TV while traveling/ Battery Health

[ddro]

I have a few questions I hope I can get a few answers for.
I need to know the best way to maintain my battery. When I am traveling I assume my truck is charging my TT battery correct? Is it charging sufficiently or is it slowly recharging? Also when connected to a 30 amp service in a campground is my battery being recharged and what voltage will I have available to my receptacles? Can I run a regular electric fan or ceramic heater? I am confused because I thought when I purchased the TT that everything was 12volt via the converter? inverter?.
Also what kind of TV will work when connected to 30 amp power?
Is it worth the cost to replace the bulbs in the lights to LED vs what was supplied as original equipment? What kind of bulbs would I want and where would the best place to get them as far as price? Is it really worth it as far as battery use?
I also have one more question. I purchased a three prong adapter to plug a regular extension cord into it then plug into my TT plug. Will this be sufficient to run the inverter? converter? to charge the TT battery or run a light etc without draining my TT battery? I know these questions might seem mundane but as I mentioned we are new to this and I don't want to damage my TT electrical system.
Thanks for your help. We are new to this and any other suggestions are appreciated.

[Marauderer]

LED's are a big energy saver. I have changed out all my internal bulbs and am now going to change all the outside ones. It really helps and in the summer LEDs don't put the heat out like an incandescent bulb which lightens the load on the A/C.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Don't count on a lot of charging happening through a 7 pin connector. The wire is not thick enough and there will be lots of voltage drop.

[Dakota98]

A CONVERTER is what is in the TT. It is a power distribution center, that regulates the type of power being sent to a particular device. It's
power source will either be from the battery for 12 volt appliances or 120V AC from a generator or shore power for things like microwave, air conditioning, etc.
All the lights in your TT are 12 volt.

An INVERTER can be a fixed or portable device that when connected to a 12 volt source changes the 12 volts to 120V AC. Portable units are typically connected to a 12V female receptacle in the coach.

The ability to properly charge your batteries is dependent upon what type of CONVERTER you have. Make, model & if it has a 3-4 stage charging system as part of it. You will need to be connected to a generator or shore power for it to charge the batteries.

[RoyB]

This is a typical 30AMP Electrical Configuration setup showing the 120VAC and 12VDC Power Distribution Panels and what they can control.


Photo from GOOGLE Images

The basic RV TRAILER concept is to be able to operate most of your necessary lights and few appliances from 12VDC Batteries when camping without 120VAC shore power connected.

When you are plugged into 120VAC shore Power you can then operate all of your Appliance systems.

You can also operate a few of your 120VAC Appliances when camping off the power grid by adding the correct sized INVERTER unit but must keep in mind the INVERTER is very 12VDC Power hungry and will require many batteries to operate the bigger wattage 120VAC items.

Camping off the power grid does take good planning on beefing up your 12VDC systems to be successful for longer term camping.

The RV camper is an amazing concept.

Roy Ken

[RoyB]

...

[westend]

You have two voltage systems in your trailer. The 120v system is powered by a shore connection cable and the 12v system is powered by the battery, and when connected to shore power, the converter. The converter takes the 120V shore power and converts it to 12V. IT is a 12V battery charger and a 12V power supply.

The towing vehicle's 12V connection through the umbilical cable does charge the trailer's battery when operating. Some vehicles have a battery isolator so the vehicle battery does not discharge. Some vehicles need a fuse or breaker installed under the hood for the trailer charging circuit to work. Some vehicles disconnect the circuit to the trailer when parked and some don't. Ford does. The vehicle charging circuit is slow and at a low rate.

Any 120V TV or other 120V device will operate through the receptacles when the shore power cord is used. Some trailers have an inverter that allows use of 120V when not connected to shore power and is fed from the battery. An inverter takes 12V DC and inverts it to 120V AC power.

LED bulbs operate at 1/5 the power of incandescents. This saves a lot of power when not connected to shore power and using lights. I use 48 SMD flat panel LED's purchased from E Bay, < $2 a panel. Do some searching to find out about sizing and color differences.

A three prong adaptor will be fine for charging the battery via converter.