Charging 12 volt trolling battery

[Berndawg]

I am a new owner of an Escape 19. It has two 190 watt solar panels and a zamp port, as well as 12 volt female sockets on exterior. Can I connect my trolling battery to one of the female sockets to charge it?

Thank you

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Berndawg

I am a new owner of an Escape 19. It has two 190 watt solar panels and a zamp port, as well as 12 volt female sockets on exterior. Can I connect my trolling battery to one of the female sockets to charge it?

Wiring details vary between trailers, but the Zamp port is usually connected to the input to the solar charge controller because it is intended for an external solar panel; that would give you unregulated voltage unsuitable for charging the trolling motor battery.

Yes, the accessory sockets are connected to the battery, and can be used to charge the trolling motor battery. It's hard to get a full charge to a battery just by connecting it to another battery, so you may want to consider using a DC-to-DC charger.

If your Zamp port is connected to the battery (instead of to the solar charge controller input), it may be a better connector to use than the accessory sockets. I really dislike the SAE connector type used by Zamp, but even it makes a more reliable connection than the cigarette lighter socket nonsense that has become the standard accessory socket in cars and RVs.

[Hawkeye Ed]

Originally Posted by Berndawg

I am a new owner of an Escape 19. It has two 190 watt solar panels and a zamp port, as well as 12 volt female sockets on exterior. Can I connect my trolling battery to one of the female sockets to charge it?

Thank you

Let's assume, like Brian does, that the female 12 volt receptacle on your trailer's exterior is connected to your trailer's battery (via the receptacle circuit's 12 volt fuse in the camper's power center, of course).

Essentially, you'd be connecting two batteries together directly like you do when you jump start a car's battery from another car's battery with jumper cables. Remember that jumper cables are made with very heavy duty wires. That's because a discharged battery draws a LOT of current (amps) from another, charged, battery when directly connected.

There's a good chance that hooking your charge-depleted trolling battery to your camper's house battery this way will cause so much current to be drawn by the trolling battery that the fuse in the receptacle's circuit will quickly blow.

So that's a second good reason to use a DC to DC charger like Brian suggests to charge the trolling battery. If you're going to use that exterior receptacle circuit, get a charger that draws no more than 10 amps so you won't blow the circuit's fuse.

Renogy makes a line of nice DC to DC chargers. The smallest is a 20 amp charger but it can be configured to charge at 10 amps. I use one in my truck to keep charged a battery that runs a little refrigerator. Mine's connected to my truck battery via a 20 amp circuit so I can't say for sure whether your exterior receptacle's circuit could handle the load.

https://www.renogy.com/12v-dc-to-dc-...ttery-charger/

Frankly, if you're serious about regularly charging a trolling motor from your trailer's house battery, that house battery better be a hefty one so you don't run it down too far and you'll probably end up connecting the DC to DC charger directly to the house battery through heavy enough wires and a large enough fuse so that the trolling battery will charge at a fast enough rate to be practical.

Good luck!