Battery Charging on Dump Trailer Question

[bobm6996]

I just bought an older 7x12 dump trailer. It belonged to a construction company and is a heavy duty trailer. The battery is located near the front corner of the trailer and sits under the bed. To charge the battery I have to raise the bed a little so it is easy to hook up the charger. It appears I could possibly get down on the ground and reach up to hook up the cables but would be very difficult and this body is getting too old to do it that way.

Has anyone come up with a solution that might have some type of cables that stay connected to the battery poles and are attached to the tongue or somewhere easy to get to so the charger can be connected w/o having to raise the bed?

 

[RedNeckRacin]

The battery should be wired to charge off of the u pin connector from the truck.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I would make up an adapter that plugs into the pig tail that you can the attach your charger to. In addition, if wired properly, it should charge when attached to your tow vehicle and it's running.

Chris

 

[George2615]

As Chris mentioned the tow vehicle should charge the battery IF wired correctly.
If you still want to charge the battery without connecting to the vehicle you could wire a quick connect plug such as one of these to the battery and mount 1/2 of the plug to the frame and the other half to the charger.

Winches Accessories Winch Wiring Quick Disconnects Accessories and Parts | etrailer.com

 

[kenmac]

The battery on my dump. is located in a plastic box with the hyd fluid tank. and pump.. There is a small 110v battery charger installed in this box with a 110v plug that extends out of the box.. I also have it wired to my 7 pin plug so, the battery will charge from the trucks system

 

[Diamondpilot]

The battery on my dump. is located in a plastic box with the hyd fluid tank. and pump.. There is a small 110v battery charger installed in this box with a 110v plug that extends out of the box.. I also have it wired to my 7 pin plug so, the battery will charge from the trucks system

That is a perfect setup.

Chris

 

[CurlyDave]

Wiring my dump trailer so it charges from the truck has always led to blown fuses on the truck. I don' really see a way around this since the trailer battery can self-discharge if is is not connected to the truck at all times.

I have considered extending wires from the battery to the tongue, but the easiest solution is an ordinary battery charger and blocking the lift bed with a piece of 6" x 6". The block prevents the bed from accidentally closing on my arm, and I can run the wires under the frame and to the battery.

 

[JJZ 109]

You can buy 2 pin charger pigtails pretty cheap. This pic shows one in the foreground. This particular charger also has the clips that will plug into the same cord from the charger.
Get yourself a charger with that type of cord and buy multiple pigtails. I've got them on 3 motorcycles and a couple of riding mowers so that I don't have to remove the batteries during the off season. Although I don't have the brand shown, this type of charger is fairly inexpensive so I have a couple to shuttle back & forth among the batteries.
Fortunately for me, my trailer is set up similar to what kenmac describes. I just leave it plugged in all the time so that it's ready to go. Same with my trailer type man lift with built in charger. Not sure if the factory 7 pin on my truck has power to the center pin or not, but it doesn't really matter to me. Like Dave says, if the trailer sits for a period of time and the battery discharges, I don't think power from the truck is going to bring it back in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[woody]

My dump trailer is set up just like Kenmac and I also do the same as JJZ 109, I just move the charger from machine to machine.

 

[zing]

As Chris mentioned the tow vehicle should charge the battery IF wired correctly.
If you still want to charge the battery without connecting to the vehicle you could wire a quick connect plug such as one of these to the battery and mount 1/2 of the plug to the frame and the other half to the charger.

Winches Accessories Winch Wiring Quick Disconnects Accessories and Parts | etrailer.com

I don't have a dump trailer, but my horse trailer has a battery for the interior lights and the strobe lights off of the back. It also has a second battery to power the brakes in the event of a trailer disconnection while towing. I presume a dump trailer with electric brakes should have two batteries as well.
- The battery for the brakes charges off of the tow vehicle.
- The battery for the lights (equivalent to the battery for the dump) does not charge off of the tow vehicle.

I would expect this is intentional and safer since connecting the trailer lights battery to the same loop as the tow vehicle system could possibly:
a) drain the vehicle battery
or
b) drain the battery for the emergency braking system

I am definitely not an expert, but it seems to me that someone should have experience in what they are doing with trailer wiring or at least a good schematic before they start to muck around with that. It is not to hard to conceive of someone tying their two batteries into the same loop, and then draining their brake battery when using the dump and not having that available when an emergency happens or possibly ending up with 24 volts instead of 12 and shorting out their pump's electric motor.

My solution is to just have a little 2 watt solar charger hooked to my lights battery. Then I always know I am starting with a full charge. Except for when one of my daughters or my neice leave the lights on, close the door, and walk away. Not like that has ever happened. :mur: As others have said, pigtails to a charger is also a good idea. Just be careful about changing the wiring loops for your trailer's dump and brakes battery.

As I said, I am not an expert and people more experienced with wiring should feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.