I'm not clear on what your describing...I have the negative side of the charge going through the post the BMS is on...should it be connected directly to chassis ground?
Correct it should be at chassis ground. Do me a favor and take a picture and show me where you have it connected
That is the correct way to do it. When you have the charger with negative connected right there the charger will go through the BMS system. If you just connect it all at the battery itself it skips the BMS and the BMS doesn't even see it.Mine is connected here.
Ford, Party pooper...
It applies to any vehicle with a variable voltage system. My 2012 Frontier is no exception
So when I connect the negative for my winch connection (which I only connect when I want to use my winch) I should use a chassis ground instead of the negative terminal?
Correct, Even though it may be a pain as I'm sure the winch likes to pull a lot of amps in the process
Yeah the winch will pull a lot of amps. I use it very infrequently (which is why I keep it disconnected most of the time). I keep a 10mm wrench in the console so I can connect it if need be. I will look for a suitable chassis ground now.
One way to help out is to have one of those heavy duty switches mounted in the engine bay area. That way you dont need a tool to connect and disconnect and it is a bit cleaner in there.
Yeah, but I hope I never need the winch - I've only used it once out in the woods, and a couple of times at home (just playing with it mainly). I bought the winch as a replacement for my comealong. I'm getting too old do do the comealong....
I certainly agree with that logic. Better to have something and not need it versus need it and be screwed
Its kind of funny - the one time I actually used the winch was kind of silly - or stupid - take your pick. I was driving up in the woods early in the season. I thought I'd see what the snow was like - I didn't get too far and it was getting deep and I was by myself so I decided not to push it an turn around. Well, when I was turning around, at that point on the Forest Service road there was a BIG ditch - I dropped my front tire into the ditch and I couldn't pull myself out with 4WD, even with the locker. So the winch got attached to the rear hitch and pulled me out in about 5 mins. Easy, peasy, nothing terrible - but it pulled me out of a stupid situation.
