Charging battery on the road with portable generator

[bodacious]

Has anyone tried charging their battery with a portable generator while driving down the road? You'd probably have to isolate the camper battery from the truck charging system. I carry my Honda 2000 on a rear carrier rack. Thinking that charging for an hour or so between stops would be better than the small amount provided by the truck system. Hair-brained or feasible idea? How would you isolate from the truck charging system?

[Kayteg1]

All my trucks have been wired that charging wire is hot only with ignition on. That prevents truck battery discharge by camper/trailer.
On one truck PO replaced fuse with automatic 30 amp breaker. I guess he was having pretty good draw there.
Also my converter is lousy way to recharge deeply discharged batteries.
At higher draw it will overheat and shut off for some time.
I did wonder why 1 hr of generator running did not recharge batteries too much till I notice that. Now I take computerized 25 amp charger with me.

[WyoTraveler]

50 years ago before all the modern stuff we used a continious duty solenoid and a switch in our TC to charge the extra battery that powered the TC. 1 battery? We never had all the extra electronics. It was ice in the ice box, no furnace, and the TCs had an oil lamp mounted on the wall. Anyone remember those old oil lamps mounted on the interior wall of the TCs? We were just excited about being in a hard sided unit up off the cold hard ground. Now we take our house with us. How times have changed.

[DWeikert]

RoyB wrote:

We have followed the golden rule over the years of OFF-ROAD camping to never mess with the truck battery system unless it is designed to charge additional batteries. Keep in mind the truck is the only way to get you back home.

Only thing you really need to do to the truck is install an isolator (continuous duty solenoid) that disconnects the camper battery from the truck's when the truck isn't running. That way you can charge the camper battery with the truck's alternator but don't have to worry about the camper discharging the truck's battery.

Have you priced solar lately?
Renogy 100W kit

[RoyB]

We do alot of OFF-ROAD camping without hookups and it is always a must do thing for us to always start out each evening with our battery bank charged up to at least the 90% charge state. Doing small short term charging at different times during the day has never been a good thing for us. Everything usally hits the 50% charge state around 10PM at night when we charge up for an hour here and there.

When our batteries drop to their 50% charge state it always takes us around three hours of generator run time to get the batteries back up to their 90% charge state using the on-board converter/charger unit being run by our generator.

I would think using the smart relays that are on the market these days should allow you to charge your truck camper batteries from your truck alternator setup. The downside of course is have an alternator system setup to charge the additional batteries at the same time and not damage the truck alternator system.

We have followed the golden rule over the years of OFF-ROAD camping to never mess with the truck battery system unless it is designed to charge additional batteries. Keep in mind the truck is the only way to get you back home.

Roy Ken

[msiminoff]

bodacious wrote:
Has anyone tried charging their battery with a portable generator while driving down the road

If you're "driving down the road" then your alternator is spinning. So... if you want (need?) to charge while underway, why not just upgrade the wiring from your truck to TC so that you can charge effectively straight from the alternator?!? It's way cheaper, easier, and faster than than running a portable generator.

I have 2ga wiring from my truck's alternator straight to my house battery bank. I can easily charge at over 100A (@14.7V) when the battery is discharged... and power my fridge to boot (note that I do have a high-output alternator).

Cheers,
-Mark

[Scott16]

Kayteg1 wrote:
Why would you run generator, when almost all trucks have 30 amps trailer charging circuit?
100 Ah battery has recommended 10 amp charging, so you should not go too high anyway.
Truck voltage regulator will give you one of the best charging option you can have.

+1 Agree.
Scott

[Kayteg1]

Why would you run generator, when almost all trucks have 30 amps trailer charging circuit?
100 Ah battery has recommended 10 amp charging, so you should not go too high anyway.
Truck voltage regulator will give you one of the best charging option you can have.

[jmcgsd]

bodacious wrote:
Not sure how but I do have heavy guage wires running from the rear generator compartment to the battery compartment (unused). Just exploring the theory right now.

If yours is a newer TC they may not connect. They may both be piped to a location where an auto transfer switch would be installed.

In my current '95 Lance 880 there is actually a 30A plug in the compartment for my power cord. When I want to use the generator I simply plug the power cord into that plug. In my '05 Lance 981 there was an auto transfer switch and the switchover from shore power to genny was automatic 20 seconds after the generator started.

[bodacious]

Not sure how but I do have heavy guage wires running from the rear generator compartment to the battery compartment (unused). Just exploring the theory right now.

[time2roll]

My solar works fine with no isolation. Should present no issues to run the Honda in motion. I assume you have a good three stage converter to make it all worth while.

[insp1505]

How do you plan to plug the camper into the generator? I would have a large 30 amp cable hanging out the side of my camper whipping in the wind to accomplish what you're thinking.