Battery Help?

[Noobtacular]

I've been lurking for a while and finally ended up picking up a Phoenix popup camper for my Frontier. It's an 09 model, but the previous owner kept it in great condition. It looks like it was only a shell model and the previous owner used to run his lights off of his starting battery.

My wife and I plan on using this camper boondocking, however we don't have the luxury of doing more than weekend trips and the occasional 4/5 day trip. With that in mind could someone help me out with a battery setup?

We don't plan on using much electricity and only really want to power LED lights inside, outside, and potentially the furnace Fan if it gets very cold.

Basically, what all do I need to get?

- I am unsure if I got with a single 12v battery, or get 2 6v batteries wired in series. I have read of the benefits of the 6v, but am unsure if we would really need this for our shorter trips.
- Can I tap into the truck's factory 7pin trailer harness and use this to maintain a charge on the batteries when driving to a campsite etc? I'd plan on charging the batteries fully at home on shore power before a trip. Could I get something like a 7 way RV blade harness and use the 12v supply to maintain a charge on the battery when driving, and potentially add a bit of charge if needed? If I can use something like that do I also need a battery regulator or Isolator?
- Where should I install the batteries? Can I put them next to the slide in at the sides of the truck bed in a couple battery boxes, room permitting.

My planned list of items I'd get would be:
Some sort of charging option - maybe that harness from Amazon
Wiring, multiple AWG's depending on application
Batteries
Fuse block
battery on/off switch
battery monitor
volt meter with USB charger and 12v plug

Do I need some sort of "overcharging" protection?
Depending on how everything goes camping etc. I would eventually like to add some sort of Solar to the roof.

 

[battleborn]

yes the 7 pin can be used to charge the house battery. batteries should be placed to balance out center if gravity and vented if possible. if you haven't yet a accessible battery cut off is a great option.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

 

[toyick]

Some sort of charging option - maybe that harness from Amazon
Wiring, multiple AWG's depending on application
Batteries
Fuse block
battery on/off switch
battery monitor
volt meter with USB charger and 12v plug

Do I need some sort of "overcharging" protection?
Depending on how everything goes camping etc. I would eventually like to add some sort of Solar to the roof.

I just purchased this since i was in the same boat as you...I felt that some of the battery chargin systems sold today are way over priced. So i purchased this.

https://www.bluesea.com/products/76...rging_Relay_with_Manual_Control_-_12V_DC_500A

having the manual control inside the cab is nice, i have yet to hook that part up, but i also got two very volatage meters to keep an eye on them.
This also automatically charges, and separates the batteries when it needs to.
Not sure if that is what your looking for but it is easy install and works great.

 

[DiploStrat]

Arrrgh!

You are asking a ton of good questions, but in the wrong forum.

Repost in the 12v forum.

HINT: The chances of your multi-pin connector fully recharging any form of seriously sized battery are vanishingly low.

If you wish, start reading here: https://diplostrat.org/documents/

 

[kerry]

Our Northstar TS1000 has a single 12 volt battery in a dedicated compartment in the camper. I charge it from the truck alternator thru the factory 7(?) pin harness using a solenoid to cut the connection when the ignition is not on so that the camper can't draw down the truck battery. Been doing it for 9 years using the same battery under the kinds of conditions you describe and have had no problems. It's completely feasible.

 

[toyick]

Our Northstar TS1000 has a single 12 volt battery in a dedicated compartment in the camper. I charge it from the truck alternator thru the factory 7(?) pin harness using a solenoid to cut the connection when the ignition is not on so that the camper can't draw down the truck battery. Been doing it for 9 years using the same battery under the kinds of conditions you describe and have had no problems. It's completely feasible.

yeah the 7pin will charge a brake battery on the trailer wont it? wont be full a amperage charge, but it will do it.

 

[gsanders]

I have a 2005 Phoenix that came with a full buildout. When we purchased it the camper had a standard vented RV battery box for 1 Group 27 12V deep cycle battery which I converted to a home built vented battery box that stores 2 6V 125 amp hour (if I remember correctly) Trojan deep cycle golf cart batteries. Here are some photos and what I have done.

