Solution for Maintaining 2016 Subaru Forester Battery While Being Flat Towed

Question:

I have installed an invisibrake on my 2016 Forester. The car uses more power than the invisibrake can recharge which means my car battery is often dead when I unhook it. I always run with the lights on the motorhome, a 2016 Winn. Forza. . Any thoughts or suggestions?

asked by: Michael

Expert Reply:

I have a solution for you to prevent your 2016 Subaru Forester's battery from draining while you are flat towing your vehicle. The easiest way to maintain the battery charge on the Forester is to use a charge wire that connects your vehicle's battery to your RV's battery.

If your 2016 Winnebago Forza has a 7-Way trailer connector at the rear, the 12V hot lead wire should already be connected from the RV battery to the trailer connector.

To connect a charge wire to the Forester's battery, you will want to run a charge line kit, part # RM-156-25, connected to the positive post of the vehicle's battery to the vehicle-side trailer connector. If your current taillight wiring connector is only a 4-Way connector, I recommend cutting off the 4-Way and wiring in a 6-Way connector. Blue Ox offers their 7-Wire to 6-Wire, Coiled Electrical Cord # BX88206 to connect the RV to the towed vehicle and includes a 6-Way vehicle-side connector.

The 6-Way connector will allow you to provide a maintenance charge to your Forester's battery while it is connected to the RV. While this will not charge a dead battery, it will maintain an already charged battery so that it is not dead when you arrive at your destination.

I reached out to my technical contact at Roadmaster to see if they have run into any issues with battery drain on the 2016 Subaru Forester, and this is not an issue they have seen before.

expert reply by: Victoria B