Hippajac Amp Draw

[ajriding]

Anyone know the amperage draw of the power TC Hippajac lifts? For one or for four, but specify so we know…

I am wondering what amp charger controller to buy. 10 or 20? The lifts will be the biggest draw as I have another battery bank for the ele frig.

I guess I could wire the battery power straight to the fuse box, but usually the power would go through the charge controller and then to the fuse box.

Backstory. I have 200 watts going to a dedicated battery bank just for the frig. completely isolated from the rest of the camper.

The regular one battery in the camper will power everything else (Hippajac lifts, lights, fans, blower, phone and inverter which I have never yet used.) It has 100w solar charging it. I just ordered the parts, so will install soon.

Typical wiring is to have solar go to controller. Battery go to controller, and controller to output to the fuse box (load). Does it matter if I just send battery straight to the fuse box while at the same time straight to the battery terminals on the charge controller? Then the only amps to worry about would be the solar coming in, solar is low amps.

I dont want to pull the hippajac wiring to go to battery. Im trying to minimize the wire changes.

[mbloof]

ajriding wrote:
Interesting conversation….

I should have to double check to see that I do not have them going to the battery. I think I have it all through the SunSaver Morningstar 20A controller. It is not one of those $14 ebay specials.

My batteries were only in the truck bed before, so to load I had to rely on the converter to lift it, I could not tell the difference. If the converter was weak i should hear a difference in the motors compared to batteries. No worries, the new will have a battery back in the camper.

I will hook directly to the batteries and use the charger just for solar connection.

According to their website:

"The Load connection allows the user to wire DC devices such as fans, bulbs, or communication equipment directly to the controller. This allows the controller to disconnect the loads if necessary for protection of the controller, battery, or the loads themselves. This connection is optional and, as an alternative, the system loads can be wired directly to the battery bank."

The load can't be higher than the rating of the controller.

[time2roll]

Solar controller should be sized to match the solar panels.
Jacks run from the battery so the wire to the jacks needs to be large enough but will not affect the solar.

[ajriding]

Interesting conversation….

I should have to double check to see that I do not have them going to the battery. I think I have it all through the SunSaver Morningstar 20A controller. It is not one of those $14 ebay specials.

My batteries were only in the truck bed before, so to load I had to rely on the converter to lift it, I could not tell the difference. If the converter was weak i should hear a difference in the motors compared to batteries. No worries, the new will have a battery back in the camper.

I will hook directly to the batteries and use the charger just for solar connection.

[bigfootford]

My loaded Bigfoot 2500 9.6 , water, food, clothes etc weighs 4200lbs. Old style HJ's pulls
35 to 40 amps for all 4's lifting.

Jim

[Eric_Lisa]

ajriding wrote:
...I dont want to pull the hippajac wiring to go to battery...

Going off memory here, someone jump in if I am not recalling this correctly....

I thought it was bad to NOT have the jacks pulling from the battery. The reason being the inverter/charger does not have the capacity to handle their draw. Lifting the camper on shore-power alone tends to burn out the inverter/charger in a hurry. The battery is the only component with enough 'amps in the can' to handle the load.

HTH
-Eric

[work2much]

ajriding wrote:
I assume I can pull 20 amps through the "load" terminals since it is a 20 amp unit.

The amp rating is for what the unit can charge to the battery. Most of the load terminals on the controller themselves are rated for less. Definitely check with the manufacturer before you buy. Our older Renogy 40 amp MPPT stated only small DC loads were acceptable on the load port. They used the example of a single led light.

Maybe other manufactures allow full rated amperage but I would definitely not assume that.

From Renogy:

The load terminal is only compatible to run one small 12 V DC load with low amp consumption.
All the other devices and appliance with surge and high amp draw should be connected directly to the battery.

[otrfun]

ajriding wrote:
Anyone know the amperage draw of the power TC Hippajac lifts? For one or for four, but specify so we know . . .

The four Happijacs (4220 with the newer direct drive motors) on our '19 NL 8-11 draw a combined ~25 amps up (lift) and 12-14 amps down. These readings are with the converter off (no a/c to camper).

