how do you go about charging the battery in a towed RV while driving? i understand theres a connection in the wiring connector? have a 2017 ford f150 with towing package?

 

Have seen a youtube video or two showing how to add it.

 

I don't know about your year but on mine, there's a fuse they give you. It's in your glove box or in your door panel map holder.

Just put that fuse in the right spot in your fuse box.

 

2015+ F-150s with the tow package automagically provides power to the 7-pin connector, which will charge your RV battery. The power will not come on unless the trailer is connected AND the truck is running.

I presume there is a current limit of some kind, because the wire gauge is not very big. IDK if this is the case.

 

Best practices for towing is to make sure your trailer batteries are completely charged before towing as the charge wire through the 7-pin doesn't provide much current. Certainly not enough to recharge the deep cycle batteries that most of us use.

 

Good information here.

Thanks

 

We routinely tow a travel trailer with the refrigerator running on 12V. That means that the batteries are getting charged and the fridge is running. We've never had an issue, but we usually start with topped-up batteries. We've also boondocked, which runs down the batteries considerably (we put the fridge on propane when we're doing this). No problems to date, and no melted wires or anything.

 

Is there a practical way to route a heavier gauge wire from the truck battery/alternator back to the trailer batteries to increase the charging capacity? This would be particularly helpful when boondocking.

 

When you are parked you can turn you truck around and connect the truck battery directly to your trailer battery with jumper cables with the truck running. That's about as direct as its gets.

I've been told this isn't good for the truck. So I don't do it anymore.
A generator is really what you want.

 

I just had issues with my dump trailer battery not charging enough. I need to figure out a way to juice it up. I had to run an extension cord to my dump trailer battery. That ten gauge wire got REALLY HOT

 

If you are looking for more amps, make sure you are using sufficiently large wire to reduce heat risks. And always put a fuse in there somewhere.

 

Although this may work in a pinch, it really isn't practical for a long term solution.
Bulk charging a deep cycle battery requires voltages above 14v. Unless you want to sit a rev the truck up, the idle output on the alternator with a load will likely be in the low 13v range.
Also the current transfer with even a rev'd engine would be so high using something like jumper cables, you would like dramatically increase the wear and tear on your charging system that is designed for low storage capacity batteries. On the trailer side, the coach batteries would also see increased wear as high current charging is hard on deep cycle batteries.

If you are looking for a (relatively) low cost solution, get a champion inverter gen-set. A 2000w model is portable enough and can be had for around $500 usd.
https://www.championpowerequipment.c...ter-generator/

 

I have had quite a bit of experience with this over the years. My old expedition did not have the charge pin connected, and I never took the time to explore how to make it all work. When dry camping we would sometimes carry a generator, but then we need to deal with carrying generator and a can of gas. We also have to deal with the noise of the generator running. I built a 3 sided box with a roof that I insulated. I set that over the generator, so the open side of the box is away from the camper to reduce the noise level.
When I didn't want to carry the generator I would just turn the expedition around and charge with jumper cables. I never had any problems with heating the cables or burning up the alternator or batteries. It worked just fine. I did later add a second battery to the camper which gave us about an extra day and a half battery life. That is for winter camping when we were running the furnace (temps below 30 degrees).
I have also been able to boost the tow vehicle off of the camper when something was left on and the battery went down!
My dads pickup and camper are hooked up to charge off the pickup. When his camper batteries run low he just backs up, plugs it in and runs the pickup for an hour or so. He also has a small 1400 generator that he carries with him. It wont run much, but will charge batteries when he needs it. Now with his new camper he also carries a solar panel. There are several options for solar panels. They make panels for campers to charge the batteries. You could invest in a solar battery tender. Harbor freight has solar panels that I have been told will charge the camper while your camping. Back to the point, dad has plugged his in hundreds of times with his deep cycle batteries completely dead and charged them with the pickup and has never had a problem. He drives a 2005 F150 with a lot of miles on it and in all that time has not had a problem.
My pickup now does not have the charge wire connected. For some reason whenever I install the fuse it blows, so something is not wired right in the plug or in the camper. Digging through the wires on the camper I believe the camper is wired wrong. The wire that I see should go to charging the battery is ran directly to ground, so I just don't try to charge with the pickup.
My brother in law did not know how to make his dodge pickup charge his camper batteries, so he made his own connector. He ran a wire from the pos post of his battery to the camper battery. Not sure if he went to the trailer plug or directly to the battery. I also don't know what size wire he used, but it was fairly heavy. He installed a 30 amp cutout switch so he can shut off the charge.

 

This will get battery power to the rear of your truck. Warn also makes a cable that plugs into it.

https://www.4wheelparts.com/Winches-...CABEgJK3_D_BwE

 

Am I the only one who thinks it's crazy to spend $300 on wires?
A cheap used inverter generator is a great option for boondockers.
Even the little Honda eu1000is puts out 7.5 amps. That's probably about all you are going to get on a sustained basis from the truck anyway, and it seems like a more flexible solution.