Charging Trailer batteries with Tow vehicle

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R

rmoores

New member
Joined
Jan 25, 2012
Posts
4
Location
Fort Hood, TX
So this is my first real question, so try not to laugh when you read it and it is common sense to a seasoned RV-er.  My wife and I are getting ready to purchase our first travel trailer and the dealer offered a brake controller and to re-do the stock 7-pin wiring on my truck to allow my truck to charge the batteries on the trailer for $350.00.  I then researched brake controllers and found the Tekonsha to be around $125.00 on etrailer with a wiring harness for my GM that would plug in to existing wiring for another $25.00 or so. 

What I am curious about is whether or not my existing 7-pin connector, that came on the truck from the trailering package, will charge those batteries and if that is even necessary.  Is this dealer just blowing smoke? or is there something different I need to do?

Thanks in advance for the advice.
 
If your truck came with a 7-pin connector and "towing" package, I think you'll be fine.  You will still want to purchase the GM harness adapter so you can plug in the Tekonsha braker controller.

FYI, what charges the batteries is the constant 12V lead on the 7-pin connector.
 
If your truck has factory installed charging, there will be a fuse or breaker to protect that circuit in your fuse box. My 96 dodge has it. I know because I borrowed a dump trailer with a bad battery and blew the fuse once.
 
Wiring
On one of my trucks. Which is a 1999 Chevy 2500 with the tow package. My truck will charge the batteries when the truck is running. When the truck is off ( not running ) it does not charge the batteries on the camper. The power goes off to the camper...  I like this because if you stop for the night use lights or heater in cooler weather it might drain your truck batteries down, causing the truck not to start.

Brake controller
I have had a few brake controllers personally I like the TEKONSHA PRODIGY P2 allot easier to use, less trailer brake lockups and easy to change settings if need to.
Hope will help you out

Pat
 
I don't want to be giving bad advice, but I would assume if the truck came with the wiring/etc that it would be properly hooked up.  Good/bad assumption?  :)  Of course, it should be easy to verify with a multi-meter.  I tested mine and it turned out I had a blown fuse.
 
That fuse can get blown many ways. Some trailers are not wired properly to standard and that pin gets grounded somehow. That will do it. With my buddy's dump trailer, his grown son had borrowed it to haul his jet ski. The dump unit and battery "went swimming". Not good. The motor gave out and he's fixing that now. Kids!
 
Thanks all for the advice.  I think I will install the brake controller myself and verify charging with my multi-meter. Before signing up to spend an un-necessary $350 from a dealer.
 
The 12v terminal on the trailer plug (pin #4) should be wired already, but some shade tree mechanics don't bother adding that wire when installing a 7 pin connector. Brakes and stop/tail/turn lights work fine without it, so you might never know.  It's easy enough to test, though. Just look for +12-+14v on pin #4 when the engine is running. If you don't know how, ask the dealer to verify it and call you if it fails the test. You can always authorize more work at that time.

I highly recommend the Tekonsha Prodigy controller (any of the sub-models will do fine) and would insist on that brand rather than whatever the dealer is proposing. Hook-up is pretty easy if you get the wiring adapter that matches your truck from Tekonsha(or their dealer) - you could do it yourself. It comes with excellent instructions. But if the dealer does it, he is going to quote 1-2 hours of labor because he has no idea what he might run into - thus the $350 quote.
 
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