Ram 1500 bed/battery setup ?'s

[aer21]

Hi everyone, I'm new here, in my searches for the info I wanted, this site kept coming up. Seems like a lot of knowledge here and I have some more questions. I have a 2018 Ram 1500 Ecodiesel that I'm adding a battery in the back of the bed. I have two main things I'd like to run off it, one is a 63qt ARB elements fridge and the other is a Traeger smoker grill. I intend to run the ARB off the battery with their wiring kit and run the Traeger off a inverter mounted to the side of the bed wall and ran off the back of bed battery.
I currently have this stuff ordered but it is not installed, here is my setup:
https://invertersrus.com/product/battle-born-libim225/

https://invertersrus.com/product/thor-thi200/

https://invertersrus.com/product/battleborn-bb10012/

My questions are, does anyone think I should do something different? What size battery cable from starter battery to back of bed battery (distance approximately 18-20')? What size battery cable from back of bed battery to 1000-2000 watt inverter (distance approximately 2')?

 

[Martinjmpr]

Anything that produces heat is going to suck an enormous amount of energy. How many watts is an electric smoker? 1000? 1500? Do the math on that. A 1000 watt smoker / 12 volts will require 83.3 amps and that's BEFORE you consider the inefficiency/losses of the 1000w inverter. Most large deep-cycle Marine/RV batteries are 90 - 110 AH max. If you go to 2 x 6v golf cart batteries you could stretch that to maybe 230AH (we have 2 x 230 AH GC batteries on our trailer.)

If you are smoking something, why not just use FIRE? I mean, I'm ASSUMING you are not smoking meat while driving down the highway, right? So this is something you're going to use once you've set up camp, yes? So why not a charcoal or maybe propane smoker set up at the campsite?

As far as cable goes, there are a bunch of on-line guides I like this one: https://www.wirebarn.com/Wire-Calculator-_ep_41.html) but you have to think about how many amps are going through that cable. If your truck's alternator is 150+ amps (which seems to be the norm for trucks) I would think 0 or 1AWG at the smallest.

Also, someone correct me if I'm wrong but unless you plan on grounding that 2nd battery to the frame somewhere near the bed, you need to use the total wire length for BOTH cables. So if it's 10' from the main battery to the bed, and you are running both + and - cables to the battery or isolator, then you need to figure 20' of length, not 10'.

 

[aer21]

Anything that produces heat is going to suck an enormous amount of energy.

If you are smoking something, why not just use, you know, FIRE?

I did say a smoker grill but what I meant was a Traeger pellet grill. Out west, most places I go in the desert, whether its east Washington, east Oregon or south Idaho or pretty much anywhere, fires are not allowable at this time of year.

 

[Martinjmpr]

I did say a smoker grill but what I meant was a Traeger pellet grill. Out west, most places I go in the desert, whether its east Washington, east Oregon or south Idaho or pretty much anywhere, fires are not allowable at this time of year.

OK, I have to confess I don't know much about pellet grills/smokers but a little Googling has revealed that the heat is produced primarily by the burning wood - which would seem to put this in the same category as a charcoal grill, i.e. banned during fire restrictions.

Is there a propane option? When it comes to cooking, gas or liquid fuel is generally more efficient (also, here in Colorado at least, propane is often allowed even when all forms of burning wood are prohibited.)

From what I can see of the Traeger, it only requires 300W to start the pellets and 50W to run the fan, so that may be do-able but it just seems that propane would be a better way to go than trying to extract that much power out of a battery, especially if the battery is running something else (like a fridge.)

 

[aer21]

OK, I have to confess I don't know much about pellet grills/smokers but a little Googling has revealed that the heat is produced primarily by the burning wood - which would seem to put this in the same category as a charcoal grill, i.e. banned during fire restrictions.

Is there a propane option? When it comes to cooking, gas or liquid fuel is generally more efficient (also, here in Colorado at least, propane is often allowed even when all forms of burning wood are prohibited.)

From what I can see of the Traeger, it only requires 300W to start the pellets and 50W to run the fan, so that may be do-able but it just seems that propane would be a better way to go than trying to extract that much power out of a battery, especially if the battery is running something else (like a fridge.)

This particular one is not banned, the burning of pellets is entirely enclosed/self contained. The grill itself only gets used 20-40 minutes at a time and maybe once or twice a day if that. From what I understand, the fridge pulls 6.5 amps on startup and 1.5 amps continuous after it reaches the desired temperature setting. The Traeger is as you said.

