NATO Slave Recepticle

How is the slave recepticle wired? Where can i get a cable for it? I want to find a way to connect the batteries to a 24v charger, i want to trickle charge them when i store the truck, while they are still connected in the vehicle. I figure that i can use the charger through the slave recepticle and it will feed power to the batteries. Any info and insight would be appreciated.

Why not just hard wire the trickle charger to the batteries, and mount it under the hood? Then you can just run the cord out through the grill like the block heater, and plug it in.

Try Ebay, often times you can find the NATO slave cable with one end missing.

Thanks I'll try ebay. I have a big upright charger and am going to make a cable to hook it up to the slave recepticle to charge the batteries. I am doing this so I can still use the crager for other vehicles. 24v charger cost too much money for me to buy one just for that truck.

You dont need to buy a 24v charger. Buy 2 cheap battery maintainer trickle chargers, mount both, and hook one to each battery. Will work great, and cost maybe $40.

I had thought about getting one and putting some jumper clamps on the other end so if someone needed a jump I could just pull up, plug in all without opening the hood [] "I have 12v conversion on mine" you know so the enemy doesn't catch you in a vonerable position :nono:

wouldn't the voltage from the first battery smoke the second charger, I don't wnat to have to disconnect the batteries to charge them. The battery closer to the rear of the vehicle has the positive from the front battery hooked up the its negative terminal, wouldn't the reverse current from the charger either blow up the charger from the feedback or my batteries from the stress.

yeah the charger would need to be 24v

Nope, not at all, it will work fine. Just think, you have 2 "12 volt chargers" under the hood already, mounted to the engine!! [^] With the way the system is designed in the CUCV, you can wire a small charger to each battery, directly. Look carefully at how they are wired, and you will see...


Frame to - of battery one, + of battery one, supplies 12v to the majority of the truck (lights, etc). + of battery one, also connects to - of battery two. and + of battery two provides 24v to the starting system.



basically, if you connect anything to the frame, then to battery one +, you get 12v, if you connect anything to the frame, then to battery two + you get 24v.



Now here is the cool part!!! :hop: If you have an isolated device (like the battery chargers) and you connect positive of it to battery two + and negative to battery two -, you can have 12v there as well, BUT :nono: you must make absolute sure that it cant 'short' to the frame.



Hope this all makes sense, but for sure, you can use 2 12v battery chargers wired individually to each battery.

I see your point, but i dont feel that the savings would be worth the risk of frying the charger and starting a fire in my truck.

There is no risk. Electricity isnt voodoo or magic. Its pretty straight forward. Your 2 alternators do exactly the same thing everytime you drive it.

I work with computer networking equip. everyday, I know how electricity works. But, I have reservations about one of the chargers grounding out to the frame. The front of the truck vibrates when the truck is in motion or idleing. I just don't want to take the chance of a charger grounding versus using a cable and the proper chager from the outside of the truck where it won't be beat around as the truck is used.

If mounted properly, and wires tied up properly you have no more a chance of a vibration causing a short with the battery chargers than any other wiring in your truck. Keep in mind, the military did the same thing with solar chargers quite often!

the 24volts comes from the two alts working in series, can you run the chargers in series?? sure you could charge each batt individualy but not connected together :freaked:

Actually the 24v indirectly comes from the series. The 2 alternators charge each battery. Look at the wiring... I am pretty sure the wires dont connect from alternator to alternator. Either way, it should work just fine. the CUCV system is designed intentionally as a dual voltage setup.

actualy the drivers side alt goes to the 12v block on the fire wall to provide juice for 12v stuff you'll notice two blue wires on this block one comes from the drivers side alt the other goes into the ground of the passenger side alt. The passenger side alt takes the 12v from the drivers alt in from the ground and combines it with its 12v and goes straight to the 24v block, so you could charge front batt with 12v but you can't charge the rear batt with 12v

Gotcha, never looked quite that close. but either way, the battery charger setup would be just fine. I am pretty sure cranetruck does a similar thing on his deuce... and thats a straight 24v system! Kinda wish he was watchin this thread....

I always felt the 24v set up in a vehicle serving civillian duty was sort of asking for trouble, sure if you have a motor pool behind you with all the 24v parts you need and all the other riggs were 24v then it makes sense, but if your out in the boonies and you need a alt., glow plug / relay, or starter, chances are your closest parts store isn't going to have it in 24v. yes you could carry spares of every thing, but I like the idea of both batts serving the entire needs of the vehicle, be it a winch, booming stereo, extra lights and whatever other acc. you need, and removing one alt takes a little load of the engine and frees up a space for something else (ac. or belt driven air compressor) [] but I like to consider my truck a trail rigg too

If the two batteries are not identical and at the identical state of charge, you should have two 12-volt chargers, one for each battery.

Like Mike said, I have a dual battery maintainer for my batteries (Chargetek 500). It is important since the grounded battery is used for a 12 volt CB radio and gets discharged differently during a trip. I just plug it in when I get home to equalize the batteries. The batteries are going on five years now and still doing great.

If you still want to use a 24-volt charger and charge the batteries in series, try it and measure the condition of each battery after a few days. Would like to see the readings you get.

ARGH.... had my post all typed out... and GONE!!!!!!!!!

anyway... to start again...



the starter is the only true 24v item in the CUCV. The alternators are a 12v Delco alternator, with isolated ground. Basically they are a large frame alt. with the rectifier bridge insulated from the case. the internals are the same as most GM alts from teh mid-80's.

The glow plugs are also 12v, they use the resistor bank on the firewall to drop the volatage done from 24v.



Now of course, the starter will be the most likely to fail because of all this... :banghead: