There are a lot of ideas rolling around in this thread with not a lot of organization in it. I'm proposing the following list as a starting place to have a common discussion. It isn't exhaustive nor am I an expert. If you think I've missed something or one item should be different, feel free to list the item Reference and what you suggest...
What you need from the truck to camper battery:
1a. Heavy Duty Alternator (or second alternator just for camper)
2a. Fuse (I'll let others add in what size)
3a. Relay w/ Switch (to disable charging from the truck cab if necessary)
4a. 2AWG or thicker cable (assuming run of ~25ft)
5a. Fuse (I'll let others add in what size)
6a. DC-DC Charger
7a. Batteries (I personally recommended LiFePo4 because of the integrated battery monitoring system builtin)
What you need from solar panel to camper battery:
1b. 200 to 400w solar panels (Panels are cheap these days, no reason to not use maximum roof surface area)
2b. Fuse (I'll let others add in what size)
3b. 8AWG or thicker cable (assuming run of ~15ft from panels to charger)
3b. Solar Charger dedicated to the proper battery type you have
4b. 8AWG or thicker cable (assuming run of ~10ft from charger to batteries)
5b. Batteries
What you need from batteries to camper:
1c. Batteries
2c. Reset-able Fuse (I'll let others add in what size)
3c. Battery disconnect
4c. Inline Battery Monitoring System (volts, amps, amp hours, etc...)
5c. 4AWG or thicker cable
6c. Camper Power Convert / Charger
If we can refine these lists, perhaps we can turn this information into a sticky thread of recommended charging systems. These questions come up a lot and having a baseline would save future people lot's of expense by avoiding buying the wrong items. Half of what I listed is not what I have because I've done this piecemeal and learned as I went. I will need to change things out over time.
