Trailer battery charging while towing
Probably a dumb question but how long would it take to charge a two-battery system while going down the road between campgrounds? I know it depends on how charged the batteries are to begin with. Wo...
Forum Discussion
The best I could ever attain from traveling down the road charging my batteries from the the truck alternator system was a good trickle charge. Doing my OFF-ROAD camping if I don't get my batteries to at least the 90% charge state I cannot make it very long on performance and it will get dark on me pretty quick. Continuing to do the less than 90% charge state always harms my batteries.
Using my 2KW Generator in the mornings running my on-board smart mode converter/charger setup will take my 50% depleted batteries to their 90% charge charge in as little as three hours of generator run time.
Seems like everywhere we go here on the East side of the US all have generator run time restrictions in place making it difficult to planning when we can charge our battery bank...
The quickest way to safely charge my 50% depleted batteries is using 14.4VDC with the capacity of 17-20AMPS per battery in the bank. I can recharge my battery bank to its 90% charge state in three hours time doing this.
If you monitor the DC VOLTS being generated from the truck alternator setup when driving down the road you will see 14.4VDC when you first start up and the it drops to 14.2 in just a few minutes and then down to around 13.6VDC and eventually down to 13.2VDC. The Truck start battery being so close to the truck alternator will determine these readings based of how many DC amps the truck start battery is taking on coming from the alternator. Your trailer battery setup is to far away from the alternator to allow the truck start alternator electronics to determine its charge state. If all you have is 13.2VDC to 13.6VDC available from the truck alternator driving down the road it will take a good 12-14 hours to recharge a 50% charge state battery back up to it 90% charge state according to Progressive Dynamics.
Adding larger cables between the Truck Alternator and the Trailer battery bank will help the situation but you also need to keep the Alternator DC VOLTAGE up high around the 14.4VDC range for at least two hours before tapering back to the 13.6VDC ranges. The truck Alternator will also need to maintain a good 17-20AMPS per battery in your trailer battery bank at theses DC VOLTAGE levels if you want to recharge the batteries in a quick three hours run time.
This is asking alot from your Truck Start Battery system. It also goes against some of my golden rules of NOT messing too much with the truck charging system as this is my only way to get back home on haha... The truck's charging system is only designed to take care of the truck start battery...
If you really really want to do this and be successful then adding a separate Truck Alternator system setup just for charging the trailer batteries like the Fire Department Rescue Vehicles and other Emergency Vehicles have done...
Just some of my observations here...
Roy Ken
Using my 2KW Generator in the mornings running my on-board smart mode converter/charger setup will take my 50% depleted batteries to their 90% charge charge in as little as three hours of generator run time.
Seems like everywhere we go here on the East side of the US all have generator run time restrictions in place making it difficult to planning when we can charge our battery bank...
The quickest way to safely charge my 50% depleted batteries is using 14.4VDC with the capacity of 17-20AMPS per battery in the bank. I can recharge my battery bank to its 90% charge state in three hours time doing this.
If you monitor the DC VOLTS being generated from the truck alternator setup when driving down the road you will see 14.4VDC when you first start up and the it drops to 14.2 in just a few minutes and then down to around 13.6VDC and eventually down to 13.2VDC. The Truck start battery being so close to the truck alternator will determine these readings based of how many DC amps the truck start battery is taking on coming from the alternator. Your trailer battery setup is to far away from the alternator to allow the truck start alternator electronics to determine its charge state. If all you have is 13.2VDC to 13.6VDC available from the truck alternator driving down the road it will take a good 12-14 hours to recharge a 50% charge state battery back up to it 90% charge state according to Progressive Dynamics.
Adding larger cables between the Truck Alternator and the Trailer battery bank will help the situation but you also need to keep the Alternator DC VOLTAGE up high around the 14.4VDC range for at least two hours before tapering back to the 13.6VDC ranges. The truck Alternator will also need to maintain a good 17-20AMPS per battery in your trailer battery bank at theses DC VOLTAGE levels if you want to recharge the batteries in a quick three hours run time.
This is asking alot from your Truck Start Battery system. It also goes against some of my golden rules of NOT messing too much with the truck charging system as this is my only way to get back home on haha... The truck's charging system is only designed to take care of the truck start battery...
If you really really want to do this and be successful then adding a separate Truck Alternator system setup just for charging the trailer batteries like the Fire Department Rescue Vehicles and other Emergency Vehicles have done...
Just some of my observations here...
Roy Ken
