hello everyone can u help in a small topic are brought a new battery for my folding camper,do not have plug from car ,can the battery be put on to run the fridge while traveling on its own .battery is fully charge.thank u steve
Quote: Originally posted by steveeasylife on 06/8/2012
thank u for your reply but everytime are ask a camp place people dont understand what are am talking about.steve
Hi
Your towbar people will be able to upgrade your towing electrics to twin or 13 pin electrics with trailer battery charging, protected by a relay to ensure your car battery doesn't go flat if you leave it all on for too long while the car is not running.
A good fridge will have low voltage protection to prevent your trailer battery getting (too) ruined if you forget and leave it running.
Or go the easy way, run a 17Amp twin cable from a cigar lighter socket, out through the boot/hatch to a pair of crocodile clips on your trailer battery (it needs to be heavy duty to compensate for voltage drop over that sort of distance). Make sure the lighter plug is capable of carrying 20 Amps and it's fused appropriately (15 Amps in this case). Don't forget to unplug it when you stop for anything but the shortest pit-stop.
Caution - don't rely on this as your charging source if your trailer battery goes too flat. Depending upon it's capacity, if it is discharged to 11.2V and your car alternator is punching out up to 14V, it will blow the fuse, or at least warm the wires up a bit!
Please Steve do not do what we did at the first. When we had our FC Fiesta we did not know when putting the main cable in EHU we did NOT switch the charger switch on in the cupboard at the far end of the left side bed (door facing you).
We ran our new battery dry and could not get it to re-charge as 2 cells was a dead as a dodo. Had to buy another leisure battery.
So when you get plugged into the mains on site switch it on to start charging your leisure battery up straight away or your holiday will prove to be more expensive like ours did.
The TEC3M relay plus 12S socket, complete with all cables, mounting plate etc, costs £19 (+ maybe some p&p) from Towbars Direct. You need the IQ of a chimpanzee to fit it.
Gives you split charge to leisure battery AND to fridge.
EDIT: Should say, of course, if you don't have the 12S plug on you FC, then this will also have to be wired in.