.

If so then clear DTCs, but being it has done it once then I would be running a totally seperate run with Anderson plugs.

saeb wrote: ↑Sun Nov 13, 2022 9:59 pm Check if there are any DTCs in Forscan for TRM module.

If so then clear DTCs, but being it has done it once then I would be running a totally seperate run with Anderson plugs.

Just checked and there were no DTC WRT to the TRM module, but there are 3 that keep coming up on the BCM saying there's a battery short to ground on the left and right indicators and the tail lights. I do have the van plugged in so maybe that is affecting the DTCs, but all the lights work as expected.
I found a setting for trailer relays that I enebled, but to no avail.
You may be right about the wiring, however the charging function signal from the tow module would be very handy as a control line for a relay to connect the car power to the van.

I'd definitely recommend running a separate power feed to an anderson plug to power your DC-DC charger. Even if the cable within the factory trailer plug could handle the current draw it is likely you'll have substantial voltage drop over that distance. DC chargers will have a wire you connect to a supply which is only powered with the ignition on (essentially acting as that relay you want to use).
In regards to your DTCs with the indicators and tail lights, my old man has had issues with his caravan lights in the past when using cheap LED globes. Also he had in issue with insufficient earthing of the lights on his van. Just a couple of thoughts.