Battery setup for camper trailer

[Homer_Jay]

Hi Guys,

I am thinking about setting up a permanent battery in my camper trailer.

I was just wondering about how you set it up to charge? I have a dual battery system in the car now (arb smart solinoid). The question is, do I need to run another solinoid to switch the charge to the battery in the camper? or do I just link it straight to the 2nd battery in the car? so that when plugged in the 2 spare batteries are just in series?

I can see that by doing this it could mask the problem of a dud battery and would place extra load on the better battery. But then I guess the smart solinoid would do this anyway.... not so smart after all!! LOL


Any thoughts????



Aaron

[mull dog]

Gday. the way to do this mate is to connect your trailer battery with a voltage sensitive relay in series with your main battery on the car. just connect onto the main battery and to the relay then take your cabling to the back of your car where you can connect to a suitable plug. then on your trailer just have leads coming off your battery to another plug.
using the relay you will never drain your main battery, and by having it coming off the main battery the alternator will charge your trailer battery prior to charging the second battery in your car, which is what you need when using the camper trailer. you can get kits for this from heaps of places, battery world is one, but you will need to buy extra cable.

[mod5]

Check this out.

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x104/sidewinderdotcomdotau/Drawings/Dual-battery-system-3nd-ed.jpg

[Hairy_Harold]

If you already have a aux battery and solenoid you just run the cable to the trailer battery in parallel with the auxilary battery and that is it. Will charge on the alternator with the aux battery in the car and yeah won't let your cranking battery go flat as you already have a solenoid to prevent that.

[shano]

i go straight from the aux battery to the rear anderson plug, then anderson plug on the railer to the battery, make sure there are fuses where it connects to the aux and the camper battery. the big thing is the wire , the stuff i got is solar panel wire it is big stuff! i got all the stuff i needed and advise on how to do it from the battery place at the end of moss street the hiway end, second from the corner i think!
i did a 6 week trip to the cape and have done trips before then and since then and have not once run out of power! all batteries were new also! i run 2 x 105AH allrounders in the car and a 120AH allrounder in the camper. basically the AUX and camper battery will become the same level!
hope that helps.
i am pretty sure from memory it cost me around the $150 mark for all the cable ,connections, anderson plugs, and big fuses and fuse holders.

[Feral]

If your going to use the car charging system use big wire, To be safe I'd go 100amp. Otherwise a very low trailer battery when connected to the car is going to suck as much as it can from the alternator, possibly leading to a wire overheating / fire hazard.

- Most modern alternators (in tow vehicles) are capable of 70amps plus output.

I'd use an automatic fuse in the line as well.

Mine I just charge using a charger.

[cormorant]

Depending on price and battery capacity and expected charge time required you may be better off for your battery using a redarc 12v step up Dc to DC transormer / charger.

That way you don't have to be as worried bout cable cost / quality / temperature

http://redarc.com.au/products-and-services/smart-start/smart-start-bcdc


There are other brands that will do correct charging voltage at teh end of cable runs.

[cormorant]

Depending on price and battery capacity and expected charge time required you may be better off for your battery using a redarc 12v step up Dc to DC transormer / charger.

That way you don't have to be as worried bout cable cost / quality / temperature

http://redarc.com.au/products-and-services/smart-start/smart-start-bcdc


There are other brands that will do correct charging voltage at the end of cable runs and you can do with solar as well.

[Homer_Jay]

Thanks everyone, this answers my questions.

I think I will run the battery in the camper connected direct to the aux battery in the car. Its only to run the lighting in the camper, so the battery should never be run too low. The engel will always run off the aux battery in the car anyway.


Thanks again

Aaron

[cormorant]

Small solar panel , lead and controller would do it and that way even when not being used the battery is kept in top condition and totally independant when travelling. - Just sit it on the garage / carport roof. Avoids the voltage drop through long cable runs and all the expense of solving that.

Having a 3rd independent battery is a good option and charging it if a deep cycle is different to start batteries if you want full life = get a good controller

If you set up the panel , controller and lead with anderson plugs and also do the same under the bonnet in the car you have all options covered as if you have the engle and not the trailer you can still have it getting topped off while hiking etc

The extra current and full voltage allows you to pull the engel right down in temp during the day while the sun is shining and with lower drawdown on the battery overnight it will last many more cycles and possibly years longer.

[PADDLES]

hey homer, just to throw one in from left field here ............ and because i'm a total cheapskate ........

if you are only going to power some basic lighting, have you considered simply using your auxiliary battery on the car? if you set up with led lights the current draw is minimal and you could set up a little lead to plug into the same location as your fridge outlet. ie. replace your single outlet with a double. or alternatively most modern 4wd's have an outlet from the start battery in the back if you were happy to use the start battery (remembering that led lighting draws two fifths of stuff all). it'd be way cheaper than setting up some good cable (for battery charging), anderson plug, circuit breaker, battery etc.

[bungie]

Just for lights, I have a box i brought from "really cheap auto". Fully self sufficient, has a 17amh battery, solar cells, led lights, and can be plugged into the 240 to charge as well. The above company is selling them for about $200 complete at the moment.

[finga]

Does anybody put a relay in the car so the camper battery is only charging when the car ignition (accessories) is on??
Saves draining the car battery (even if it is the auxiliary) if the camper battery is dead and car is not running.

[Dave71]

I have a territory that only has room for a single battery. I fitted a relay so it only suplies power to the camper trailer battries when the car is running. I have just spent the last couple of weeks traveling/camping with no issues with the car starting or the trailer batteries charging. Quick and simple way to set the charge circuit
Dave