Forum Discussion

MicahDD's avatar
MicahDD
Explorer
May 15, 2013

Is my battery being properly charged when TT is plugged in?

Hi all, I recently bought a 2006 Sun Valley Roadrunner, it's a single-axle small TT.

My question is... will the RV battery on my Roadrunner be charged and properly maintained by me simply plugging the TT into one of my normal household outlets?

On my larger (and soon to be gone) Prowler TT there's a charge wizard, which my research suggests will charge and then "maintain" the battery on the Prowler when the TT is plugged into my house.

But I don't know if my Roadrunner will do the same thing? Should I always remove the battery from my Roadrunner and put it on a battery tender when I'm not using the trailer? Or can I just leave the battery connected and plug the trailer in and everything will be fine?

Thanks for the help, I'm really a novice about all this stuff!
  • MicahDD's avatar
    MicahDD
    Explorer
    May 16, 2013
    Thanks all. I checked my power converter, it's an Elixir EX-45, which as bldrbuck says provides a 3amp trickle charge, but as ddrueckh said is not a 3-way maintenance charger.

    So basically I think that if I'm going to not be using the trailer for long stretches I need to remove the battery and put it on my battery tender. That, or replace the power converter with one of these "intelligent" converters that's also a 3-way charger. I doubt I'll do that unless the current converter dies.

    Thanks all!
  • bldrbuck's avatar
    bldrbuck
    Explorer
    May 15, 2013
    Most converters only sypply a small amount of current to charge the battery. That is usually about 3 amphers. That is fone of the battery is fully charged. If it is discharged more than 10 per cent use an external charger to top- it off, then the converter should keep it up.
  • pwrplay's avatar
    pwrplay
    Explorer
    May 15, 2013
    I leave mine plugged in all the time to keep the battery charged up by the built in Inverter/Charger. When in storage I pull the battery out so that it does not run down due to phantom power sources and the propane detector.
    I need to install a battery disconnect switch so I don't have to keep removing the battery when put in storage since I don't have access to hydro at my storage facility.
  • ddrueckh's avatar
    ddrueckh
    Explorer
    May 15, 2013
    Probably not. You need a 3 stage charger to properly charge and amintain your batteries...
  • MicahDD's avatar
    MicahDD
    Explorer
    May 15, 2013
    Bonefish wrote:
    Only you can tell by looking at the installed power pannel and checking the model number on the web.


    Gotcha. Will dig deeper and see what I can figure out, thanks.
  • Bonefish's avatar
    Bonefish
    Explorer
    May 15, 2013
    Only you can tell by looking at the installed power pannel and checking the model number on the web.

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