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Trailer-Tow and Heavy-Duty Electric Group 3.6L Owners

Gee-pah

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This goes out mostly to those who optioned in for the above...better still if you're a short trips/infrequent usage driver.

Do you find--independent of whether you love it, hate it, or are indifferent--that ESS won't engage in your vehicles unless you routinely hook them up to a trickle charger when parked?

I don't have the option in this thread's subject title. I find that trickle charging my 3.6L Sahara JL when parked at home is a necessary part of keeping ESS working. It's not that I love ESS but fear its failure may be product of flaws in vehicle design, or failure of other components within the vehicle manifesting themselves with the kind of battery depletion that doesn't strand the rig, but does cause enough depletion in battery power that short of taking long trips where the alternator has opportunity to recharge the batteries, ESS stops engaging.

With the larger 240 amp alternator of the subject title's option, along with the 700 amp (main) battery, I wonder if its owners fair better--rephrase: I wonder if this "option" should have been "standard."

Thanks.
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Neanderthalman

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I have the towing package with HD electrical. I am driving primarily short trips - maybe five-ten minutes most trips and rarely freeway. It is not, however, sitting for long periods of time, no more than a few days at a time and generally daily.

I have never connected a trickle charger.

I have never had any issues with ESS. It continues to function as always.

I have never had any electrical issues at all.
 

ColsJLU

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Same here. I have both options and drive a lot of short trips with stop and go, COVID-time that’s all I really do.

No issues with the system. After 6mo I’m still not quite used to it but it’s fine. A lifetime of driving 6 figure odometer Jeeps has left me with a bit of PTSD about my ride suddenly shutting off lol.
 

FasEddy

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My JLUR is optioned this way. I have been working from home since March and can go a week or more without driving. When I do drive, the trips are often sort. My ESS seems to function fine and I do not use a trickle charger.
 

Suffolklou

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I have never had the ESS not work in the JL because it sat for too long, there are other threads where people have had to have one or both batteries replaced because of this.

My wifes 2016 Grand Cherokee on the other hand, she drives about 4 miles each way to work (pre covid, now it just sits). It does not work. I have to charge it from time to time to make it work. She hates it BTW and has the smart stop start in her OBD-2 port.
 

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Gee-pah

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I have never had the ESS not work in the JL because it sat for too long, there are other threads where people have had to have one or both batteries replaced because of this.

My wifes 2016 Grand Cherokee on the other hand, she drives about 4 miles each way to work (pre covid, now it just sits). It does not work. I have to charge it from time to time to make it work. She hates it BTW and has the smart stop start in her OBD-2 port.
Hi Lou..curious...is your JL optioned with the above referenced towing package?
 

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I have had the jeep with the packaged mentioned a month or so, my answer to your question is no.

Short trips and weather changes will tax a battery. Adding to that all the other electrical crap I have or will install.

I have a battery tender. It's normally plugged into a vehicle. I also carry a jumper pack and cables. I have crap luck w batteries....last one went out in colorado in pagoda springs (hr away) on a freaking sunday (not the jeep), but that vehicle's battery was 18 mos old, under warranty, and had just done a ton of road driving that month (1500+ miles).....

what I don't understand if people saying they can't jump this jeep with a jumper pack. I have jumped several diesels 2 battery set ups w mine
 
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I have had the jeep with the packaged mentioned a month or so, my answer to your question is no.

Short trips and weather changes will tax a battery. Adding to that all the other electrical crap I have or will install.

I have a battery tender. It's normally plugged into a vehicle. I also carry a jumper pack and cables. I have crap luck w batteries....last one went out in colorado in pagoda springs (hr away) on a freaking sunday (not the jeep), but that vehicle's battery was 18 mos old, under warranty, and had just done a ton of road driving that month (1500+ miles).....

what I don't understand if people saying they can't jump this jeep with a jumper pack. I have jumped several diesels 2 battery set ups w mine
Thanks for your thoughts Neil on your experiences with charging being similar to mine despite the presence of the Towing option, and all its electrical enhancements on your JL, and lack of them on mine. I do think though that added components of yours which may tax the resting batteries may play into your experience.

