Quote:
Originally Posted by Robind
I am curious about the ground shunt you reference here. Can you please elaborate further on what exactly this is. I have run a wire system from my TV battery posts (positive and negative) to the corresponding battery post on the trailer. It seems to be working as I had hoped. When the vehicle is running it appears to charge the trailer batteries directly from the TV battery. I have not had any issues but if there is a better way(not hooking the negative wire directly to the TV negative post) I am interested in doing the best possible manner. This is all very interesting to me and I hope to avoid any future potential problems. Thanks for all the information.
|
Hi, as I stated earlier, I made a mistake on the gauge it is not 6 AWG, it is 8 AWG and is the trailer's battery charge line leading to the 7 pin Bargman connector on the hitch. This is where tug sends current to charge trailer. I left mine as is and at one point noticed 9-10 amp flow using monitoring meter I installed.
The shunt I used was the one that came with the Trimetric meter and by design it must have all trailer negative load flow return to the shunt so that the amps used are counted. Obviously if any returning negative flow bypasses the shunt you will have a lower and inaccurate count (battery balance). This shunt is attached near trailer battery.
As to wire runs, I only added positive 4 AWG runs under trailer and truck using trailer and truck frames to run negative flows. Truck battery post was never touched.
I used the Redarc 40 amp DC to DC step up 3 stage smart charger installed near the trailer battery. This is just another charger that works only while driving. This is equivalent to the trailer's 3 stage 120vAC charger, a solar panel with controller or generator. What I would not do then or with new class B motor-home is charge from vehicle battery to house battery directly as that is very problematic due to the engine's ECU not to mention slow. Looking back, I should have used a 100 or 130 amp DC to DC charger for quicker charges from the engine. This is what I will be doing in the class B on order now.
The Trimetric in a nutshell is an amp counter counting amps in and out of the battery and displaying balance.