went camping with our new camper this july 4th weekend. everything going well, wife goes out to the truck to close moonroof and windows for the night, (anyone guess what happened?LOL) can you say the next morning when i went to go into the truck with the keyless entry, nothing happened....maybe i hit the wrong buttons? honey, you try.......nothing. thought about it and looked into the truck from passenger side and guess what?, key in the ignition and in the on position. guess truck won't cut power to the ignition....will for lights i believe. anyway, we are packing up to leave, can't get into truck, can't open hood......cell phone dying (charger in truck! LOL neighbors trying to help at campground, all we need to do is get power to the keyless remote.....shouldn't take much. but how....hmmmmmm. thought about using the portable battery jumper thru the wireing harness for the trailer, but not an electrical guru and thought better of it, don't need a burned out harness.....then neighbor thought, why not power thru the starter?! gave it enough juice to get into the truck with the keyless entry, then jumped the engine! whewwww!! did have the free get out of jail card from ford, but i always like to fix things myself if possible! LOL anyone know/think of a better way? couldn't get the hood to release from underneath. only when you release from inside the truck, which is where we couldn't get to! hahaha......see ya,

 

left like that over night!

 

Jump starting through the starter!! WOW that is genious! I would have never thought of that. I'd probably try to slim-jim the door before I'd figure that out.

 

we only used the starter to power up the keyless entry.....had to open the door to open the hood. then jumped the truck at the battery.

 

What did you do, just touch the jumper cable ends to the hot wire post on the starter and the other to a ground?

Glad to hear it worked, how ingenious

 

exactly! anyone else have any other ideas? would going thru the wiring harness for towing work or would i have fried everything? no way to just touch one of the connectors though, so i thought better of it......

 

i think the way you did it was the best, congrats on the good plan, i would never have thought of that under pressure

 

gotta love this forum!!! Same thing happened to me last night. I searched here found my answer and within 10 minutes the truck was open!!!!

 

That is why I have an OPTIMA RED TOP! My factory battery just did not feel strong on some very cold 10 degree mornings last winter! Love you Yamaha V-MAX! I had a Burgundy colored one Myself!..........

 

Did you camp using a travel trailer with a battery? if so you could hook up your lights/brake connector to power the truck enough to unlock the doors, while the truck itself will charge the trailer battery when running, it will also do the opposite should the truck battery go down.
I have used this for getting me out of a few situations, works even better if the trailer is connected to shore power.

 

I'd like to see someone prove that theory. If I designed the charging circuit, I'd have it so it would only charge the trailer batteries. I'll bet ford did the same.
Can you image if the truck battery was dead and with the trailer plugged in the starter was engaged? It would try to pul a couple of hundred amps through the trailer charge wire. That would not be pretty.

Also if the battery was so dead that the charge relay opened up, a battery source at the trailer connector would not energize it because the coils are on the other side of the circuit.

 

Thats awesome it worked, what an idea

 

I thought I just told you that it worked for me, what more do you want a wiring diagram?

 

So you are saying that with the key off, the trailer battery and charging system will charge the truck and that you can unlock the doors with the key off and using the keyfob or keypad on a truck battery that is so dead that the keyfob/keypad wouldnt work without the trailer boost?

If you have a diagram, I'll take it.

 

I was joking about a diagram, however I have had cases where the trailer battery was dead from storage adn I couldn't use my electric tongue jack, so I simply hook up the wiring/brake connector to the trailer and the trucks alternator/battery provides enough juice to use the lights and tongue jack.
I have also had cases where the truck battery was weak, not completely dead as in it would turn slowly but not enough to start. I hooked up the brake/light cable from the TT while on shore power and bam the truck started right up.
So I have not had the exact same situation happen as in a completely dead battery but I would assume that it would be enough juice to use the keypad to gain entry into the truck.