 

[aer21]

Also, I see now that you mentioned alternator. I believe mine is 230 amp output.

 

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

To your question, I have an ArkPak 730 with a 105ah SLA battery inside. It’s charged directly from the alternator, basic battery separator, via 8ga wire terminated at a camper plug in the bedside, specifically a Lance Camper plug that is a bit different from the typical plugs. I also have solar, a Renogy 100 amp panel supplying a charge. I typically only run a Dometic 75DZ fridge/freezer and charge a variety of items off the ArkPak, but it does have a 300 watt inverter built into the unit. That may not be enough for you so you could add your own. I am generally satisfied with the ArkPak, although I am intrigued by the light weight of stand alone lithium powered units. I may investigate going lithium in the ArkPak due to less weight and a deeper discharge potential.

 

[Buddha.]

I think you could save a lot of money going with a standard lead acid or agm battery and a basic isolator relay like you posted. A fridge and your smoke don’t require a fancy lithium battery I think.

 

[aer21]

I think you could save a lot of money going with a standard lead acid or agm battery and a basic isolator relay like you posted. A fridge and your smoke don’t require a fancy lithium battery I think.

Even so, if I go that way, what size wire do I need?

 

[Martinjmpr]

Even so, if I go that way, what size wire do I need?

I think you'd need 0 or 00 AWG unless you can find a way to step down the amperage coming off that alternator.

Using the calculator I linked above https://www.wirebarn.com/Wire-Calculator-_ep_41.html it says 00 should be good for 15.40'.

But that's at 13.8v. I think some modern alternators can put out 14.5v can't they?

Is there a way that amperage can be reduced? I know a 50A DC-DC charger would do it but are there other ways?

 

[Buddha.]

Even so, if I go that way, what size wire do I need?

If you want to run that battle born in the back of your truck and recharge it at the rate that that combiner is capable of(looks like 225?) you’re gonna need something crazy like 3/0 according to the Blue Sea Circuit Wizard. http://circuitwizard.bluesea.com/This is assuming 25‘ of wire(you include both the positive and negative wires when you calculate distance). If you have some way to slow the amount of amps that lithium battery will draw, it could be far less. Lithium batteries will draw a lot of amps if you let them, conventional batteries won’t.

Circuit Wizard - Blue Sea Systems

circuitwizard.bluesea.com

If you have an agm second battery, and you are just using the wires and a solenoid to charge that battery back up you won’t need that much.

As a way of comparison, I ran 2awg from under the hood all the way back to my travel trailer’s batteries(2). The combined run(pos and neg) is something like 40’. With the trailer batteries depleted as low as I let them they will pull a little over 40amps. Those two batteries don’t want to or need to pull more amps than that.
If you’re just using one agm battery in the bed of your truck, and you’re not trying to run something high draw with that battery I’m gonna guess and say 4awg sounds like a good number.

Of course with any of these options your engine would have to be running while the batteries are connected.

 

[bucketibew]

Hi everyone, I'm new here, in my searches for the info I wanted, this site kept coming up. Seems like a lot of knowledge here and I have some more questions. I have a 2018 Ram 1500 Ecodiesel that I'm adding a battery in the back of the bed. I have two main things I'd like to run off it, one is a 63qt ARB elements fridge and the other is a Traeger smoker grill. I intend to run the ARB off the battery with their wiring kit and run the Traeger off a inverter mounted to the side of the bed wall and ran off the back of bed battery.
I currently have this stuff ordered but it is not installed, here is my setup:
https://invertersrus.com/product/battle-born-libim225/

https://invertersrus.com/product/thor-thi200/

https://invertersrus.com/product/battleborn-bb10012/

My questions are, does anyone think I should do something different? What size battery cable from starter battery to back of bed battery (distance approximately 18-20')? What size battery cable from back of bed battery to 1000-2000 watt inverter (distance approximately 2')?
[/ my Daniel Boone smoker runs off 12 volt you can run it all day without drawing the battery down you check those out

 

[aer21]

Another thing I’ve seen some of you mention is a chassis ground vs a battery ground. I could easily run 2’-3’ of cable and ground it directly to the frame, would that be a good way to go vs running a cable all the way to the starter battery?

 

[aer21]

Here are some pictures of what I ended up doing. I went 2/0 from starter battery to rear battery with fuse and lithium battery manager underhood and isolator in pickup bed. The wire from the rear battery to the inverter is what came with the inverter and it seems to work.

 

[aer21]