Ok, I am going to be wiring my truck for a slide in camper. This is all new to me, but I think I only have one question.

The camper only has lights and a water pump that will need to be run off of my truck battery. It doesn't have a refrigerator, just an ice box.

My question is this, I assume I should run the hot lead directly to the battery with an "in-line" fuse. Does anyone have an idea as to what amp fuse I should run? And gauge of wire, I was thinking probably 12AWG or somewhere in there. As I said, this is new, I am used to travel trailers and motorhomes.

Thanks for any help.

 

I think for a little bit more money, I would go ahead and run 10 guage and use a 30 amp fuse. A little extra power if you want to add something later on.

 

So..Why don't you want to have a deep cycle battery to run the camper power instead?
The power avialable will last a lot longer.

Once that truck battery is dead unless you have a portable generator you're stuck..

 

I've been trying to figure out how to do the deep cycle. It's a homemade camper that is built great, but it is about 30+ years old (hence no refrigerator, just an ice box-as in you put a block of ice in it and then the food). It's got one storage compartment for the propane tank(small one like a BBQ grill) and that is it so I can't put a deep cycle in the camper and use the truck to charge it going down the road. I was intending on setting up dual batteries in my truck, one of which would be a deep cycle for the camper with an isolator so that it wouldn't drain the 'truck' battery. But, time and money are of an essence and if I wire straight to the battery now, when I do get it set up for dual batteries, I can just relocate the wire, or actually put an aftermarket fuse panel in.

Thanks franklin and Mil1ion, I guess I should have stated that first, about my long term intentions. I just don't have the time nor the funds to do that right now. Got more serious maintenance issues to sink $$ into.

Again, thanks for the help.

 

If you have someplace in the camper to tap 12 volts, you could hook up a voltmeter to monitor the battery. Wire it through a momentary contact switch so it's not a full time drain. I know it wouldn't be much but every little bit helps. If you have a 12 volt socket (that looks like a lighter socket) there's a cheap voltmeter available (NAPA?) that'll plug in when you want to check.

 

jb;

Dennis is right. There's nothing quite like being stuck 40-50 miles from nowhere!

When I converted my old '86 F250, I shopped around the wreckers for a second battery tray and used battery (for your use, I don't think you'd need a brand new deep cycle battery). If the battery stands up to a charge and load test, you sould be OK.

The most expensive part was the Bosch battery isolation switch that was around $20.

Happy Camping,

Rick