Forum Discussion

Kylesmith3021's avatar
Jul 05, 2016

First Time Boondocking

So were going on first trip boondocking for a couple of days..Being first time Ive had to use my champion 3100 for charging the batteries I do have a few questions..When running the genny do I plug in both the 30amp cord from camper and fast charge battery charger or just one at a time..And also can i hook up charger cables directly to battery or do you suggest take it out and disconnect all the cables from it.
  • It depends on what the charger setup is. A lot of trailers in stock form are not going to give more than 10 or 15 amps max to the battery, the rated capacity has little relevance when there is a high voltage drop with those long undersized cables that save $50 at the manufacturer. Your current is determined by the difference between battery and charger voltage and when many chargers only supply 13.6 volts and your battery is going to be over 12 .... well you need *very* low resistance. Your quick charger may do better depending on capacity given the short leads and typically a higher voltage as well.
    Disconnecting the battery depends on which type of external charger you have. Try it and see what the voltage is at the battery when starting from a low charge to get an idea, you may be appalled at how much the drop is on a stock setup. There are many threads on how to improve charging, but as most are a bit of work and an external charger is simple ask how often and how long you will be off grid.
  • I'm not sure what your set up is but you should just be able to plug the 30 amp into the generator and charge your battery via the converter. There shouldn't be any need to plug a charger in separately that I'm aware of.