Running a dash camera at all times (which will shut off when the vehicle is parked, if a certain battery voltage that's enough to crank, but not enough to power ESS) I can relate--much that trickle charging was still necessary for me, prior to camera purchase, to keep ESS going.

~~~~~~~~~~

As it regards your curiosity with the seeming frequency of reported failures with jumper packs on the JL, at least in the 3.6L version, I have some theories that I'll try to be (relatively) brief on here, so as to not hijack my own initial question on subject matter covered well in other threads (sources available on request.)

From testing by forum members discussed in other threads, the 2018 3.6L JL requires the ESS/Aux battery to bear some degree of charge, (even if not enough to permit the ESS system to engage once the vehicle has warmed up and met other criteria for ESS to activate) before a crank is attempted.

Ironically, the fact that this crank is energized by both batteries in parallel, and that an owner's main battery could have the "power of the sun" is irrelevant.

This design, it's been further reported, has changed on subsequent model years (and on 2018's which have received a particular dealer flash) to allow the 3.6L to, on second crank attempt, switch over to the main battery to crank the rig, if the initial try shows the ESS battery failing its test--throwing a diagnostic code to the driver which I imagine involves a dealer replacing the ESS/Aux battery and/or determining the cause of its being drained if other vehicle components are to blame.

The implications of this initial test of the ESS/Aux battery in isolation prior to crank, and it passing a basic threshold of charge test before a crank would be attempted by the vehicle upon user pressing of the brake and start button (I imagine remote start too) meant that in order to jump start the 3.6L, a waiting period was required while the donor energy source (in this case a power pack) would sit on the main battery (which is connected in parallel to the ESS/Aux battery at all times but for this aforementioned pre-crank test and ESS events) and charge the ESS battery enough to pass this pre-crank test.

This waiting requirement, born of the logic of how the vehicle cranks, must no doubt deplete in part the jumper pack, especially since it's also charging the main battery. Power packs are often designed to deliver lots of current in short time frames so as to overcome the forces of inertia and crank the engine, more than as a battery charger.

I would not confuse this with the waiting time of a donor cranked vehicle, whose alternator might allow a donor battery to top off its power before a jump start is attempted, while it also puts some basic power into the (sole) battery of, say, a sedan with a dead battery.

Bottom line, the irony here is that in order to charge the ESS/Aux battery enough for the rig to attempt the crank, the power pack may be depleted in current enough to not have the power to crank the engine once the 3.6L JL sees sufficient charge in the ESS/Aux battery (care of this very power pack) and "green lights" the crank to be tried.

Hopefully less power pack failure results under the new start logic of either battery cranking the rig, where less of a waiting period occurs, a crank is attempted and fails, the 3.6L switches to the main battery (and power pack parallel connected to it) and then the second crank attempt succeeds.
 

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Thanks for your thoughts Neil on your experiences with charging being similar to mine despite the presence of the Towing option, and all its electrical enhancements on your JL, and lack of them on mine. I do think though that added components of yours which may tax the resting batteries may play into your experience.

Running a dash camera at all times (which will shut off when the vehicle is parked, if a certain battery voltage that's enough to crank, but not enough to power ESS) I can relate--much that trickle charging was still necessary for me, prior to camera purchase, to keep ESS going.

~~~~~~~~~~

As it regards your curiosity with the seeming frequency of reported failures with jumper packs on the JL, at least in the 3.6L version, I have some theories that I'll try to be (relatively) brief on here, so as to not hijack my own initial question on subject matter covered well in other threads (sources available on request.)

From testing by forum members discussed in other threads, the 2018 3.6L JL requires the ESS/Aux battery to bear some degree of charge, (even if not enough to permit the ESS system to engage once the vehicle has warmed up and met other criteria for ESS to activate) before a crank is attempted.

Ironically, the fact that this crank is energized by both batteries in parallel, and that an owner's main battery could have the "power of the sun" is irrelevant.

This design, it's been further reported, has changed on subsequent model years (and on 2018's which have received a particular dealer flash) to allow the 3.6L to, on second crank attempt, switch over to the main battery to crank the rig, if the initial try shows the ESS battery failing its test--throwing a diagnostic code to the driver which I imagine involves a dealer replacing the ESS/Aux battery and/or determining the cause of its being drained if other vehicle components are to blame.

The implications of this initial test of the ESS/Aux battery in isolation prior to crank, and it passing a basic threshold of charge test before a crank would be attempted by the vehicle upon user pressing of the brake and start button (I imagine remote start too) meant that in order to jump start the 3.6L, a waiting period was required while the donor energy source (in this case a power pack) would sit on the main battery (which is connected in parallel to the ESS/Aux battery at all times but for this aforementioned pre-crank test and ESS events) and charge the ESS battery enough to pass this pre-crank test.

This waiting requirement, born of the logic of how the vehicle cranks, must no doubt deplete in part the jumper pack, especially since it's also charging the main battery. Power packs are often designed to deliver lots of current in short time frames so as to overcome the forces of inertia and crank the engine, more than as a battery charger.

I would not confuse this with the waiting time of a donor cranked vehicle, whose alternator might allow a donor battery to top off its power before a jump start is attempted, while it also puts some basic power into the (sole) battery of, say, a sedan with a dead battery.

Bottom line, the irony here is that in order to charge the ESS/Aux battery enough for the rig to attempt the crank, the power pack may be depleted in current enough to not have the power to crank the engine once the 3.6L JL sees sufficient charge in the ESS/Aux battery (care of this very power pack) and "green lights" the crank to be tried.

Hopefully less power pack failure results under the new start logic of either battery cranking the rig, where less of a waiting period occurs, a crank is attempted and fails, the 3.6L switches to the main battery (and power pack parallel connected to it) and then the second crank attempt succeeds.
I jump a lot of diesels (horse/cattle crap), most packs have to sit a bit after connecting to get enough juice flowing to all the arteries. That is completely normal in most 2 battery set-ups. I was under the assumption to pack jump a JL you had to remove the negative cable and go POS battery NEG chassis (but am still reading and have not tried)

Wife has a diesel mercedes 08 that can jump off the sole rear battery. Or I should say I have a few times.

Like I mentioned earlier, plugging into a 1.25 4 stage charger at least once a week till I get a full charge is a normal thing where I live. Winters are cold and damp, summers go to 110 and a lot of the roadway driving is pretty hot. Cars spend a lot of time idling followed by multiple starts/sort trips.

Have not had an interstate battery last over 18 months since '15.
 

eck

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I have 3.6L+Tow package, and almost all of my trips are 15 minutes or less. I would guess once every 6 to 8 weeks, ESS will stop working with the "Battery Charging" message. At that point I'll hook up the battery tender overnight, and it will then work perfectly for the next 6-8 weeks, repeat.
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