Plugged in or not?

[John_Joey]

I'm sure this has been asked before, but we're leaving shortly and I don't have time to do a real search.

I've had other RV's never a truck/5'ver combo. When I went out this morning I noticed that the brake controller light was green. I was plugged into the trailer plus 110V.

So the question is what is the "best practice" here. Do you always stay connected to the truck when you're not moving. Do you unconnected when only hooked to shore power, or doesn't it matter because there are safe guards built into the system?

Thanks

[re_tired]

My previous Ford with a factory hitch & wiring didn't like staying connected to the TT on shore power. It's headlights would come on and the clearance lights on the TT would come on. The lights would go out if I started it. My current Chevy with same TT doesn't seem to have a problem staying connected.

[steiny93]

"best practice" would be to unplug when not moving; rational being to prevent a draw from the trailer side from killing your truck battery or an over voltage scenario on the rv side from back feeding the truck and causing damage.

shore power is providing a charge voltage to the rv batteries which doesn't harm your truck; now if that were to fail and you were to get say 110volt to the rv battery I don't think that would necessarily get back to the pickup but I wouldn't want to try it



personally; my concern is around drawing voltage from the truck to the rv and being unable to start the truck; that is the scenario I'd worry about

[fj12ryder]

If we stop and don't plug into shore power we always unplug from the truck since the draw from the trailer could run down the truck batteries.

If we plug into shore power for just an overnight and we don't unhook from the trailer then we don't unplug from the truck.

We installed a switch on the battery to completely shut off power to the trailer. We have a "Battery Cut-Off Switch" inside the toyhauler but it doesn't shut off all power so we put an actual cut-off switch on the battery itself.

[the_bear_II]

I usually stay plugged into the truck when on shorepower if we are not unhitching for any reason. Never caused a problem.