battery charging

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

That is an old wives tale, unfortunately.

jamway wrote:
I read on this forum that it would recharge better if you ran with your lights on.

Probably correct when dealing with RVs but my 16' flatbed equipment hauler manual says to turn the lights on to charge the breakaway battery. Most likely does not use the charge circuit. This is probably where people get this from.

Don't forget to have you cut-off switched to on for the TV to charge your trailer batteries.

100 to 300 watts of solar would keep your battery tip top charged in most conditions.
Works great on the road also.

Provided everything is hooked up right & you are getting the charging voltage at the trailer batterys don't expect any rapid charging. You will get VD, voltage drop because of the distance from the alternator plus the thin wires of the harness cannot carry the amperage of a thicker guage wire. Think of it as a narrow water pipe vs a large one.

Hi,

That is an old wives tale, unfortunately.

jamway wrote:
I read on this forum that it would recharge better if you ran with your lights on.

Thanks for the help. I will dig out the volt meter and take a look in the fuse panel. This was something I took for granted, or probably never thought of at all until I went down to the storage lot to install a hitch wedge. I played around with the hitch a little running the legs up and down. I just realized this morning I may have a weak battery by now. And I am sitting about 600 ft from the closest 120 receptical. We are headed out next week for the first time. Just need to get hooked up and we should be alright.

adding to RoyB's comments.....not only do you need to have the fuse plugged in in the fuse box, but you need to have the wire hooked up...I recently found out that after 6 years of towing, that neither of my rigs were charged while towing because the 12VDC wire was tied off in the cable run...and when my RV mechanic pulled it out, and hooked it up, that I finally got 12v at my 2 trailer outlets.

He told me that a lot of the P/Us are like that, regardless of manufacturer. Dealer never told me that, nor did the owners manual.

The majority of 5vrs will charge off the tv. you can always check with your dealer to be sure.

One way to check is plug in your trailer cable to your truck and use a multimeter across the trailer battery terminals which should read around 12.5-6VDC if fully charged up.

Then go start up your truck motor and read the trailer battery terminals again with the multimeter. It should now be reading an increase in DC voltage depending what charge state your truck alternator is doing. It should read between 13.2VDC to 14VDC or so... If it reads the same as when you read it before the truck is not connected to your trailer 12VDC wiring.

Maybe you have a trailer battery disconnect switch in the OFF position.

Another issue I had was my 2010 FORD TRUCK TOW CHARGE was not activated until I plugged in a fuse and a relay in the truck fuse panel. It was called TRAILER TOW (I think) in my truck manuals. This only gives me TRAILER TOW VOLTAGE when the truck ignition key is turned ON.

Roy Ken

Our 2004 Dodge had and our 2012 has a 12 volt wire in the 7 pin plug. It helps recharge the batteries in the rv. I read on this forum that it would recharge better if you ran with your lights on.