Quote:
Originally Posted by Texas flamingo
Picking up our new 2104S on Saturday. I saw somewhere that when the rv is plugged into the tv the charging system of the truck will charge the battery on the rv.True? Will it full charge the battery?
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This question gets asked here a lot. You've already gotten answers on
how to make sure your battery lead is connected to the RV plug at the
rear bumper of your truck.
Your REAL question to me anyway is "will it FULLY charge your trailer
battery"?
My answer is probably NOT. The problem is your engine battery is
close to the alternator which has a built in voltage regulator. When you
start your truck, the alternator puts out slightly higher voltage to charge
the engine battery. Once the engine battery is full the voltage regulator
lowers the voltage slightly so as not to overcharge the engine battery.
Note I keep saying ENGINE battery.
The problem is the TRAILER battery is a long way down stream and there
are some voltage loss due to smallish wire size and distance and even loss
in the RV plug. The TRAILER battery might need hours of this higher voltage
to fully charge it but the voltage regulator in the engine won't see that
and it won't send that higher voltage that far downstream to give your
trailer battery a good charge.
Some folks here claim they get full charges while on the road. Many do
not. I've had 3 trailers and 2 trucks and even tho the battery lead was
connected thru the RV plug, I never could get much of a charge while
on the road.
On more than one occasion I have camped and run the trailer batteries down
further than I should have. Lights were slightly dim and REALLY dimmed
if the water pump ran. I drove at least a couple hours home or to the
next camping destination. Upon arrival our lights would be brighter but
within mere minutes they were back dim again. I don't get much charge
from the engine. My opinion is you probably won't either.
YMMV.
Happy Camping!