Alternator: How many batteries can it take?
I have a diesel, so two batteries for truck, there are two 6-volt for the Truck Camper, and I want to put a deep cycle battery in the cargo trailer. The Camper does have 200 watt solar to charge it...
Forum Discussion
Thanks all. Matt, so you are stating that the alternator will protect itself so no worries there? I have burned out an alternator over-using it on an E350 van before, so that one did not protect itself too well. Ended up running the generator to power the battery charger to put voltage to the batteries to get home.
I purposely did not give details on the battery locations, distance etc because I am not looking for battery information of any sort, though it is always useful and appreciated. I'm just asking about the alternator.
The RV batteries actually sit in the front corner of the truck bed, they are not in the camper. I used a jumper cable as my cable/wire with proper connectors of course. I attached one end to the starter positive and put a solenoid inline and the other end to the battery positive. This is as short of a run from alternator as I could make it. The wire going to the starter is very heavy gauge. Having both banks of batteries (truck starting batteries and the RV batteries which sit in the bed) directly attached to the starter positive means possible two chances to start the engine. I can self jump with a flip of a switch (many motorhomes have this function).
The cargo trailer battery will be on a much less gauge wire, maybe 14, so will not be getting great charging, but this is typical for what a standard towed camper gets for decades and for a million camper trailers. However, the trailer battery will not get discharged much, I could probably stack some D-cell batteries together and have more than enough power….
I purposely did not give details on the battery locations, distance etc because I am not looking for battery information of any sort, though it is always useful and appreciated. I'm just asking about the alternator.
The RV batteries actually sit in the front corner of the truck bed, they are not in the camper. I used a jumper cable as my cable/wire with proper connectors of course. I attached one end to the starter positive and put a solenoid inline and the other end to the battery positive. This is as short of a run from alternator as I could make it. The wire going to the starter is very heavy gauge. Having both banks of batteries (truck starting batteries and the RV batteries which sit in the bed) directly attached to the starter positive means possible two chances to start the engine. I can self jump with a flip of a switch (many motorhomes have this function).
The cargo trailer battery will be on a much less gauge wire, maybe 14, so will not be getting great charging, but this is typical for what a standard towed camper gets for decades and for a million camper trailers. However, the trailer battery will not get discharged much, I could probably stack some D-cell batteries together and have more than enough power….
