Battery Charging....This is a little different

Simple_serf · Aug 22, 2007

Ok...

I am planning on taking a road trip to Seattle here in about two and a half weeks with my camper (2900 miles). I use a 230AH battery to keep my fridge and some stuff in the camper going. I generally use a generator at shows, or I am gone just a day or something. Well, this trip is going to take me 2 weeks. Anyhow, I was wondering if anybody knew of a good way to charge this battery while I was driving. I know I could use a battery isolator and run some very heavy copper to the batteries, but i'd like to keep the charge rate down to 10 amps or less. i was almost thinking of using a regulator from a lawn tractor.

Anyhow, any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Paul

4x4junkie · Aug 22, 2007

If you run a longer thinner gauge wire from the isolator to the battery (say, a #14 or #16), the resistance in the wire will reduce the charge rate.

What's the reason for lowering the charging rate? Any 230 AH batt should be able to take 50 or more amps no problem.

JohnnyO · Aug 22, 2007

A power inverter with a Battery Tender Plus plugged into it, then run that to the camper battery? Kind of a roundabout way, but it might work.

BobR · Aug 22, 2007

a turn signal bulb, run the ground from the light to the positive on the secondary batteries. put a switch in that circuit and turn it off with the truck.

Bob

Wicked_Sludge · Aug 22, 2007

battery isolator with any 10 amp regulator you can find should work. one off of a lawn tractor, outboard, or any other small 12v engine ought to do (might stop by the local small engine repair shop for a chat).

or you could upgrade your house battery to a group27 and eliminate the need for a regulator (and give you extra juice for long stays).

Simple_serf · Aug 23, 2007

I'd like to keep the charge rate down because I don't want to run heavy battery cable to the house battery.

I'm trying to think about group 27....I think if I upgrade, I will go to T105's, or US battery 185's...It's a tossup between the two. we run these at work in the floor scrubbers, take them down to 80%dod each night and then do it again the next night. They last for about a year and a half...I'd say 500 very abusive cycles.

I don't really want too permanent a setup, because i don't normally have to camp like this...and running a small gen at a show is fine ( I am looking for an antique 12 volt unit. I could show the unit and charge the bateries at the same time!)

Anyhow...i'm still thinking how I want to do this....I am currently working on fixing a broken lift cable in the camper, so this is not my top priority right now...but it will be once I am done with these cables.

Paul

Wicked_Sludge · Aug 24, 2007

you could run simple 8 gauge wiring and you'd be good for close to 85 amps at the distances your considering. your not running a starter here, you dont need 1/0 wiring like a starter.

ZSK · Aug 24, 2007

Is solar an option? A decent sized panel approx. 1' x 3' will provide about 15 watts of charge in good sunlight. Enough for a trickle charge.

jmzneal · Aug 24, 2007

hampsters in a wheel hooked to a gen. LOL

i like the 8 guage idea and just let it go at what ever or get that lawnmower reg and put it in line. I have 1 huge batt under the hood and 2 marine deepcycles in the bed ran with 4gauge and fused with 2 250 amp ANL fuses for my stereo and i never have a prob out of my stock alt but i still need one for long listening sessions... How many batts are you running in the camper??? I'd assume quite a few since it needs to power lots of stuff.

Will · Aug 24, 2007

All that stuff isn't neccessary. Run a 10-gauge wire from your battery to the trailer battery and just leave it there--put a 30amp fuse in the wire--NAPA sells an in-line type with pigtails. That's the way I always do it--both on car haulers with a winch and travel trailers. I have a 7-pole connector and one of the leads is permanently hot. Just make sure you unplug the trailer when you camp so it won't kill the battery in the truck. If you don't trust yourself to do that then you should use an isolator.

That 10gauge wire is going to be fine for whatever you do. I never used a deep cycle battery that large (a group 24 is only about 65AH so it will only accept about 25 charging amps--40% of it's AH rating) so I've never popped my 30amp fuse--I could plug the trailer in to the truck in the morning and use the trucks alternator to recharge the battery. But the battery you have will probably draw 80amps if you run it flat--and if your alternator has 80amps available it will pop the fuse--saving you a fire.

So that's what I would do. I would also get rid of that huge 230AH battery and get a group 24 so you can use the truck to charge it most of the time without a worry and either the AC at the campsite or the generator. I have a small 1000W Yamaha and it's very quiet and will run a small AC unit or small microwave--not at the same time. I used it with my Casita. During the day you don't even notice it as it's sound insulated.

ZSK · Aug 24, 2007

Will where did you find a 1000w generatorother than buying directly from a Yamaha dealer? I've only seen them down to 1500 and they are still fairly loud.

Simple_serf · Aug 24, 2007

Well, the 230 AH is used for other things at shows as well (Engine Ignition, electrical displays, etc). Like I said, I usually use a generator. I am going to try running a fused hot line to the battery and seeing what happens here (I'll pull it down a ways and see how the fuse does, etc)

230 AH is kinda small comapred to what I am used to running, both with alternative power systems (my other hobby) and the equipment I run and maintain at work.

The larger the battery, the less it gets pulled down. The less the depth of discharge, the longer it lasts. I cycle these to about 50% and have been using them for over 2 years.

ZSK:
For this app, solar is not an option. I am guessing you are talking about the panels in Northern tool or something like that. I like these panels (I have 6 of them), but 15w is about an amp at the voltage these run at. If I were to cover my cmaper's roof in solar, i would be able to meet current demands (if it was sunny and the temp was around 20 or 30 F) but charging would be low (keep in mind that my camper is small, so there wouldn't be too many panels)

Will · Aug 25, 2007

ZSK said:
Will where did you find a 1000w generatorother than buying directly from a Yamaha dealer? I've only seen them down to 1500 and they are still fairly loud.

Mine's an EF1000--probably close to 10 years old. The newer ones are half the weight.

Will · Aug 25, 2007

serf, there should be least 2 (3 if you aren't using trailer brakes) total large wires if you use a 7-pole RV connector. That means you could feed 90amps to your big battery if you wanted. Or you could make a plug that fed your displays and also connected to the generator or cells etc that used a spare vehicle-end trailer connector so you didn't have to even see the trailer battery except to check it once in a while.

Speaking of checking it. I left my travel trailer plugged into the house all year round--as I do my current motorhome. Anyway, I never thought about the 15amp constant charging being bad. It boiled the battery electrolyte out and when I went to use the electric jack to unhook it at a campground--the battery exploded. Fortunately, it was totally dry so all I had was little pieces of plastic all over the compartment.

Simple_serf · Aug 25, 2007

hahaha...

I have only seen the carnage form one good battery explosion. It was a car battery that blew up in a demo derby. Positive shorted to the hood. I have seen a few small little "incidents", usually cause when cells die. I check the water in my heavily used batteries once a week, with the exception of my batteyr on my panels...it just doesn't drink much water...I've had it for 3 years and have only had to add water twice.

If it was completely dry, i'm kinda surprised that it blew up to begin with. Hydrogen does weird things though.

I almost finished the lift system here. i got sent out to another store last night to work, so I didn't get much done today, but I'll start on it next week sometime.

Battery Charging....This is a little different

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