Purpose of 6ga hot wire from converter/charger to hitch - Page 2 - Escape Trailer Owners Community
Journey with Confidence RV GPS App RV Trip Planner RV LIFE Campground Reviews RV Maintenance Take a Speed Test Free 7 Day Trial ×

Go Back   Escape Trailer Owners Community > Escape Tech > Towing and Hitching
Click Here to Login
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
 
Old 12-04-2017, 09:42 PM   #21
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: Seward, Alaska
Trailer: 08 17'
Posts: 27
Quote:
Originally Posted by Santiago View Post
Hi Paul. Me too !

I know little to nothing on the Ctek but I see it on Amazon all the time.

Am about to place an order for Redarc BCDC 1240 LV ( low voltage model required for variable voltage alternators like most of us have ).

On the original Escape 6 ga charge wire I thought I saw, it turned out to be 8 ga leading to the hitch's 7 pin connector. I will likely use it as the Redarc "blue line" to ignition as its a control wire only. Will see about disconnecting that Dodge factory charge line at the starter battery end. It's a free unused line.

As far as the 40 amp charging line, yes it will be 2 AWG or 1/0 as I don't like line losses. The bumper connection will be weatherproofed Anderson or another quick connect water tight connector. Not the 7 pin connector.

In case it was not clear by Redarc, you can use trailer frame to return earth to the hitch's connector and then either wire earth back to engine bay or use truck frame. The gotcha is that you must not connect to battery negative post. The battery negative should have a shunt to measure amp flow and if you bypass it by going directly to the post the ECU will not know how much current is being used ( to charge trailer as well as starter battery and vehicle services ). Why is this important? With the ECU knowing actual current use it will demand the alternator to put out accordingly. Being a careful old guy, I will likely run ground back and attach to frame close to the shunt so that the trailer charging current is tallied.

I have not seen my truck's shunt but it should exist in one form or another, bottom line is ... do what it takes to count the charging current as the ECU needs to know.

I wish I could use the 1225 ( 25amp charger ) but I have 520 amp-hr boxes to feed so am buying the 40amp charger. As you know the BCDC will protect the starter battery from draining with built in isolation. The solar side of the charger (MPPT) will come in handy if I every get a portable solar panel. I have no solar now, roof or otherwise.

These DC-DC chargers are very popular outside North America from what I have seen. I am sure that just like it took the North American RV industry how many decades to switch from one stage RV chargers, that cooked batteries, to multistage ones, it will take more decades to see DC-DC chargers for "on the go" charging. Multistage chargers charge batteries properly to 100% with the better units monitoring battery temperature with sensor attached to battery and adjust accordingly. Many allow you to customize the charging voltage/amp profile beyond just selecting Wet, AGM, Gel, Calcium and Lithium.

With a large investment in a battery bank, its important to see they get properly charged.

Paul, let me know when you install your 1225 and I will do same.
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.
Robind is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-04-2017, 10:23 PM   #22
Senior Member
 
Santiago's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Anaheim CA, California
Trailer: SOLD 2016 Classic 21ft - SOLD 2016 Ram 1500 tug - ORDERED Van Replacement
Posts: 516
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robind View Post
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.
__________________
Santiago
Santiago is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off




» Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by

Disclaimer:

This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by Escape Trailer Industries or any of its affiliates. This is an independent, unofficial site.


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:30 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright 2023 Social Knowledge, LLC All Rights Reserved.