Charging Battery? (Newbie Question)

Forgive me for another newbie question, but how does that battery stay charged? Do I need to purchase a trickle charger? Does it somehow charge when connected to the truck?

Battery questions

Someone will come along that will answer all your questions. Don't think you are bothering us with two many questions. We will answer them all. Even us old timers ask for advice and still can learn new things.

Battery should charge whenever you are plugged into "shore power", but, you might be surprised at how long it takes to bring the battery up to a "full charge" when you are doing this. Charging can be more complicated than it first appears, but the short version is that about 24 hours should bring you up close to where you want to be, depending on how discharged it is. The rule of thumb is not to discharge it more than 25-50% of its capacity before you start re-charging it. Your truck should charge it while you are driving- but that takes a good while and is not all that reliable and, again, even driving all day likely won't bring to where you want it after a good nights use or a couple of nights. A good charger like a "Batterey minder" is what many of us have when we have it parked at home. It does more than trickle charge it- and maintains it and changes the charge based on how "full" the battery is getting. Good converters/chargers will do this also, but the one that came stock with your trailer probably isn't fancy enough. People also use solar panels for charging but, again, it takes more than one good panel usually to get a battery charged up----but it isn't a bad way to go if you camp where there is a lot of sun and some have successfully used it pretty exclusively.

Rick

PapaRoe said:

Forgive me for another newbie question, but how does that battery stay charged? Do I need to purchase a trickle charger? Does it somehow charge when connected to the truck?

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If your tow vehicle has the 7-blade plug and IF your trailer battery charging circuit in the tow vehicle is activated, then yes, your trailer battery will receive charging current when you are hooked up and your ignition is on.

The trailer battery charging circuits are not always activated by default. I had to install a 30A fuse AND a relay in my truck's fuse box to get it working. I've learned new Ford trucks have to have the ECM flashed to activate the charging circuit. Your tow vehicle may or may not need these mods to make it work.

I would not buy a trickle charger - they don't properly control the charging voltage and current to maintain a battery properly. I've posted several times in this forum on using a "Battery Minder" or "Battery Tender" (those are brand names) that can be safely connected to the battery full time when it is in storage. And, they both will recharge a low battery safely.

Then if you want to go all out, you can install solar panels and a good solar controller. I did this and my batteries stay charged when I'm dry camping. Look through the forum and you'll find my thread on this topic.

Edit: I see Rick beat me to the punch. What he said about vehicle AND solar panel charging is absolutely correct. I have two - 100 Watt solar panels. Anything less is going to struggle to maintain your battery(s).

- Jack

Jack is right about the tow vehicle circuit not being active. All my Chevy's from '04, '08, '09 and my current '12 the charging wire and brake control wire both had to be connected at the fuse box under the hood and the fuses added. The wires are tucked down so far that by the time I purchased my'12 I demanded that the dealer connect them and make sure they are active or I wouldn't take delivery of the truck. As for the battery charging, I can't add much as I always connected the shore power. Now my 1810 has a solar panel and I don't have the luxury of shore power where I have to store the trailer and it seems to do the job.

By the way-

Here is a link to a great series of articles on deep cycle batteries and how to care for then properly , and, why?

The 12volt Side of Life (Part 1)

Rick

Thanks to those who responded with comments. I did a search on the forum, but I could not find anything, must have done it wrong. Anyway, I think I'll just get one of the chargers Jack recommended, for now.

Papa, I don't know what you were "searching" for, but in case it was my solar installation, it's here: http://www.hilotrailerforum.com/f28/my-new-200-watt-solar-installation-4354/

- Jack