rlm328

My large trailer battery is trickle charged off my 7 pin. I also have a converter to plug into 110 v to charge off a land line. I am also running double alternators in my truck.

CT03911

I had the wiring completed recently on my trailer. Thought an update might help someone else. My concern was a lot of conflicting info on how best to charge the trailer house battery I am using for my winch etc.

I called UPG, maker of the battery breakaway kit that charges my small 12v battery for emergency breakaway brakes.

UPG told me that in the box I have (and, I presume, on all similar models) there is a battery charger that feeds the battery. They said it is in fact a trickle charger (amazingly small one) AND acts as an isolator.

They said if I tapped into the power source coming off the charger (I used the blue wire to the brakes because it ran under the tongue and was very accessible) that would provide a 12v feed to my trailer house battery and if that battery was to be depleted the UPG charger acts as an isolator and will not drain my breakaway battery or even the tow vehicle battery.

That is the setup that seemed the most simple and it is what I now have, a 14guage wire split off the breakaway battery charger, into my trailer to the house battery.

I will consider a solar panel as well and definately am planning a 110v setup to plug in. Here is the UPG 42906 box I have.

KaiB

So you're now charging two non-identical (in every way) parallel batteries from one simple trickle charger.

I question the wisdom of the advice you were given.

Paul 996

My trailer came from the factory with the exact same setup as you describe. Since my trailer build was having a winch plate welded in I asked about a house battery and how to wire it and my manufacturer told me to hook it up exactly the way you state.

CT03911

I found a lot of conflicting advice out there in forums. Not sure you could call the batteries parallel but I am not an electrician. The UPG trickle charger has one feed for the trailer brake battery and I tapped into the other feed, going to the brakes.

I don't see how the batteries are connected but perhaps that is true.

Not sure if that helps anyone but UPG makes the battery backup and was very matter-of-fact that their trickle charger would do the job.

I hope it works because it was easy and the only other solution was a dedicated wire from the truck alternator to the trailer house battery. That would have been a pain and required connectors to be added to the back of the truck and front of the trailer, much like an 18 wheeler uses.

We did test the trailer battery after hooking it all up and it is getting a proper charge. so far, so good. I do want to add a solar panel anyways, those seem to be great to have.

Tom W

The solar panel I used is similar if not identical to the one here: http://www.batterystuff.com/solar-chargers/SCC015.html I also have the controller. I use mine to charge both the battery for the trailer and have it connected to the car battery to keep it charged up too.