korey99@yahoo.com wrote:
: I think the problem is the fridge. I've heard that the fridge will drain a
: small popup battery in 4 hours. The charge wire mostly only supplies enough
: power to keep the fridge happy and not drain the trailer battery. I've heard
: it'll take a LONG time to charge a low battery with this setup, since it's only
: a trickle charge at best, which also means you can't fully charge the battery,
: but still useful in maintaining what you've got. Glad it works out for you.
: Now I know it's not just a myth.
Another option may be to run a heavier gauge wire directly from the
battery to the back of the truck, and make a heavy duty quick disconnect
there, and run this back to the trailer's battery. So, when you plug in
the trailer, you will have an extra wire to hook up. This will allow more
current to flow and will likely result in a faster charge. Of course, the
same caveat about not leaving it hooked up when the truck is shut off
applies. Depending on what sort of amperage you will be running, finding
a relay for it might be a problem, in which case you may need to move up
to a solenoid.
Another thing that may help, if you have the room, is to add more
batteries to the trailer. They don't even have to be in the same location
as the standard battery, just be sure to use a heavier gauge wire for a
longer run. Wire the batteries in parallel and you will have a much
larger energy reserve. Deep cycle batteries would be best for this
application, but standard batteries are certainly better than nothing.
(I use a pair of 1000ca Everstart Maxx car batteries (non-deep cycle) from
Wal-Mart to power the Warn M12000 winch on my '92 Ram, and they have
performed flawlessly; they've been in there around 4 years or so.)
As far as the fridge goes, would it be at all possible to have it
swapped out for a propane version? This would certainly solve some
of the problem. :-)
--
-Jon-
.-- Jon Steiger ---- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com --.
| 1970 Barracuda - 1990 Dakota 'vert - 1992 Ram 4x4 - 1996 Dakota |
| 1996 Intruder 1400 - 1996 Kolb FireFly - 2001 Ram QC 3500 CTD |
`------------------------------------ http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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