charging batteries with truck
Several years ago when the fifth wheel that I had at the time only had room for one battery, I carried 2 more in the back of my truck. I used 2 sets of good jumper cables with ring terminals on one en...
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Go solar as soon as you can, this solves a lot of problems. 200-300 watts will be plenty to keep them charged unless you use a lot of power camping. If you do use power use it early in the daylight so there is light left to charge back before dark.
Instead of fooling with jumper cables and risking sparks and possible damage to electronics consider beefing up your trailer charging system. The trailer wiring is insufficient.
Run a 2-pole plug from truck to trailer with heavy gauge wire, like your jumper cables gauge, and pull power off truck battery or the starter motor. A heavy duty solenoid can be a switch as you do not need truck power all the time while driving, and you do not want to use truck battery while parked or have to physically unplug trailer from truck.
etrailer.com has the 2-pole plugs at a good price, and they could even give you advice.
To give significant charge to that many batteries will take time. 30 mins will not do much, you may need hours, and really need the engine running at 1800rpm to have alternator optimized.
A generator will cost less in gas for sure.
Diesel engines are not meant to be run at idle for more than 10-15 minutes, they are not semis. I forgot if you said gas or diesel… You will do harm to a diesel unless you add a high idle switch.
Back to solar' that is the best option, even if all you do is have those portable ones out to the side.
Marine batteries are not true deep-cycle batteries, and if you run them flat too many times they will be gone. They can cycle 100-300 times maybe if I remember, where deep cycle can cycle into the thousands.
Instead of fooling with jumper cables and risking sparks and possible damage to electronics consider beefing up your trailer charging system. The trailer wiring is insufficient.
Run a 2-pole plug from truck to trailer with heavy gauge wire, like your jumper cables gauge, and pull power off truck battery or the starter motor. A heavy duty solenoid can be a switch as you do not need truck power all the time while driving, and you do not want to use truck battery while parked or have to physically unplug trailer from truck.
etrailer.com has the 2-pole plugs at a good price, and they could even give you advice.
To give significant charge to that many batteries will take time. 30 mins will not do much, you may need hours, and really need the engine running at 1800rpm to have alternator optimized.
A generator will cost less in gas for sure.
Diesel engines are not meant to be run at idle for more than 10-15 minutes, they are not semis. I forgot if you said gas or diesel… You will do harm to a diesel unless you add a high idle switch.
Back to solar' that is the best option, even if all you do is have those portable ones out to the side.
Marine batteries are not true deep-cycle batteries, and if you run them flat too many times they will be gone. They can cycle 100-300 times maybe if I remember, where deep cycle can cycle into the thousands.
