Question for when pulling in a site for the night and not unhooking from your tow vehicle: when plugging into 30 amp service at the campground, should you unhook the electrical from your truck?

Some trucks unhook the charge wire and some don't. I have never unhooked the cord if I don't unhook the trailer.

Need to? Depends on your truck. Some trucks have a "live" 12 volt feed from the truck to the trailer regardless if the truck key is on or off. Other trucks have a kill feature when the key is off. If the truck has the kill feature, where there is no feed with the key off, then it really does not matter. For peace of mind, unplug. It only takes a split second to unplug.

JaycoAngel wrote:Question for when pulling in a site for the night and not unhooking from your tow vehicle: when plugging into 30 amp service at the campground, should you unhook the electrical from your truck?When plugging into shore power?I guess the sky is falling folks would worry about a surge taking out both trailer and truck?For one nighters, I don't disconnect the truck. It puts a bit of power into the truck battery but not too much, there's a lot of resistance along that route.It's also neat if I turn the trailer marker lights on, the rooftop markers on the truck come on too.

When I had my 5th wheel I would always unplug. It takes two seconds for piece of mind. The probability of something happening is slim to none, but that one time man! That one time! lol

Unhooking electric from tow vehicle | Good Sam Community

neal10a
Explorer
Dec 27, 2017
The trailer battery charge line power from my truck is thru a relay that is activated when the ignition is start or run. Other wise their is no power to the trailer. However when the tail and brake lights are active when the truck lights are on. I believe all late model trucks are that way-- at least that is how Ford is wired. If the truck is running while hooked to the trailer and the shore power is connected to the trailer, the trailer battery charger is active which will not do any damage to the truck alternator or visa versa. The alternator/charger will see a net reduced load which does no harm....
joebedford
Nomad II
Dec 27, 2017
I unplug when I'm dry camping overnight. Having run down the truck batteries by mistake, I learned my lesson.
JaycoAngel
Explorer
Dec 27, 2017
Thank you everyone for your advice!
We will unplug! Just in case
Butch50
Explorer
Dec 27, 2017
On Fords they disconnect trailer power when you shut the key off (or at least they used to). Rams do not disconnect power and I believe GM also stays on. I put in a disconnect relay in my Ram so when the key is off my power to the trailer power is disconnected.

Bargman Battery Isolator
ScottG
Nomad
Dec 27, 2017
time2roll wrote:
As long as the trailer is plugged in to the pedestal, unplugging from the truck will not matter.

X2.
Lwiddis
Explorer II
Dec 27, 2017
I always unplug. Just don't want an unlikely issue with draining the TV battery or electric spike also frying the TV but its very rare when I hook up to shore power.
Veebyes
Explorer II
Dec 27, 2017
I am a firm believer in Murphy's Law. With that in mind I try to be in the habit of unplugging, even if it is only a Walmart overnight.
time2roll
Nomad
Dec 27, 2017
As long as the trailer is plugged in to the pedestal, unplugging from the truck will not matter.
coolmom42
Explorer II
Dec 27, 2017
We unplug.

*Protection against electrical surges/lighting--admittedly not likely to happen, but very bad if it did.
*If tow vehicle kill switch doesn't work like it's supposed to, tow vehicle battery could be drained. Also unlikely but really annoying.

It's mostly a habit, but 15 second insurance is cheap.
Roger10378
Explorer II
Dec 27, 2017
I unplug now. I didn't until I had converter failure. With the trailer connected to the truck I didn't realize the converter was not working until morning when the slides would not retract and the truck would not start. Now I make sure to unplug.