Disclaimer: We received the Powerbase65 conversion kit from Martin at Martin Rebuilds in order to help us bring you this first-person installation review as part of a two-part collaboration. In exchange, we’ll be sending Martin our Mellon Board when it’s completed!
The Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck offers a lot of everyday practical versatility, and even though it’s no longer made, owners and enthusiasts are still finding ways of improving on the truck’s factory spec.
At this channel, we’ve made some of our own improvements, and we’ve got a long list of things we’ve got planned – including an upfitter harness, functional fog lights, and of course, our in-house designed Mellon Board.
But when it comes to the 12-volt starter battery, we’ve had a slew of bad luck. Our truck’s first battery died. The replacement from Ohmmu didn’t work as intended, and the expensive OEM replacement our local dealership fitted after that hasn’t fared much better.
Today, we try to fix it once and for all thanks to @MartinRebuilds-fz1ep! Martin has designed a custom battery tray and conversion kit that’s just gone on sale for $159.95 (free shipping to the continental US), letting you swap the underpowered H3 battery for a much larger, more readily-available Group 65 battery.
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*⏱️ Chapter Breakdown*:
00:00 – Introduction
03:49 – Unboxing the Martin Rebuilds Group 65 Battery Upgrade
05:26 – Removing the old battery
07:10 – We’ve had several batteries before.
08:01 – Comparing the old and new battery
08:44 – Putting the adapter tray in
09:25 – The Next Day …Nikki’s frustration with Batteries Plus
14:55 – Installing the new Group 65 battery
18:17 – It’s in!
19:16 – Pulling down the frunk
21:26 – Programming the BMS
24:06 – Thanks, and Goodbye!
Video Links:
Martin Rebuilds PowerBase65 Adapter:
Martin Rebuilds YouTube ChanneL
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Regarding Tillamook, Halal foods are basically the same as Kosher foods. So conservatives wanting to ban Halal will also wind up inadvertently banning Kosher foods
So, about the Walmart group 65, 600CCA battery, it will fail after a year. It did with me on the 2006 F-150 XLT I used to own. It's the smaller battery that can go into the truck, it has a two year warranty, but my local Walmart refused to honor the warranty and I had to buy the bigger battery, that's 700CCA.
Also, Walmart batteries are built by the company formerly known as Johnson Controls. Best bet would have been to buy an O'Reilly Super Start group 65. Those are built by East Penn Manufacturing
Thank you for the video! I ordered the MartinRebuilds kit for my ‘23 Lightning Lariat and was about to order a Duracell Group 65 battery from Batteries Plus. Shopping elsewhere for a battery before installing this weekend.
Thanks as always! Just ordered my kit! Appreciate you!
Really comprehensive content. A problem that tested your patience but happily ended with meeting a new friend. Forgive me as I may have missed it but I didn't see where the new tray was secured to the chassis with a longer bolt so replacing the OE clamp and short bolt that held the battery case. The battery was secured to the new tray but not the tray itself. EDIT. OK to resolve my continuity brain glitch I just rewatched and found the video abruptly stopped just as the new tray was being positioned. Content swung over to the battery post issue but the action recommenced AFTER the tray had to have been secured wth the new longer bolt.
Toyota hybrids are notorious for 12V aux battery issues like this.
Many many people including me are complaining about this on Toyota forums.
Not sure what you know about riding motor bikes . You talked about bike handling comming out of a corner…one thing you did not mention was counter steer. I did not know about this for many years of riding. Put simply you turn the front wheel to the left when you want to turn right and it puts the bike into a lean taking you right.. it can also be used to take the bike out of a turn….steer wheel to the right in a right turn and it will tand the bike up out of the turn..you will not need to use throttle or brake. Called counter steer it sounds strange but works very well. This is not ment as a criticism jus an option
Always disconnect negative first and reconnect last. That way if you bump something metal with your tools, you don't short out the battery.
After a couple of "learning experiences" with Batteries +, they are now dead to me, as well. More like Batteries
plusignorance. Also, agree on your Ford frustrations; that's what happens when a previous Furniture Vendor (yeah, Mr. farley, I'm talking about you) heads up a "world class" Automotive Manufacturer. Glad it all worked out for you in the long run.Thank you for sharing your experiences, good and bad, for this project. I appreciate your candor in everything that you've posted.
