A recent message said that while I am on the road my truck is actually not doing very much charging of the batteries in my 5'er. The trailer carries two group 27 deep cycle batteries. The poster said this is due to the small gauge of the charging wire from the alternator back to the plug.Is there anything I can do to improve this situation short of buying a generator? My thinking is that if I spend 2-3 days boondocking and then get back on the road, after a few hundred miles of towing I will still have mostly depleted batteries unless I stop somewhere I can hook up.Have I got this right? Any thoughts?MainerBob

I have heard of people running a 8 gauge wire, thru a relay, to the battery. To replace the smaller wire. The relay would be activated with a line to the ignition to cut off power when the truck is shut down.BK

MainerBob wrote:A recent message said that while I am on the road my truck is actually not doing very much charging of the batteries...Have I got this right? Any thoughts?MainerBobHmmm,Our experience has been the batteries recover and charge quite well when connected the truck.The fuse for the charge circuit is 20 amp in our RAM so I've always assumed a hefty amount of power is pumped to the batteries.

Yes power is lost over distance and guage of wire. You will need a diode so you don't get feedback from the 5er. You need to have most shut off in 5er so you don't draw from it's house batteries.

A lot of us have gone solar, but that gets expensive.

When we lived on Long Island we boondocked at the beach all the time and never had a problem with truck charging batts. We would hook truck to trailer and let it run a few hrs. when batts were low.

Charge Line | Good Sam Community

14 Replies

2oldman
Explorer II
Jul 04, 2013
A lot of us have gone solar, but that gets expensive.
trop-a-cal
Explorer
Jul 04, 2013
Yes power is lost over distance and guage of wire. You will need a diode so you don't get feedback from the 5er. You need to have most shut off in 5er so you don't draw from it's house batteries.
deleted-2
Explorer
Jul 04, 2013
MainerBob wrote:
A recent message said that while I am on the road my truck is actually not doing very much charging of the batteries...
Have I got this right? Any thoughts?

MainerBob

Hmmm,
Our experience has been the batteries recover and charge quite well when connected the truck.

The fuse for the charge circuit is 20 amp in our RAM so I've always assumed a hefty amount of power is pumped to the batteries.
agesilaus
Explorer III
Jul 04, 2013
I have heard of people running a 8 gauge wire, thru a relay, to the battery. To replace the smaller wire. The relay would be activated with a line to the ignition to cut off power when the truck is shut down.

BK

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Charge Line

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