generator

Hey Guys,

I plan to do a lot of traveling and dry camping this summer in my 2704T.

Two things....my Dodge Ram has a 14ga. wire to the 7 plug that is hot all the time......

( ask me how I know ) for charging the RV batteries. I plan to add a relay controlled by acc. and run a fused 10ga. through the contact to run my fridge while on the road.

Also I'm thinking of using one of those little $100.00, 2 cycle, 700 watt generators to power the converter to recharge the batteries while camped.

What do you think? Would the AC be too dirty and harm the converter?
I know it might be loud but I would only use it in the middle of the day.

If it's a 2T please use high quality oil. Not all is consumed during combustion and the residuals will be around for some time. Enjoy!

Air Cond needs the 120volt power, or large gen.
The small gen will work on the batteries. I use my Battery Tender to charge while camping on 120v.
I use a 1KWatt gen and still takes 1-3 hours for charge on low batteries. I use a home batt charger with generator.
The power from the converter will charge your batteries while on generator, without external charger, BUT VERY SLOWLY.
Good call on the larger wire for fridge/ fused!

O.K. so I will be using my battery charger to recharge the batteries and not relying on the converter....thanks!....that is the kind of info I was looking for!

I will be up in the northern part of the country and Canada so hopefully it will be cool enough at night to not need A/C, if not, I guess I'll just have to pick up and move to somewhere with hook-ups.

I would look into solar for keeping batteries charged. Evrn in Canada u have rmough sun. 200 watt panels. 2 100 watt. Will do plenty. Mine are charged by 10am.
Relay on truck is good. Use a switch hooked to ignition which could be grom radio fuse. I pulled 12 volts from starter motor. This is closest 12v to the rear for heavy wires. Use heavy wire on truck and Trailer.
By AC you mean alternating current?
The converter will clean it up. Lol.
But if using generator then get powerful battery charger.
Solar is the best hands down.
About $300 for panels then $50 for controller and little more for wires and terminals and you're done. Last years n years. .

Thanks for your reply marininn,

Solar would be nice....where do you carry your two 100 watt panels ? Do you have them mounted to the roof ? And when you say use heavy wire on the truck and trailer what gauge are you talking about ?

I don't know how many of you use the 2 stroke generators......however, there will always be some residual oil. And maybe this has already been discussed somewhere. if I may offer a suggestion.....Blue Max is capable of mixing 100:1. There is not much residual compared to the normal 50:1 ratio. I have used it in experimental aircraft engines and have had no problems. This is a mineral based oil, not synthetic. I am not selling anything, so do your own research on the internet. If mentioning a brand name is a no-no, my apologies.

U4ick said:

Thanks for your reply marininn,

Solar would be nice....where do you carry your two 100 watt panels ? Do you have them mounted to the roof ? And when you say use heavy wire on the truck and trailer what gauge are you talking about ?

Click to expand...

I bought some on amazon. Mine are the flexible ones, no frame, no glass, so the panel is just very thin, maybe thickness of two DVDs or less.
I used the tape to secure them on the roof. Just in front of the rear roof vent and behind the AC. They go from one side to the other, this way I was able to avoid the roof seams. I think they cost about $160 each.

I used extension cord. One for each panel and wired them together at the controller. The cord was a 3-wire, so saving the extra wires for a 3rd panel in the future to tend the lift pump battery (I have separate batteries for the camper and the lift). I think it was 14 gauge, but just because the 12 g was so expensive… BUT for the truck and trailer I have wire that the copper is about the size of a ball point pen or bigger. the body of the pen, not the point, lol.
the longer the distance the fatter the wire needs to be. Don't leave a choke point, keep the wire fat the entire way from the alternator to the camper battery. I used a separate plug for the camper charging. It is a 2-pole plug, not unlike the style of the 7-pin you have now. I also grounded the plug on truck and camper side so I dont rely on the ball and hitch for ground, just to keep it clean.
I kept the charging through the 7-pin for the lift pump battery.
However, the 200 watts keep the camper batteries charged, so I rarely ever use the truck to charge them. Only if lots of rain/ no sun situations.

