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How to access 12vdc from your transit.

24K views 17 replies 11 participants last post by  Yurish  
#1 · (Edited)
Remove the 4 Torx screws that hold down the seat rails to the seat base
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Lift the seat off and prop it against the passenger seat
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Remove the two battery hold down screws at the rear of the seat base, remove the battery retainer and battery box cover

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Always remove the battery negative cable first then the positive and remove the battery. Reverse that order when you reinstall the battery. Doing this will prevent you from accidentally shorting something out while working at the battery terminals. Disconnect the battery overflow tube if you have a single battery then remove the battery and battery box.

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The connector on the left with the small pins is C33-E. Pin 3 is engine run negative and can handle only a small 250ma load (most 30amp relays pull about 30ma on the coil side) and pin 6 is key on power but is off when the key is turned to start. This is fused at the main fuse box with a 10amp fuse.

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At the CCP remove the nut that holds it to the seat base.

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Remove the two nuts that hold the pre-fuse box in place and pull it to the left and up so that it is free. You can now remove the covers that cover the pre-fuses and CCP fuses.

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Remove the large pink secondary cable and red battery cable on the left side. This will allow you to pull the pre-fuse box far enough out to get access to the CCP fuses.

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Get some small quick connects and attach them to a length of wire sufficient to get you out of the seat base area. I couldn't find any small ones that were fully protected so I put shrink tubing on the ends to keep them from touching any of the other pins.

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Attach one wire to pin 6 and the and the other wire to pin 3. I used black and red which is incorrect since they are switched and should be striped but as long as you know what they are you should be ok.

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Since we don't want to go through this again, connect your always on, high current wire to the back side of the CCP buss bar. You can put a circuit breaker in or use a fuse box and use individual fuses. The circuit breaker is a good option and I highly recommend it. If you have a single battery you can but probably shouldn't exceed 60amps since it will drain your starting battery quickly. Use a wire size that is appropriate for the amount of current you desire. I used marine grade 8 awg stranded/tinned wire which is more than enough for 60 amps.

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Check the positive battery cable. You'll find a fuse there that is the smart charge sense circuit. If you are having battery issues this is the first place to look. You can blow the fuse during jump starts if you don't use the correct procedures. Check the fuse and replace if needed.

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Check all you cables to make sure you don't have any bare ends and then reconnect your battery I ran all mine back to their homes and connected them before I reconnected the battery. This avoids working with hot wire. I got my negative from the battery post because it's clean that way but you can use the body if you want.

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I routed everything through my cabinets and back to my utility cabinet.

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My utility area now has Vehicle Faux D+, Key On 12v + and 60 amps of always on 12V + in addition to a negative buss bar from the battery. Note the fuse box that lets me fuse at the individual load level. None of this is connected in anyway to the house batteries. This is strictly vehicle power. The only power that is always on is the main 8 ga from the CCP buss bar but I break that at the large relay so when the engine is not running, no current flows.
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This setup is for my van, once you have access to the three key voltage sources you can do with them as you wish.

In my case, I'm taking 12vdc from the vehicle and using it to run anything that I want to run while I'm driving thus preserving my house batteries for when I get to where I'm going. I have a set of isolation relays that will automatically switch over from house to vehicle and vice versa without having to remember to turn any switches. That will run my Fridge and anything else that I'll need to keep going during my travels. Once the vehicle is no longer running it will completely isolate the vehicles battery from any external loads.

The 12vdc + that you get from pin 6 on C33-E is active when the key is on in all positions except start so it is safe from starter surges. It has a 10amp fuse on it in one of the fuse boxes so it is best to use this to operate a relay and take the load voltage from the CCP side. Pin 3 has a max of 250ma which is more than enough to operate relays up to 30amps. If you notice, I'm switching the CCP lead at the larger relay using a smaller relay first. The larger relay will hand 80 amps but the smaller only 30. If you decide to do something like that and think you can use a cheap fender mounted starter relay for a 66 Mustang, you can't. It's intended for momentary use and you need one that is intended for continuous use. Do shop around because prices are all over the map and there's very little if any difference in any of them. This one was about 40.00 at West Marine and is sold by Marinco.
If you need more current from the CCP, then you need to make sure you use the correct wire gauge to handle the load. I used 8ga since I am limiting my max to 50 amps at the fuse box in my utility cabinet. 8ga is more than enough for that, I probably could have gotten away with 10 or even 12ga.
 
