Hybrid - Can you jump *from* the positive terminal in the fuse box?

[trailhunger]

Whoa that’s crazy. I don’t understand what could be going on with this. I could understand the truck having to work a bit harder for a little bit after starting to recharge the battery, but once it’s charged up I would assume it wouldn’t have to work any harder.

I mean I guess the truck charger could help maintain the battery a little bit if its idling a lot but I doubt a small solar charger trickle charger would provide any meaningful charging.

I had a 200AH 2nd battery setup powered by a CTEC DC-DC charger on a 2nd gen taco and that thing would charge up that battery in a couple minutes. I can’t imagine the Toyota DC-DC charger is weaker or less efficient and is constantly charging the battery.

Do you notice a decline in MPGs on cloudy days?

So yes and no on cloudy days, kinda a mix of the hybrid pack being in the sweet spot 1/3rd to 1/2 charge, optimal outside temps and definitely the starter cell being topped off which can take awhile. Those 3 variables, and if you run ECO mode no AC you can really squeeze a lot of engine off coasting…it’s not my daily driver have a ‘24 TH with 13kmi on it. I also run a modified air dam on my rig even tho I’m sure there’s a bunch of geniuses who want to mansplain aero to me. Whatever, the starter battery is in a constant state of parasitic draw unless I’m out camping on a 500mi trip charging my fridge, the solar panel is feeding the starter battery whenever there’s sunshine. Because I have GFC on the truck, I ditched the rock rails for TRD Pro rocker deflectors, swapped the skid plates with carbon fiber composite deflector guards, sold the mullet bar 1st week gets my weight to OE curb. Debating next set of tires I go down a lot of service & washboard roads I have a long bed not exactly portal material for rock crawling. All about efficiency and longer trips, get to Baja Sur and back without burning a hole in my pocket

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[BTAO]

This is all you need. That connection is a convenience connection for jumping either direction so you don't have to go under the seat. It's no harder than that. If you read the manual, it says to bring the revs up a bit and let it charge the other vehicle for 5 minutes before trying to start it.

 

[BasedGod]

So yes and no on cloudy days, kinda a mix of the hybrid pack being in the sweet spot 1/3rd to 1/2 charge, optimal outside temps and definitely the starter cell being topped off which can take awhile. Those 3 variables, and if you run ECO mode no AC you can really squeeze a lot of engine off coasting…it’s not my daily driver have a ‘24 TH with 13kmi on it. I also run a modified air dam on my rig even tho I’m sure there’s a bunch of geniuses who want to mansplain aero to me. Whatever, the starter battery is in a constant state of parasitic draw unless I’m out camping on a 500mi trip charging my fridge, the solar panel is feeding the starter battery whenever there’s sunshine. Because I have GFC on the truck, I ditched the rock rails for TRD Pro rocker deflectors, swapped the skid plates with carbon fiber composite deflector guards, sold the mullet bar 1st week gets my weight to OE curb. Debating next set of tires I go down a lot of service & washboard roads I have a long bed not exactly portal material for rock crawling. All about efficiency and longer trips, get to Baja Sur and back without burning a hole in my pocket

Can I see your trickle charger? I’m very interested in attempting to replicate this

 

[trailhunger]

Can I see your trickle charger? I’m very interested in attempting to replicate this

That Grape Solar unit ‘is’ the trickle charger. Outputs 12v 10A max running this setup since February: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Grape-Solar-PWM-10A-IP68-Charge-Controller-GS-PWM-10A-IP68/334393733

Panel up top I’m running: https://a.co/d/0c4uXDTm

The panel is CIGS so angle/shadow cast/clouds still collects some energy.
Prices have come down too. Probably could spend +$20 and get a nicer charge controller w/LED readouts, etc.

 

[BasedGod]

That Grape Solar unit ‘is’ the trickle charger. Outputs 12v 10A max running this setup since February: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Grape-Solar-PWM-10A-IP68-Charge-Controller-GS-PWM-10A-IP68/334393733

Panel up top I’m running: https://a.co/d/0c4uXDTm

The panel is CIGS so angle/shadow cast/clouds still collects some energy.
Prices have come down too. Probably could spend +$20 and get a nicer charge controller w/LED readouts, etc.

Oh wow 10a and a 100w solar panel is much more substantial than I was expecting. This is very interesting, thank you for sharing this.

I have a small ecoflow battery that I’m going to try to replicate this with. I’ll use it to trickle charge the battery as u drive and see if it contributes at all to the MPGs

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