Will the truck recognize there is a larger 12 volt battery instead of the H3? Will the truck be able to fully charge the 12 volt battery using the DC to DC converter when it is on?
Don't you have a small, family business battery supplier in Portland that has been in business for decades that actually knows what they are doing? And they might not overcharge you either.
Excellent episode! The H3 should never have happened in the first place, and the fact that Ford never addressed it when it was an obvious problem is equally disturbing.
Duraleak is no longer a premium battery company, so many remote controls lost to these leaky cells, thankfully all replaced with rechargeable cells these days, the news of the defective 12V doesn't surprise me one bit.
I had 3 installed in mine lightning
Community based support. Because dealers hate you when you come in. Great job FORD !
That original clamp isn't the right size (too large). I would suggest using No-OX grease on all surfaces!
Costco is great for car batteries – although Interstate kind of suck now-a-days.
I have never had a good experience with Batteries Plus. Mostly meh… I would always bring a sample in to match it. Not to design something.
For autoparts I tend to go to a good auto parts shop. Walmart typically can supply a similar battery more cheaply. I try to support the ones who have some real world knowledge and love of autos in general. And don't have flock cameras reading your plates.
Let me get this right Ford had enough room for a bigger battery but cheaped out on a minor costing part. Which to me indicates that the engineering team specified a right sized battery, but someone in management (probably a bean counter) over ruled the engineering decision. Why on earth would they do that, given the potential of customer problems which will result in higher costs to the company to trouble shoot and repair the problem.
Annoying hearing about these batteries failing, my 2014 Volt is still on its original 12v.
I got myself a Genesis GV70 it was 18 months old with 1500 miles, ex demo, so when I got it home I trickle charged the aux battery to full overnight. I will boost it again going into winter say early December. Now the issue of Ford cheaping out on the 12V aux battery, its a Ford what do you expect. If you had watched Munro Live on YouTube you would of avoided it by a country mile. How they have not gone bust yet staggers me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfe-5CWpxo4
Good range of batteries at Costco folks.
I've had my Ohmmu H4 12V battery in my 2018 Kia Soul EV for about 6 months now and no issues (and no relearning is necessary for this vehicle). There are several things I really love about the battery. Number one is the fact you can internally disconnect the battery from charging or discharging via the app. This means there are no zaps or sparks which can sometimes happen when connecting the terminals for the first time, even when they are correct. Once connected, just go into the app and turn discharge back on. Also, it keeps an internal history of the state of the battery which you can also access through the app. The battery was expensive (almost $500),* but so far it's worth it for these features and also because it is around 150 amp hours!
* Search online for coupons. I got a great deal that made the whole thing with shipping cheaper than just the battery minus shipping.
I hadn’t heard of the Tillamook “scandal.” They added kosher and halal markings to products that have been that for 10 years. THE HORROR. THE OUTRAGE. We have actual problems in this state and country, a tiny label isn’t one of them.
Ohbtw: the lead acid battery on my 1gen Leaf lasted 10 years! Probably somewhat due to the miniscule solar panel on the rear wing.
Any word on why the Ohmu basically committed suicide? I still think that it should have saved itself. I don't understand how it could have been allowed to be destroyed.
I didn't know there was an 8-bit version of the door chimes… I wonder what that sounds like…
The terminals didn't unscrew? Geez.
12v batteries seem to be a problem with just about every EV with 12v systems.
I don't understand how engineers speced batteries with lower reliability and head room in just about every EV from every manufacturer. Especially considering the heavy lifting of all the 12v components for some period of time.
Wouldn't a Lithium battery replacement be better than a Lead Acid one for the 12V?
…And that's how you get a jar of bolts.
OMG, really? But it's so easy to get Halal or Kosher is easy if your food fits and so why not? You can even have both on a single food.
I replaced the battery in my Mazda with a 1 kWh LFP! But I also added solar and an inverter.
someone could use a winch now
FYI i have cleaned my body gruns on each side of trunk frunk
Thanks for the heads up on sodium battery. My 22 still on original.Lead adapter are shit.
A group 47 AGM battery would have been a better battery replacement
A 12 volt battery with proper capacity should be standard for any EV, especially in colder climates. Not much point in heated seats, heated steering wheel and remote climate control, if you can't use it in cold weather, when you need it the most, because there's just not enough juice in the 12 volt system.