The original battery box was translucent plastic with a tube on one end to connect to a battery vent tube, pretty standard rv truck camper batter box. I cut out the vent tube and then converted a Rubbermaid Action Packer to hold the 2 6V batteries. The conversion consisted of drilling a hole in the lid of the Action Packer which I attached the plastic piece from the old battery box using screws and sealant (I think I used silicone but any good sealant for plastic should work). I already had the battery box tubing and a vent to the outside. For you, you will want to drill a hole through the wood of the camper to vent the battery outside. Then go to an RV store and buy some battery vent tubing and a plastic battery vent cover. For the box, I also had to cut out 2 of the ribs from the interior of the Action Packer to make the batteries fit. I then drilled a hole down low in the action packer to allow for wire access. I ran the wires through loom in this cutout to prevent chafing. Then, I found some adhesive weatherseal that I could fit into the groove of the Action Packer lid to make the lid airtight. Lastly, I use a cam strap that I cut in half and screwed into the camper base to secure the entire battery box. This setup has served me well for about 5 years.










Okay, so that covers the battery box. Now, onto the wiring and charging. I primarily charge at home using a Noco Genius 7200, which is a very good slow trickle charge with multiple charging states that can be used on 12V or 6V. I have also used it to recharge my truck battery after it died and I am very happy with it. That covers home charging. We are like you, mostly weekend and multi-day trips -- we just returned from 12 days on the road covering 2,500 miles, but mostly we are local weekend trips. When I purchased the camper, it came with a wiring setup that tied into the plug on my truck (7 pin flat style) but the pigtail came out of the front, driver's side access port for the turnbuckle and then you had to somehow work the wire pigtail down the side of the camper after it was on the truck. This was a huge pain. So, I just switched it up last month. I purchased this setup from Etrailer.com. Basically, it is a 7 wire plug to a round 4 plug and the corresponding female round 4 plug to serve as an outlet. I wired up the round 4 connections to only use the trailer plugs "always hot" wire and the ground. This allows me to charge while driving -- it is not a great charge (and definitely not as good as the Noco Genius), but it will keep the camper charged. It also uses the existing wiring harness from the truck so no additional wiring needed for the truck. On the camper, I installed the round 4 female outlet into the back of the camper down low on the driver's side. I then spliced the wires from the outlet to the main wires coming from the battery to the existing fuse block in the camper. The downside to this setup is that I don't have an automatic shutoff, which for me is not really a problem -- when we get to camp and I see the bright blue coiled wire I just remember to unplug it.

As part of my recent wiring, I also installed 12V outlets in the camper by splicing into the existing circuit for the lights. The outlets are a standard 12V "cigarette outlet" and dual USBs. Part of the package came with a volt meter. I put this entire setup on a switch so I can turn it on and off to not drain the battery. The volt meter is a good way to monitor battery usage -- if it goes to over 13 after the truck is on then I know it is charging the camper. During use, if we get below 12V I know that I need to charge soon. As for AWG, I think I have 10 AWG from the battery to the fuse block and 10 AWG from the camper plug to this main battery wire. After the fuse block I think most of it is 14-16 AWG.

As for usage, lights with LED bulbs don't use much (5-7 days easy). We have 2 fantastic fans and they can drain the batteries if run continuously overnight (maybe 2-3 days of use). A fridge on 12V power will drain the batteries VERY quickly (1 day, maybe?).

Good luck, let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Noobtacular]

thanks for all of the help so far, this is definitely the type of stuff I was looking for.

gsanders, your pictures aren't loading for me, I'm definitely interested in seeing some pictures of your setup. That 7 pin to 4 pin setup you got from Etrailer looks very similar to what I had imagined for charging. I will likely do something like that for while we are on the road.

 

[kerry]

yeah the 7pin will charge a brake battery on the trailer wont it? wont be full a amperage charge, but it will do it.

I have no idea about a trailer battery but the system on my truck has been working perfectly well for 9 years.

 

[gsanders]

gsanders, your pictures aren't loading for me, I'm definitely interested in seeing some pictures of your setup. That 7 pin to 4 pin setup you got from Etrailer looks very similar to what I had imagined for charging. I will likely do something like that for while we are on the road.

Post edited with photos (hopefully). As for the charging setup, I believe FWC uses a 2 wire trolling motor plug on their campers for charging while driving. Do a search for them, pretty common in marine applications and there seems to be many different outlet types including flush mount outlet receptacles with covers. On, the 7 pin to 4 pin, the only thing I don't like is that there is not much of a lip on the flange of the female outlet receptacle, so you need to be fairly precise on drilling your hole. It worked out okay for me, but just something to consider. Good luck!