Battery Drains when Flat Towing a 2016 Jeep Patriot Behind a Motor Home

Question:

According to the dealership and the owners manual, this jeep tows perfectly well with the trans in neutral and the ignition switch in the accessory position. No mention of pulling fuses, etc, is made. My problem is that I placed the jeep in the accessory positionaccording to the dealer because NOT covered in the owners manual and when I got to my destination I had a dead battery. How can I overcome this? Is the position of the key supposed to be the locked position where nothing comes on inside the vehicle to drain the battery? Please help. When in the accessory position according to the dealer, the dash lights glow and the screen shows the time in bold numerals, both a drain on the battery Im sure. Thank you.

asked by: Robert W

Expert Reply:

I checked the owner's manual for the 2016 Jeep Patriot and there is not all that much information on flat towing apart from an explanation of the models that can be flat towed. Since the vehicle has a feature that drains the battery while being flat towed I recommend supplying a trickle charge to the battery from the motor home.

To do this I recommend using coiled umbilical kit # HM47054. One end plugs into a 7-Way on the RV and the other end plugs into the 6-Way included with the kit. You will need to connect the lighting wires from that light kit you are using to the labeled 6-Way: white is ground, brown is tail lights, yellow is left turn/brake lights, and green is right turn/brake lights.

Then you would attach a length of wire, # 12-1-1, sold by the foot, to the 12 volt circuit on the 6-Way and the other end to the positive terminal on the battery. If the 12 volt circuit is not functional on the RV side then you could tap into the running light circuit and run with the lights on to provide a slight charge to the Jeep battery.

This method will help but the battery could still drain, just not as quickly. It is still recommended to let the Jeep run for awhile when you stop so the alternator can charge up the battery. When you do that make sure to disconnect the lights from the RV to the Jeep so power does not back feed to the RV. And be sure to reconnect before taking off again.

expert reply by: Michael H