Auxillary power set up for touring-both XJ and camper trailer

[JEEPCHIK]

In the last couple of weeks I have taken the plunge and bought my first hard floor camper trailer. Did my research and it paid off, built last year, used once up the Cape and never used again and I got it for under 6k!

So, as you can imagine I have been busily getting things set up the way I want it and this brings me to the small dilemma of how do I set up my auxillary power? I've purchased a 38 Litre Engel which will reside in the back of the XJ most of the time, it would be too impractical for me to take it out of the XJ when I'm camping so I need to look at my powering options for that. I also have to set up power for the trailer as it has a 70 litre stainless water tank which is fed through a 12 volt electric pump as well as lighting for the camper. One idea is to fit a maintenance free battery in a battery box inside the large tool box on the front of the camper and recharge the battery via an anderson plug on the XJ rear bumper as I'm driving along.

With the fridge I was planning on having a second battery in the back of the XJ for that job but this is where things start getting a bit tricky in my thought processes. How can it all work?? How can I recharge the 2nd battery in the car as well as the camper battery?? Won't this be way too much overload for the alternator? I will be getting solar panels eventually for charging while stationary. Lighting will be L.E.D strip lighting so the power draw from those will be fairly low however I'm not sure how much power the water pump will need.

So, my question is: what does everyone else do with their Jeep and camper trailer set ups? I'm pleased to say ( touching wood) that the XJ towes like a dream with no overheating issues, handles the extra wait well and makes reversing fairly straight forward. I did have an extra leaf fitted to my rear springs as the XJ really sagged with the trailer hooked up. Now everything is nice a level again and eats up the corrugated dirt roads like they aren't even there

[Raisins78]

Easy.....Get a dual battery relay/isolator/kit.
Set it up as per normal (Read instructions or see my pics) with the battery in the rear of the XJ.
Get a dc - dc charge controller for between the dual battery (rear of xj) to the trailer, via said anderson plug.

This setup will require no monitoring, no unplugging etc when camped so set and forget!
For extra security, run a solar panel and controller to your engine battery.
This will charge the start battery, then the dual battery once the engine one is full, and inturn the trailer too........everybody wins.

[Raisins78]

the DC to DC charge controller is vital, unless you run battery sized cable to the trailer.
It will limit the current between the dual battery and trailer battery to whatever its charge rating is (Some are 10amp, some 20amp, some 40amp etc)
Make sure the cable from, and to the Anderson plug is rated to the charge controller.

[Steve F]

I just have solar on the camper, normally does the job just fine with no charging from the Jeep. If the camper battery gets low I move the fridge to the Jeep and run it off the second battery in there, the LEDS in the camper draw next to nothing so without the fridge the 100ah battery will run the LEDS for ages.

Cheers
Steve

[andyperth]

[QUOTE=JEEPCHIK;1326829]In the last couple of weeks I have taken the plunge and bought my first hard floor camper trailer. Did my research and it paid off, built last year, used once up the Cape and never used again and I got it for under 6k!

Wow i did the same mine was 7k i was think about the very same problem . So I was thinking of a power pack like a thumper or engels one and run my fridge, lights and water pump from that.
I was going to recharge it with solar panels and run the fridge in the jeep when driving.What do you think?

[Gildo]

I'd keep the starting battery well out of loop, using a dual battery controller only for the supply from the alternator.
As Steve said, the LED lighting load is negligible, why does the fridge need to stay in the XJ?.
If you use a large enough battery in the trailer, fully charged before you leave, add a solar panel or two to the trailer and you should be good to go.
There is plenty of reading on the www to calculate your load/time/charge rate. It's basic high school maths.
Jaycar had a unit a while back that was a solar charger, inverter and 240v charger all in one. Great for plugging into the mains for topping up at home or on powered sites and solar regulated when you are unplugged, with the bonus of 240v if you need it.

[BatteryBusiness]

A lot of good information already in this thread.
I think Raisins78 way is a simple and good setup for a triple battery system.

For the second battery in the back of the XJ you can use a simple dual battery isolator like the Redarc SBI12 (http://www.batterybusiness.com.au/ca...ct_detail/7521) or anything similar.

For the third battery in your camper trailer I would suggest the Redarc BCDC1225 (http://www.batterybusiness.com.au/ca...ct_detail/7810) which is a DC-DC charger with solar regulator built in. Mount it in the camper trailer and connect it with an Anderson plug to the car using the same feed that goes to your second battery.

This set up gives priority to your starter battery for charging (only if your starter battery is full will the other two batteries get charged) and protects it from discharge (your fridge or trailer cannot discharge the starting battery).

Second and third battery have equal priority for charging but are isolated against each other.


The BCDC1225 is a good choice for your camper trailer because if you get some solar panels in the future you can just connect them to the BCDC1225 with no additional wiring. Also the DC-DC charger means you can get away with a more modest cable size (25A max) and it will charge your battery to 100% which will not happen with a direct alternator feed.

There are alternative versions for example instead of the BCDC1225 you can use a CTEK Dual which does the same or you can use a DC-DC charger instead of the simple SBI12.

And lastly remember that batteries carried inside vehicles must be dry batteries eg AGM or GEL. This applies certainly for the one in the back of your XJ. The battery in the camper trailer can be a standard wet battery if it is in the tool box also I would prefer an AGM there as well.