[work2much]

Just out of curiosity I lifted our camper and read the battery monitor. 60 amps dc to start and settled down to 55 amps after a second to lift the entire camper all jacks working together. Those are rieco titan jacks and the camper is about 5000 pounds as it sits in the driveway. The camper has (2) 30 amp fuses for each jack, one for up and the other for down so it looks like we are about half the fuse rating for actual amperage however I suspect that the fronts are using a lot more of that 55 amps than the rear and we are not at the rated max for the jacks of 2500 pounds each so I'm sure that's what they are fused for.

[work2much]

HJ makes 3 jacks with different load ratings and the load in amps from the motor will vary depending on the weight it is lifting. You could contact the manufacturer. They might be able to ballpark if you can give them the weight although I think they may just give you the max rated amperage of the motor/controller/fuse.

Typically the fronts are working harder than the rears due to weight being higher on most slide in campers.. The rating of the fuse would tell you what they consider a max amperage to protect the wire. If the camper is 1200 pounds the jacks will draw much less amperage than if i's 6,000 pounds. Rears will be less than fronts.

For best results in reducing the amperage a motor needs make sure that the jack controller is located near a strong battery and cabled properly to avoid voltage line drop which will increase current to the jack motor. This can really come into play if you are raising all the jacks at the same time without enough battery to keep the voltage from dropping.

So, lots a variables to your question.

Other than that you could invest in a cheap clamp on dc meter that would tell you exactly the amperage at each jack. This is the one I carry to satisfy electrical questions that I have. I haven't tested this on our camper. Next time I'm loading it I'll see what the amperage is for curiosity.

clamp meter

[ajriding]

I think the question must be terribly confusing, I see random answers. I was curious how many amps a motor draws. This could be in the form of a one-digit number at the simplest of answers.

It's OK that no one knows too

[burningman]

I don’t think anyone is confused by the question, more confused why you’d run your jacks through the controller.
If it’s just for the undervolt safety shutdown, I mean, if you wish... but they aren’t getting used at all unless you’re loading up the camper. You kinda’ don’t want it to decide the battery is getting low and stop when you’re halfway up with the thing.
I haven’t measured the current, but four jacks would have to be only 5 amps each to be 20 total amps. That just doesn’t seem likely.

[Kayteg1]

I can't give you the number, but it is a lot, especially front jacks on 5000 + lb camper.
I tried couple of times using TC converter for jacks and when I can operate rear to some degree, activating front jacks will put 40 amps converter in instant overload. Even going down!
Also once in the past my dually batteries got discharged and after 2 hr of recharging they would still not lift the camper.
So my guess that for 4 jacks lifting, you need good battery, or at least 100 amp converter.

[ajriding]

I think some confused by the question.

I do have the RV powered all through the "load" from the charge controller. This is a quality 20amp one, not the $14 things out there. The reason is that the controller will shut off when battery voltage gets low so the batts done get too drained. I assume I can pull 20 amps through the "load" terminals since it is a 20 amp unit. My camper should never need 20 amps.

When buying quality controllers, they get expensive, so I do not want to buy more than I need. 10 amps are cheaper than a 20 amp, but if a 10 will do then I have no reason to get anything bigger. Remember the lift motors will be on a different controller and battery than the RV.

Yes, many are correct that a battery will be sufficient to power the motors, as I have been doing, and already well know.

Fuses would tell me how many amps it is not pulling, but do not tell me the amp draw.
The fuse could be double the draw.

[work2much]

You definitely want any solar panels to be wired through a charge controller.

To operate the jacks you need a battery connected to the control box for the jacks. The solar would charge the battery and would indirectly help with voltage sag as you use the jacks. Ideally you should have enough battery to run the jacks without the solar helping the battery maintain voltage. Sizing the solar should be based on solar array size not any specific load.

Don't use the load terminals on the solar charger. Feed the dc power center from the battery. That's how the camper should have been built. This load terminals on the charger have a very small load value.

The jack controller should have fuses, one for each jack. They are normally blade type fuses and will be marked with their rating. The actual power consumed will be less but it should give you an idea of roughly the power demand in amps. Typically a single healthy battery should be able to raise the camper off the truck.