Will my tow vehicle charge my trailer battery?

[joelmyer]

my 2c worth.

Will it charge? Connect trailer to TV.  Start TV.  Check voltage at battery.  12.6 or less it's not charging.  More than 13 or so it's charging, some.  If it's not charging then maybe it's just a fuse.

When I am going to be camping with no hookups, I carry an extra battery in my truck.  I have a 2nd trailer connector with just the +/- 12 volts connected to the battery.  That's my backup battery that I use with an inverter for fan and entertainment.  And don't run refrig on DC.  It will stay cool enough, or use an ice chest.

Joel

 

[Lou Schneider]

If you have a 2-way (120 volt/gas) or 3-way (120 volt/12 volt/gas) refrigerator, the gas mode uses a little 12 volt power to run the circuit board and auto-igniter  but not enough to worry about.  If you have to manually light the flame using a piezo igniter you have mechanical controls and won't use any electricity at all in gas mode.

What you want to avoid is running the fridge in 12 volt mode.  This uses a 12 volt heating element to boil the ammonia mixture and needs a LOT of current.

Leave the refrigerator in gas mode, only use the electric mode when you're hooked up to shore power and you'll be fine.

 

[Boonieman]

Just wondering, I used to have an electric fence for the cattle in a remote pasture. I would take a 12 volt battery out there and hook it to the fence charger (it was designed to operate on 12 volts). I bought a cheap solar charger at Tractor supply that I just hooked to the battery posts. It extended the time I had to recharge the battery X 3. I bought another solar charger and hooked it to the battery so I had two of them. Then it would normally last 4 or 5 weeks. Wonder if this would work in this kind of example?

 

[Jesse Brown]

Hi.  This is my first post.  I just bought my first camper and I'm trying to understand the subject of this thread.

My intention is to buy the CTEK D250S to charge my house battery (100 amphour) on the camper from my 2005 tacoma while I'm towing.  Why can't I accomplish the same thing with a much cheaper solar panel charge controller.  They run more in the $30 dollar range, and If I understand how they work, it'll do the same thing as the CTEK.

I know that simply hooking the deep cycle battery directly to the alternator is not the best thing for the battery.  Deep cycles like to be "babyed".  I don't understand what the CTEK will do that the cheaper solar panel controllers won't do.