Charging The Batteries From The TV While Running The Refrigerator On Battery

[Philip]

Originally Posted by ShrimpBurrito

Hi Phil,

Pictures would be great when you get a chance. Not rush. It's something I might consider doing at some point.

Thanks,
Dave

Hello Dave,

I have attached the pictures that may interest you. Pictures 1 and 3 show the batteries installed on my 2008, 2720 TM. I did not have to do any modification to the steel cage which came with the TM for holding the batteries. I did put a board on the bottom of the steel cage but this was mainly to provide additional support for the plastic battery boxes which house the batteries. I could also bolt the battery boxes to this board to hold them in place better. The main item that holds the boxes and batteries in place is the web strap which goes around each battery/box and the metal support frame.

Picture 4 shows the new charging plug on the TM for charging the TM batteries from the TV. It is the metal(silver) one shown alongside the plastic(black) plug supplied with the TM for TM brake operation, lights, and the small amount of battery charging it can do. Notice the size of the positive and negative wires to the new TM plug. This is necessary to realize a high charging rate. I used welding cable($1.50/ft.) which is very flexable(more flexable than the cable to the plug supplied with the TM).

Pictures 5 & 6 show the new plug on the TV which mates with the new plug on the TM. I have a 2005 Toyota 4Runner(with a factory tow package) as a TV and the new plug is mounted on the opposite side from the plug supplied with the tow package(used to connect to the plug supplied with the TM). Oddly I noticed that the tow hitch supplied with the TV had a bracket on the opposite side from the supplied plug which was identical(opposite hand) to the bracket which holds the TV plug supplied with the tow package. I duplicated the plug holder(opposite hand) and mounted it to this bracket. It came out very neat.

The whole project to improve charging from the TV to the TM cost approx. $300 to $400(no more than $400) plus about five days work by myself and a friend.

This project plus the new large batteries and battery monitor were absolutely necessary to allow us to camp without electricity for extended periods. We dry camp most all the time - much, much more beautiful.

I know this is WAY MORE information than you may want but I hope it helps solve your and other TM owners charging problems. It did for me!

Take care,

Phil

[mcgyver210]

I used 6g for Positive wire & no extra ground. Seems to work well with one battery although I did have major issues with how TM does their wiring which in a word was a JOKE!

Wait just a minute.......I asked about a year ago whether I should charge my batteries with my TV or should I have a generator. The consensus was a generator stating that it would take a long time with the tv. Now I have a new generator that I love but it only charges at 8 Amps.

So, can I make this wire-size mod to my tv and charge at 25 or more amps? thats three times as fast as my generator.

What about long jumper cables, I have seen a lot of people do this but I thought it was slower than the generator.

J

[Philip]

Originally Posted by jchmel9719

Wait just a minute.......I asked about a year ago whether I should charge my batteries with my TV or should I have a generator. The consensus was a generator stating that it would take a long time with the tv. Now I have a new generator that I love but it only charges at 8 Amps.

So, can I make this wire-size mod to my tv and charge at 25 or more amps? thats three times as fast as my generator.

What about long jumper cables, I have seen a lot of people do this but I thought it was slower than the generator.

J

J,

I assume that you plug your TM 110 volt plug into your generator when you want to charge your batteries. When you do this your charging rate is controlled by the charger in your TM - just as it is when you plug into a 110 volt plug at a campground. My TM charger is not a very high capacity unit and does not charge at high amperage. It works just fine for people who want to plug in overnight or days on end at a campsite since they have plenty of time to bring the batteries to full charge.

I don't think you would gain much charging capacity with the factory TM charger by increasing the wire size in the TM charging circuit since the charger capacity is itself not very large. This is why they did not bother to put larger wire size in the charging circuit.

So - this is why I decided to go with a separate very large wire size for the charging circuit from my TV to the TM. As I noted, you need a very large wire to get decent charging from the TV because there is only a small voltage difference between the TV battery and the TM batteries to drive the current into the TM batteries. You cannot afford hardly any voltage drop in the circuit or your current will drop considerably.

Since you now have a generator, you could go and buy yourself a good high output 110 charger and connect it to your TM batteries when running it off your generator. But, my gosh, you will have yet another piece of gear to drag about and store - not to mention the noise of a generator.

[Bill]

Originally Posted by jchmel9719

Wait just a minute.......I asked about a year ago whether I should charge my batteries with my TV or should I have a generator. The consensus was a generator stating that it would take a long time with the tv. Now I have a new generator that I love but it only charges at 8 Amps.

J

The generator has a battery charger output, but it will charge at only 8 amps max. Ignore it. Instead, you should plug your TM's shore power (AC) cord into the generator, as Philip suggests. This will fire up the TM's built-in battery charger, and no matter which charger it has, it can charge much faster than 8 amps.

Sorry this wasn't apparent in the earlier discussion that you referenced.

Bill

How do you desulfate and equalize ? I have 2 6V batteries. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Redhawk

How do you desulfate and equalize ? I have 2 6V batteries. Thanks!

I have this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-V...8719123&sr=8-4

Black & Decker VEC1093DBD Smart Battery 40/20/10/4 Amp Battery Charger

For a pair of 6 volt batteries you would have to desulfate and equalize both at the same time, keeping them in series.

My charger is similar to PopBeavers. It goes about 15.5V for an hour or so to desulphate/equalize once the batteries are fully charged. And I think we both use a 20A bulk charge setting as we have 220-240 Ah golf cart batteries with a recommended max bulk charge current of 1/10 of the Ah rating.

And Bill, I'm curious how we know that the Trailmanor's built-in charger will bulk charge at greater than 8 amps when plugged into 110VAC? Has somebody measured it? Actually, I doubt if the original, standard Marine/RV battery in my Elkmont *should* be charged at anything over 8A, given its 72Ah rating.

Another reason for my getting an external charger was it's 20A bulk charge, besides the desulphation/equalizer feature.

I got the external charger because my pair of group 24 Interstate RV/Marine batteries were just not working as well after 3 years as they did when new.

A few cycles of desulfate and equalize and in my estimation they are as good as they were when they were 2 years old, even though they are now 5 years old.

I recently got a float charger (what I used to know as a trickle charger) to top off my lawn mower battery. I also though I would use it over the winter on the one deep cycle battery that I have on my 2009.5 2720. However in the directions of this small flowat charger it recommends that it should not be used on deep cycle batterys. I understand one would not to use it if the battery is really low, but if one had a deep cycle battery that was in good condition and fully charged, could one use a charger like this to keep it topped off during cold months? Any harm? Thanks.