I have a box with 6 switches in it on the truck floor next to gear shifter.
#1 switch is the master to power the solenoid for #2, 4 and 5, its power comes from the fuse box that is powered from the ignition (key off means switch off). It also powers up the running lights on trailer which is actually switched by the truck's lights.
#2 switch powers the 7-pin 12v+
#3 switch powers the camper batteries through a second dedicated solenoid.
#4 switch powers the trailer reverse lights
#5 switch powers the truck reverse lights (because hard to see at night when trucks reverse lights are reflecting off a white camper)
#6 is for DRL (is not powered by #1), (unrelated to the camper).

4 of these switches control 4 relays (running lights, 2 reverse lights and 7-pin charge) which get power from the solenoid connected to #1.
All the 12 volt power for the two solenoids is pulled off the 12 volt positive from the starter motor.

Sounds complicated; seems simple now that I have done it.

Somebody on the F-250 forum that I follow had a similar idea! He states,


"Semi-rigid solar panels 50w. Poor truck gets parked more (on the street kinda far from house) lately and battery was dimming. So I got a pair of 50w panels. They should keep me topped off! This also marks the first step on this trucks camper conversion! I’m stoked!"

Pet Peeve:
Spend $20K on a camper and then drag along a $200 cheap, loud, obnoxious construction generator.
Ryobi makes one for $400-500 that will run an AC and it is quite and peaceful.

Ive seen people run these loud generators all night just for one light bulb, or all night just in case they need to flush. Get a proper battery bank with solar - you will only need generator for Air Cond in this case.

Well heck......

I didn't know that there were flexible solar panels that you could drape out like sheets! I can definitely see a path to solar now! I have already bought a small 4 cycle inverter generator that is pretty quiet at Sam's for $150.00. It's called a Sportsman.

marininn, it sounds like the power wire you used on your truck and camper is 4 gauge, I guess I'll need to use a solenoid instead of the relay I already have mounted, and it takes the same amount of time and labor to run 4g. as it does for 10g. so why not? I can tell from your switches that you like to have total control of your equipment......well thought out!

Haha, yes. control is good.
I did the lights bc my friends trailer, which I towed before, has Homer Simpson lighting on it. 1,00s of incandescent lights all around it. Didn't want to run that through my headlight switch or switch relay, however it's wired. and the other switches for obvious reasons…

it was 4 or 6 I bet.

The flexible panels are great. Other camper had the glass and aluminum frame ones, bulky, but these lay flat. I want to put some on the truck camper cover, but have no need for it right now.

The relay will not take the full current of alternator to battery, so the 130 amp solenoid is the way to go. Relays are good for lights and low amp circuits.

Find a place to mount the relays where it is easy to get to so you can check them or change them if electrical issues come up. If you go this route, the label everything bc you will forget.
The solenoid can go under the truck as they rarely go bad, and this keeps the big voltage safely below with short wiring runs.

I have camper-cover on truck so relays went in truck bed right at the back. Inside, right in front of the tail light area and through existing holes that led to undercarriage. I put them in a box. didnt want to be crawling under the truck. I originally had a few under the truck, but was messy ad undesirable to work on. In an suv u could find a rear compartment to work in.

“If you go this route, the label everything bc you will forget.”

After decades of modifying family vehicles, holy cow is this some sage advice!

Draw out your wiring that you add/modify (I do mine in Visio, but I’m an IT geek so it’s the tool I have and am proficient with). Even hand-drawn is 10x better than nothing. Draw it, add notes. Photocopy your drawing and leave a copy in the glove box. Put a date on the drawing, if you have a problem in the field, make note on existing drawing so later you can update/recopy.

Doing this (drawings/notes) has saved my bacon a number of times.It’s all just too much to remember (I *think* I added a relay over here, and tied it to that circuit...uggh).