#5 ·
Thanks a bunch - this is part of my 'Christmas Break to-do' so good to have some more photos to assist.

One question for you [or the forum]. I am going to tap a onto the backside of the CCP like you have for an inverter hookup. My TrippLite inverter has two hookups for ground; a 'Black' 12v - , and a true ground. If I'm using the body as my ground, it's the same wire, right? I'm thinking of just running from the good ground by the e-brake to a bus and then having two wires from that bus go into the inverter. One as the negative 12v and one as the ground.

I'm not crazy, right?

The only other solution would be to run a 12v - from the battery in addition to the e-brake ground, but they should be interchangeable.
 
#6 ·
Your inverter has a + and - connection that are connected to a battery source. Since you're powering it from the CCP you might want to consider getting the - from the battery directly. The third wire is a case ground and should be connected to the vans body. I could go on about battery circuits and grounds but it would just wreak havoc with this thread.
 
#8 ·
This is the vehicle side of the equation and after testing today I can honestly say that it all works perfectly.

As a side note, my alternator voltage with a fully charged battery is 14.11vdc. That's a stock, single calcium battery with a 150 amp alternator. That would be fine for lead acid deep cycles up to about 90% charge since it's essentially flood voltage but after that it needs to come down to 13.6 for the final charge and 13.2 for the float. I watched it at idle for about 10 minutes and it didn't change. So no, I am not using the vehicle to directly charge my house batteries.

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#11 ·
This is the vehicle side of the equation and after testing today I can honestly say that it all works perfectly.

As a side note, my alternator voltage with a fully charged battery is 14.11vdc. That's a stock, single calcium battery with a 150 amp alternator. That would be fine for lead acid deep cycles up to about 90% charge since it's essentially flood voltage but after that it needs to come down to 13.6 for the final charge and 13.2 for the float. I watched it at idle for about 10 minutes and it didn't change. So no, I am not using the vehicle to directly charge my house batteries.

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I like your use of the solid state relays. I could have saved some cabling worries if I had paid more attention to that. :)

But, I was interested in that last 10% of the charge to the house battery. What are using for that? (Perhaps you said in in earlier post that I missed.)
 
#9 ·
If you really want to have some fun go on a sailing forum and add "bonding" and lightning protection into the mix. Almost as good as "guns in campers" or "Which motor oil to use".
Been there, tried that.... LOL... The craziest one is when I see an aluminum boat with the battery negative tied to the hull. No, wait, there's one that's crazier, copper based anti fouling paint on an aluminum boat.. Who needs a battery, the whole dang boat is one... LOL
 
#10 ·
Yesterday I announced that every thing worked perfectly but there is one small potential problem. When the engine run relay switches, it completes the circuit and allows the isolation/transfer relays to operate. The potential problem is that when going from house to vehicle voltage/current it's happening too early. I've watched the voltage and there is a drop to 9.5 volts that quickly recovers to 14.11 volts. That would briefly cause a significant rise in current that could potentially blow fuses or stress equipment. Since that is not a good thing I'm ordering a timer relay that will delay the transfer and that should allow the vehicle to recover from the start sequence and be providing stable voltage when the transfer occurs.
 
#13 ·
The connector on the left with the small pins is C33-E. Pin 3 is engine run negative and can handle only a small 250ma load (most 30amp relays pull about 30ma on the coil side) and pin 6 is key on power but is off when the key is turned to start. This is fused at the main fuse box with a 10amp fuse.
Silly question but where might I find the main fuse box and precisely this fuse? You might guess why I'm asking...
 
#15 · (Edited)
I'm curious as to why you didn't run your positive circuit from the vans positive battery posts instead of using the factory CCP ?
My thinking is by running from the vans positive battery posts it would be easier to get to the fuse/Circuit breaker then to dig down to the CCP fuse if there ever was a need to check/change fuse.
I'm not saying it's wrong but just curious.

I like the way your ground comes from the negative battery post , that never crossed my mind to do that .
Super excellent thread as i'm getting ready to wire up behind my seats , thanks for posting.