Amish hauler

I am not a RV er. (YET) But I built me one of those self contained dump trailers. It has a 12volt hyd. pump that runs off a deep cycle/ starter battery. I was told by a old timer with a huuuge 5th whl. camper that i could hook a wire from my factory tow plug to the pos. side of the dumps battery that would keep my battery charged. As it is I can only haul about four 10-ton loads of gravel then I need to switch batterys or haul smaller loads. Dose any one know how to go about wiring this? Do I need a regulator or something? Electrician I am not so plain english would be appreciated. I don't want to blow fuses or burn my truck off. another battery is only $75. What should I do??


You know......some of your 5th-wheels are bigger than my house. Dose that make me a primitive camper?????

Tfeore

I will put my 2 pennies in early,

I think you would have to regulate the amps through some type of charger. If you go straight to the battery you'll just be running off of the truck battery and not charging the other batt...

Tom

FiverBob

If your truck is equipped with a seven pin plug at the hitch, one of those pins should be the hot wire used to charge the battery of your trailer. If you have trailer brakes, then you probably have the seven pin plug. The cap over the plug will show you which wire is the hot. You would then need to run a wire from that pin on your trailer plug to your trailer battery. You will not get a lot of current thru that wire, but enough to probably keep you going thru the day. A full of driving will top off my batteries pretty good if they were not down too far.

That is as simple as I can state it. If you struggled with that, I would suggest dropping your rig by a hitch store and have them wire it for you. It is not hard and should not take that much time. Be sure you unplug at night or you could run your truck batteries down unless you put an isolator or diode in the line.

Phrogger57

Not Sure about the 01.5, but the 03 is fused at 30? amps for the trailer hot. it will charge your trailer battery constantly when plugged into the truck ( so you may not want to leave the trailer plugged in overnight if you have been working the hoist a lot and not running the truck a lot). I haul RV's OTR and have to use my own battery in many of them (for the break away for the brakes) and have never had a battery problem leaving the trailer plugged in, but I am running 11 + hours a day with a lot lower power draw (even in the sealed trailers that the factory left all the lights on in
). I do not recommend an isolator or diode because of the voltage drop through the diodes. If you are not running the truck enough during the day then you should probably be putting the trailer battery on a charger overnight. -Eric

Dan Bromley

http://www.hellroaring.com/rv.htm
this web site should give you all the info you should need.
DAN.

Amish hauler

I am going to try and run a 12 ga. wire from the seven pin to the (+) side of the battery. I don't normally use the trailer more than a day at a time or leave it plugged in overnight. So I shouldn't create a discharge problem. Would it be possible to overcharge the deep-cyle trailer battery like this? Thank you for all your insight. It is greatly appreciated.

roadranger

The 12 ga. wire direct from the battery is a good idea. Make sure to install a self-resetting 40 amp circuit breaker near the battery to protect against shorts.
The truck alternator won't overcharge the trailer battery, the voltage regulator takes care of that.

Ravenwood220

I bought my truck used from a guy who had several trailers. He installed a battery isolator that would charge the trailer batteries through the trailer wire connector. I tow a camp trailer with a battery and I have had absolutly no problems with this setup, other than relocating the connector on the rear bumper of my truck. He had the connector hanging below the bumber on a bracket, and from the looks of the connector and the bracket, it had snagged and scraped on who knows what many times. I crawled under the truck and noticed that Dodge had drilled some holes in the bumper that were the same size as a standard connector. If you mount the connector in these holes, the connector is completly protected, and is also mounted vertically so any water that may get in will drain back out. You have to reach under the bumper and feel for the connector when you want to connect a trailer, but where is it written that the connector has to be horizontal and visible and hanging below the bumper?

FiverBob

I think you will find "zero" voltage drop across the isolator. Mine is a relay - - solid contact switch just like a starter relay. This is obtainable at most RV supplies for less than $20. Very positive method of making sure the batteries are connected only when the key is turned on. You might find a small drop across a diode if the diode is too small. Lots of trucks running diodes.

slim51015

I also have a dump trailer I have built .I ran the hot wire right from the plug to
the trailer battery. Same deep cycle battery for 5 years always charged off
the truck.Often have the trailer hooked up for days no problems.

midlife crisis

First post, long time lurker..anyway, had to check my "new" Dodge. It figures, my Fords are all ign. switched power thru a relay on that hot leg. The Dodge is a constant hot. So, we are left to unplug to prevent truck battery drain, or install a relay and find an ignition hot to energize it. Well, beats a Chevy- they give you a plastic plug where the fuse goes, requiring you to go buy a fuse. ( And the Chevy owners manual doesnt come out and say tell you why this pin is dead)

clifford

I have read this a couple of times and I would unplug the trailer from the truck if it was not running. If the trailer was plugged in and the trailer pump is running a heavy load it could blow the fuse or burn the wire gong to the trucks batt. it would be like you are jumpping the the batt with a 12 gage wire.

F. Flack

Unless the '99 is different than the 200x, I've found that my RV only charges it's battery while my truck is running. Once I shut the truck down, the hot wire on the plug is dead. This was a big concern when I picked up my RV last year, so I verified this before leaving it plugged in to the truck overnight. Last fall my RV battery dropped down below 1/4 charge with my furnace running. My truck's batteries were still fully charged and fired right up. The truck has the towing and camper options -- maybe this makes the difference.

Smokee

Couldn't you just install a diode in line so that the current could only flow one way?

kayjh

Yes. It's called an isolator. THe battery gets charged when the truck is running. When you shut the truck off the isolator prevents the trailer's electrical system from placing demands on the truck batteries.