Does the Battery Have to be Disconnected to Flat Tow a 2015 Chevy Suburban Behind a Motor Home

Published 02/19/2015

Question:

What issues will I run into if I dont disconnect the Battery as stated in the GM manual? This is a new added procedure for the 2015 surburban and seems like they are going backwards.

asked by: Russell C

Expert Reply:

The battery should be disconnected because your 2015 Chevy Suburban has some feature that draws power when the vehicle key is in the towing position indicated in the owner's manual. If you leave the battery connected then what will happen is the battery will drain unless you stop frequently enough to let the Suburban motor run so the alternator can charge the battery back up.

But there is a way to provide a maintenance charge to the vehicle battery when flat towing it with the battery disconnected. To keep a maintenance charge on the battery I recommend using a harness such as # RM-146-7 with the tow bar wiring you will be using so that you can run a wire from the connector at the front of the truck to the vehicle battery.

There are a couple of ways to do this. First, you can tap into the running light circuit in the tow bar wiring but to provide power to the battery the RV running lights would have to be on all the time. Or if the connector at the back of the RV has a working 12 volt circuit you could use that circuit instead.

Which ever way you choose you would just attach the wire to the appropriate corresponding pin at the back of the connector that will be at the front of the truck and the other end of that wire will go to the positive battery terminal.

expert reply by: Michael H