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xscoobysnack's avatar
xscoobysnack
Explorer
May 04, 2020

Truck camper battery, or lack thereof

Hey, I've been lurking on this forum for a while and learned lots but do have a question. I picked up an old '95 truck camper and for the life of me cannot find a location where a battery would be stored. It has 12V lights and other stuff like a stereo. Is it possible that it was designed to leech off the truck battery at all times? It has an old converter with a switch to change from shore power to 12V. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
  • It's a '95 Sportsmen 951. It does have a shore power cord and a switch on the converter to go between 120VAC and 12VDC. I don't believe it has a charger but I'm less concerned about that than pulling power from the truck. That isn't working through the 7 pin connection currently. Thanks all.
  • An old truck camper wouldn’t necessarily have its own battery, especially if it’s one of the smaller models.

    A good indicator would be, does it have a shore-power cord for 120 volt appliances? If it’s got shore power then it should have a power center with CB’s, and may have a converter to supply 12 volts, and that converter MIGHT have a battery charger integrated in it. Back then, they weren’t always standard equipment. I had one that age that the battery charger was optional.

    Just guessing, but this may be one of the models that relied on the truck batteries for 12 volt power, and ideally you would have two batteries under the hood, and a separator between them so you wouldn’t kill both of them.

    :):)
  • My last two old Lance truck campers had a small door on the outside to house one battery..
  • They are there somewhere.
    Most are hidden but always accessible.
    Start looking somewhere else like underthings.
  • Some older TCs use a house battery located under the truck’s hood.