Deep cycle hook up

[Adaboy]

I have a camp set up near my job where I leave my popup in the woods unattended for three days at a time (it's a cheap camper!).
And I really don't want to leave a deep cycle battery there at the campsite.

So....Is there an easy way to wire up a deep cycle in my cargo area so it's with me at all times and also easy to hook up directly to the trailer wiring harness for the camper?

I'm open to any suggestions. If you have done anything remotely similar, please let me know how you did it!

 

[spencyg]

If you want to charge the second battery with your truck, do a search for "Dual Battery Setup"...you'll find a dozen threads describing what you need to do.

As for hooking the electrical power up to your trailer remotely, I'd personally figure out how much amperage I may draw at maximum load and select the appropriate size extension cable to suit for the length you want to run between the trailer and the truck. A 10 ga extension cable will most likely be adequate for running lights, a 12V fridge, etc....do the math though to verify. I'd then use a winch style quick disconnect to hook the battery up to the trailer. Hard wire the extension cable into the trailer main hookup, and the other end of the cable should have one of the quick disconnects. The other quick disconnect will be permanently mounted to the truck, either inside the bed, under the bumper, etc. That way, you just uncoil your extension cable when setting up camp, plug into the truck, and you're powered up. It may not be a bad idea to install a 12V circuit breaker right off the deep cycle battery sized for your maximum load....safety is not something that should ever be overlooked.

Good luck.

Spence

 

[Adaboy]

Excellent !!!
Could I put two quick disconnects after the breaker? One for an 800w power inverter?

 

[iigs]

Excellent !!!
Could I put two quick disconnects after the breaker? One for an 800w power inverter?

You technically could, but I don't think you should. An 800w inverter would require at least 70A, and quite likely closer to 100 under full load.

In order to build the system safely, you must ensure that everything after the breaker can handle the amount of current specified on the breaker -- in other words, after a "fudge factor", everything after your breaker would have to be maybe 100 amps. To give you an idea what that looks like, here are some suggested current limits for wire:

http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

Within the vehicle you can lean toward the "chassis wiring" specs, but outside lengths probably should more closely reflect the "power transmission" specs (this is all kind of rough, don't read too much in to it). In order to do things right, you'd want roughly 2ga wire. Unless you're planning on using more than maybe 50A in the trailer, you probably don't want the expense of doing this; therefore I'd suggest separate breakers for the two loads.

With an inverter that size, you might consider making the trailer largely AC. Because wiring gauge depends on current (amps) drawn, you can get by with a small extension cord for the 7-8A that an 800w inverter would provide.