When I take off battery terminals I just put an old sock on each lead so I don’t accidentally have a lead touch something shouldn’t. If it does the sock stops it making contact.
That's a big minus for batteries plus
Lithium ion is working in the Bolt, why not put one in the lightning? I want to know more about the lithium ion, how long has it been working? I guess it's the lightning at 12v management system is more sophisticated but also worse. Bolt 12v does not need to be coded/registered. It seems the main challenge for a lithium battery is a system that's designed for lead acid.
I'm not coming here to erase your experience with Batteries+ but I suspect that store was doing wrong, not the company. I'm using a Duracel AGM from Batteries+ in my EV after the Kia one was giving me tons of trouble despite passing all tests. My experience with them was good, the guy there was very helpful and knowledgeable, and worked with me through my Kia battery issue. I'm going to guess the store you went to was a franchise who probably wasn't following the corporate standards on returns, because your experience on their return policy is the complete opposite of what was explained to me, and in the paperwork I got with my battery. But yeah, Batteries+ follows a franchise model, so I suspect many stores will be different, especially if they're not following all of the corporate standards (it's apparently not required).
It sucks that you had that experience. I'd be 100% on board with agreeing that the place you went to should be avoided based on this feedback. But I'm likely to return to my local Batteries+.
i always disconnect negative first, and reconnect last, as any touch of tool to body with it connected and working positive will short!! ask me how i know?!?!
I woke up one morning to a message informing me there was a battery drain and to seek service. Initially I thought it was a battery degradation issue, the sides seemed a little bulgy. I fired up the truck and let it charge. The next day the 12Volt was at 87% and the same warning on the dash. I ordered a new battery from Canadian Tire, it tool almost w weeks to get here (not a high volume item). I put my jump pack on the jumper posts so the truck wouldn't lose its mind, and swapped in the new battery. Cleared the battery counter (days since install) and the next day was greeted with the same error.
Now because I used the jump pack and the truck didn't cold start it's computers, I knew the battery was not the culprit. How to diagnose? A while before these battery drain messages had started appearing my Ford Pass app stopped communicating with the truck via the ford servers. Ford tech support said they could see the truck, and so I knew the servers were communicating, but why not on the Ford Pass side? I thought at the time it may have been the truck, trying to save battery, had shut down the Ford Pass data com to the servers. 5G was still working, NAV etc still worked. Then I got thinking of it as a software problem. Bingo!
To truly "Turn off" a Ford Lightning requires disconnecting the battery. I has used a jumper pack to maintain the state of the truck, so I had maintained the failed state of the software that talks to the Ford Pass servers. Like a Windows PC, a hard reset solved the problem. The drain was being caused by the system constantly trying to communicate to Ford. Now I have a spare small battery, it was the original that came with the truck but is tests OK, so it is now on a battery maintainer. Software manifesting as hardware issues.
This is a must-have mod for me since I've had a BadLands 12000 pound winch sitting in my garage since it went on sale for UNDER $500 last spring. No H3 battery would handle that winch's needs. I have to reach out to Martin tho. I modded my tray for the H4 battery and I wonder if that will change how the rear of his tray slots in.
Keep evolving! 👋🏼🖖🏼👍🏼 Petaluma, CA USA
I have very much enjoyed Tillamook cheese many times years ago
I've read that the new platform that the Ford Fathom is based on will use a 48v instead of 12v battery. Here's hoping that is far more reliable and that it is a push to the industry to keep evolving.
As s a note, not all Batteries Plus locations suck, you just had a bad person at yours. Good that you were able to find a much better location and person though.
Tillamook… hooray!
Engineer here. Please remove the negative first to prevent shorting metal tools to the frame! Then remove the positive. Install is the reverse for the same reason! For those reasons, the new battery should be placed with the positive towards the back of the vehicle. Thank you.
What amazes me is the electrical geniuses behind EVs so consistently get 12V wrong. It's not just the F150. The gen1 Nissan LEAF left plenty of owners with dead batteries, and even Tesla owners were replacing 12V batteries at a furious pace for some time. Electrical demands on EV 12V are minimal compared to ICE cars that must draw hundreds of amps during cranking. EV 12V batteries should be living lives of ease, but they do need proper charging regimes. I guess the designers don't like getting their hands dirty with 19th century technology.