I looked into this a bit when I was questioning whether the power wire on a new 7-blade plug was large enough. I found multiple posts on various websites and forums that explained that it is really the equivalent of a trickle charge coming from the tow vehicle. Given the voltage drops along the way, it will not fully charge a trailer battery. It should be viewed as a way to maintain rather than recharge the battery. This is what I've read.
What has been people's experience? I haven't driven much with a discharged battery so I don't have personal experience.
I disagree. Your car alternator, when running, should at least output 13.8V. Which is plenty to charge a 12V battery. When your trailer is connected, the two batteries (car + trailer) are "in parallel", and "seen" by the alternator as a larger unique 12V battery. So they recharge both at the same time, slower than 1 battery.
The problem is that car batteries never get fully depleted. They stay around 13v and it's easy for an alternator to bring it back to ~13.5v.
Whereas the trailer battery gets depleted completely to sometimes ~11v. (that means empty).
So only long rides can charge the trailer battery back to full. Connecting the trailer to shore power while at the camp site would bring the trailer battery back to full way more quickly. Also preventing the battery to self discharged when parked is also a good thing (solar trickle charger?).
Well, I don't claim to be an expert. Maybe you are. But I did read quite a few articles and they all seem to convey the similar theme I summarized in my earlier post. That included a tech at Curtis when I was asking about wire sizing in their 7-wire TV socket. You'll find similar articles at eTrailer and other such spots.
There is also agreement that the lowest one should ever go on anything other than a lithium battery would be about 12.2V (50% depleted) as you start damaging the battery below that. If you're saying a 7+ hour drive might at least partially recharge from that state, that sounds like slow charging whether you call it trickle charging or something else. Point is that you can't leave one campsite with a low battery, drive a couple of hours to a new spot and expect to arrive with a fully recharged battery.
Yes. That's why I think recharging between campsite is not going to work; the alternator will recharge it but it will need time. Plugging to shore power when you can is way more efficient.
I personally keep my scamp battery for LED interiors lighting only. I run the fridge on propane. This way I keep my battery running for the entire trip
At home the scamp is connected to a solar trickle charger.
I looked into this a bit when I was questioning whether the power wire on a new 7-blade plug was large enough. I found multiple posts on various websites and forums that explained that it is really the equivalent of a trickle charge coming from the tow vehicle. Given the voltage drops along the way, it will not fully charge a trailer battery. It should be viewed as a way to maintain rather than recharge the battery. This is what I've read.
What has been people's experience? I haven't driven much with a discharged battery so I don't have personal experience.
I disagree. Your car alternator, when running, should at least output 13.8V. Which is plenty to charge a 12V battery. When your trailer is connected, the two batteries (car + trailer) are "in parallel", and "seen" by the alternator as a larger unique 12V battery. So they recharge both at the same time, slower than 1 battery.
The problem is that car batteries never get fully depleted. They stay around 13v and it's easy for an alternator to bring it back to ~13.5v.
Whereas the trailer battery gets depleted completely to sometimes ~11v. (that means empty).
So only long rides can charge the trailer battery back to full. Connecting the trailer to shore power while at the camp site would bring the trailer battery back to full way more quickly. Also preventing the battery to self discharged when parked is also a good thing (solar trickle charger?).
2001-16' Scamp
Well, I don't claim to be an expert. Maybe you are. But I did read quite a few articles and they all seem to convey the similar theme I summarized in my earlier post. That included a tech at Curtis when I was asking about wire sizing in their 7-wire TV socket. You'll find similar articles at eTrailer and other such spots.
There is also agreement that the lowest one should ever go on anything other than a lithium battery would be about 12.2V (50% depleted) as you start damaging the battery below that. If you're saying a 7+ hour drive might at least partially recharge from that state, that sounds like slow charging whether you call it trickle charging or something else. Point is that you can't leave one campsite with a low battery, drive a couple of hours to a new spot and expect to arrive with a fully recharged battery.
Yes. That's why I think recharging between campsite is not going to work; the alternator will recharge it but it will need time. Plugging to shore power when you can is way more efficient.
I personally keep my scamp battery for LED interiors lighting only. I run the fridge on propane. This way I keep my battery running for the entire trip
At home the scamp is connected to a solar trickle charger.
2001-16' Scamp
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