Hey, So very new here. I’m just about to set up my new AC500 in our trailer camper. I have some solar right now to test out, but I was also wondering how I can patch the AC500 into the truck so it will charge when we are driving or the car is on… Any ideas?!?
Thanks!
Hi @NickKalisz
do you mean it should only charge while you driving or the engine is running, but not when you park somewhere?
Fair point, when you charge via 12V Outlet from you camper. I think there is nothing from powerstation side which prevent the drainage of you camper battery except low voltage. To my knowledge some cars have a automatic shutoff of 12V and USB Outlets when the car is longer parked. But dont know abour yours.
If you have solarpanels on the roof of you camper, you can recharge it permantly. But on warmer days this wouldnt be also a bad idea because cars in general are getting really hot in summer. Charge it with high wattage may just kill the unit because of overhead then.
Depending on where you locate you AC500, just plug it and unplug it yourself. I think thats the best option.
greetings
Erik
So When I plug the trailer into the hitch/truck (how the tail light turn on) it supplies power to the trailer. So when I do this I want it to also charge the AC500 setup… is this possible to wire something this up?
Yes you can uses the power on the Trailer to charge the battery.
What is the question?
The main question is how should I wire this/how to make it happen… what adapters do I need to make it work from the power coming out of the truck trailer hookup?
Well it depends on your trailer and how its hoked up.
You need to find Documentation for this as well as for your car to see how mush current you can pull from what contacts.
Well, normally you would just use the cigarette lighter cord that came with the AC500, to charge it while the motor is running. Tying into the trailer brake light cable will also provide charging power, but it’s likely to blow the fuse then you’d lose the brake lights, which would be bad😲
Maybe a better solution would be to install solar panels on the roof to charge it while on the road, as well as parked. Plenty of RVs do this with tilt brackets to set the angle while parked, then lay them flat while on the road. Even while flat down they will still provide some power when the sun is up.
One option is to use a DC to DC charger to run power from your starter (car) battery to charge your house (trailer) battery system. The DC to DC charger offers the following advantages 1) Limits the amount of power from the starter battery to charge the house battery because the AC500’s LIP battery can soak the starter battery dry in a heartbeat. Typical DC-DC chargers send 20,40,50, or 60 amps to the house batteries. Renogy and Victron make excellent DC to DC chargers. 2) DC to DC chargers can be configured to charge different battery chemistries properly. LIP batteries require a charging profile different from that required for AGM batteries, for example. This flexibility allows you to deliver the maximum charge to your house batteries safely.
You can even buy DC to DC chargers that have integrated MPPT controllers. This feature allows you to charge your house batteries with solar and vehicle DC power at the same time.
It is very important to make sure your vehicle’s alternator can handle the extra charging load to your batteries safely and effectively. I had to upgrade my alternator in order to use the Renogy 40 amp DC-DC charger.
To prevent phantom drainage from the starter battery to the house batteries, most DC-DC chargers rely either on a a piggyback fuse that connects to a vehicle device fuse that only activates when the car is running, or you cant install a Voltage Sensor Relay (fairly inexpensive) that detects alternator voltage that is only reached when the vehicles is running. The VSR then opens the power connection when the voltage drops below something like 12.8V.
YouTube has many, many videos describing DC to DC chargers and how they work. Watch them if you’re interested.
Wow this is awesome information. Thank you very much for the thoughtful response. I’ll look into this option. I will have solar panels on the roof but I know sometimes it is nice to have the DC to DC with the car option if its really cloudy for a day…
I’m off to youtube!
Question if when I have the truck on, inside the camper I can use all the outlets… is there a possible then I could charge the b330 battery?