House battery recharge

bugnout

Adventurer
I've got a Neon popup and I'd like to be able to recharge the battery in the trailer from the vehicle as I drive. I have a 7 pin trailer connector that came with the towing package. It has 12v on pin 4, but looking at the wire feeding that pin its 12 or 14 gauge wire. That's enough to run the interior lights on a cargo trailer, but I'll bet I'll fry it if I try to recharge the battery. Doesn't look like I could fit a 4 or 6 gauge wire into the factory connector.

Any suggestions for a heavy duty 7 pin vehicle socket that will take a #4 or #6 wire?

Any use a separate 2 wire circuit on my Tow vehicle just for recharging the house battery? If so what 2 wire weather proof connector did you use?
 

bugnout

Adventurer
Thanks!

I've seen the Anderson connectors used for winches and plows. I've used the smaller Anderson connectors on other projects and the best thing about them is the self cleaning contacts. I really like the look of the Pollak connectors. they are a bit pricey, but would make for a very clean install.

My neighbor just bought a trailer and a new Chevy Silverado tow vehicle. I think he told me the tongue lift battery was recharged from the tow vehicle via the 7 pin. I would assume other RV's are built similarly. I haven't looked at his rig, but if they are using #10 that will work to 30 amps, probably enough if he has some sort of charge controller built into the Silverado. Didn't see any circuitry near the tongue battery.
 

jwilson2598

Adventurer
I got around this by using the ToadCharge on my trailer, it only tries to pull 10 amps, which the 10 gauge wire I have in my 7 way is plenty capable of delivering.

The other nice thing it does it to keep the trailer battery from charging if the truck battery gets lower since it has a built in cutoff.
 
Last edited:

Rutdigger

Watch This!
If I recall right my 15A charger only has a 10Guage wire that runs to the battery and it never gets hot. Hook it up and see what amps ya got running through it. I bet it's not more than about 3ish if that..I would be really surprised if its significant.
 

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