1st Mishap -- 2025 Lariat Desert Sand 2.7L

[OmahaBaseball]

Greetings from Omaha, Nebraska. As I shared in this post: Lariat Desert Sand, I just became the owner of a 2025 Lariat 2.7L in Desert Sand color. This is my first Ranger, but I've had Ford vehicles (Tempo, Taurus, Expedition) in the past, and come from a Ford F-150 / Ranger family. Now that I am a few days into ownership, I wanted to share a rookie-level mistake I made this week.

Because I picked up the truck mid-work week, I hadn't really taken the opportunity to get things set up or start adding items that I bought off Amazon based on guidance here (Stubby antenna, @Muslogy Auto padded arm rest, cup holder protector, screen protector, etc...). So yesterday morning, my youngest and I go out to the garage, excited to learn all about my new toy, and wouldn't you know that I've got a completely dead battery. That thing was making clicking sounds, flashing lights, and dropping error messages like crazy.

Once the initial shock off "did I just buy a lemon" wore off, I realized that I must have left it in auxiliary power and forgot to turn it off. My youngest and I had gone out a few times during the week after work to have a "let's go sit in the truck" moment. I remember turning the truck on via auxiliary and must not have shut it off correctly. Now in my defense, I am coming from vehicle that doesn't have push button start, an iPad in the middle of the truck, etc... so i just totally missed how these things work. After a quick jump start, it was back to working correctly and, I hope, no worse for wear.

Embarrassing, but thankfully it happened on a Saturday morning with nothing pressing me to be somewhere.

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[OmahaBaseball]

So while waiting for baseball practice to end, I was reading through the abbreviated owner's manual and now I am confused. On page 57, it states that the truck will automatically shutoff after 30 minutes. Does that mean if the engine running it will shut off, or would that also cover my scenario where I turned on auxiliary but not the engine? If the latter, then I am confused why my battery died.

 

[bigb]

Yes, most modern vehicles will automatically shut everything off after a pre-determined time if the engine is off. I wonder if it was just a case of your battery sitting for a long time prior to purchase and the drive home wasn't enough to get it charged enough. The parasitic loads on these is fairly high, as it is with most modern vehicles, and many of us who don't drive ours daily keep them on a maintenance charger.

Also, I don't remember if the key fob has a motion sensor. If not, and you leave it in the vehicle, there will be additional electrical draw as it will keep the security module in "ready" mode so I've read.

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