How to Increase Battery Capacity
After spending 10+ years studying RVs prior to buying one I’m amazed at what I still don’t know! Turns out the cure for that is this amazing forum. The latest issue I’m lost about is a LOT more ...
Forum Discussion
rfloyd99 wrote:
OP here again.
3rd, It seems that 14.6V or higher is needed to get the best charge. Does the truck (2012 Ram 5.6L V8) alternator put out more power than the WFCO converter (13.6V, 35A) in the TT? Is this something I can measure - I have a multimeter, not a whiz at using it yet.
If truck is better, when I hook up the trailer to drive for a few hours, is the truck charging the batteries, or is the truck sending juice to the converter which is then sending a weaker charge to the batteries? A previous poster said a modification or a dedicated charging line might be required.
Charging while driving will happen directly. How much will depend on the voltage (which you can measure, easy, it may be higher than 13.6 with a newer truck so measure it with a partly discharged battery). While driving the resistance will be higher than with charging cables so charging is slower. The alternator capacity is very unlikely to be the limit on how many amps. You can buy a cheap shunt on Amazon.com to measure the current, but the current will be what it will be so doesn't really seem worth it for your case.
If you want buy something like the shunt below, you put it in series with the battery and measure the voltage across this shunt. When it reads .075 volts you have 50 amps, and your lucky!!, half that voltage is 25 amps.
50 amp shunt.
