Battery charging while on the road

[Scuffy]

We have a solar panel and I understand that is always on, but I wondered if plugging in the boats second trailer wiring harness has anything to do with charging the batteries while on the highway or is it just for the function of the lights and turn signals on the boat?

 

[stwendl]

lights only

 

[knotflying]

Yeah, lights only. I looked into running a cable from the truck battery to the house bank so that if I were running the refrigerator while towing it would not drain the batteries in the event I did not get to a campground. After sizing the cable for such a long run and the work involved to get it there I have not done it. I have been on the hook for three days without having to charge up the batteries with the solar panel as a supplement so I figure after two days I better hit a campground. And then there is always your small Honda generator that can be used along the way.

 

[SGIDAVE]

There is a 3+ page thread here covering several, fairly involved, solutions over on C-brats forum.

dave

 

[Hydraulicjump]

And there is an even simpler solution that we use while on the road. After reading Howard's hugely informative post here:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3665&p=27082&hilit=+thruster+house#p27082

on paralleling his house and thruster batteries I did the same. Only in this case I did it much simpler by just using a Blue Seas switch and two short cables to parallel one of the house batteries with the thruster battery (positive to positive). When on the hook for a while or towing to Puget Sound, I just connect the thruster and house batteries and get an immediate 50% increase in total amp hours (leave the engine battery alone, of course). And the solar panel doesn't struggle to top them up. Works great, is cheap, easy to install, and very simple.

 

[knotflying]

Exactly what I did. Seems to work fine for me.