Battery Charging on Dump Trailer Question

[Diamondpilot]

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.

Most dump trailers have just one battery.

Chris

 

[94BULLITT]

You could add an on board maintainer.

GEN1 | Genius Battery Chargers

 

[David_Kb7uns]

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.

Had dump trailer blowing fuses on truck after doing a few dump cycles when the battery was getting to be low. Truck had 30 amp fuses on charge wire and put 20 amp resetting thermal breaker on the trailer charge wire inside the dump trailer and has not blown the truck again but starts charging after the high load with deep discharge is over. Maintain battery with a pair of 5 watt panels.

David Kb7uns

 

[MinnesotaEric]

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?

Optimate 6, the best trickle charger on the planet has leads you wire onto your batteries so you can just plug it in.

 

[bobm6996]

94BULLITT - I was in Menards and found a NOCO Genius charger like you suggested. It had the pigtail and everything needed to hookup this up as a maintainer charger, so good to go now. My son is telling me this 2002 trailer does not have the setup to charge the battery while connected to a vehicle. That would be a nice way to go, may work on that in the future. Right now I plan to do a lot of work to clean it up, do some body work/painting and put new side boards on it. It was used to haul roofing from tear offs so it has taken a beating at times, but solid and very little rust, etc. It will make me a nice trailer to haul stone, mulch and other stuff around the farm and home.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to respond.

 

[94BULLITT]

94BULLITT - I was in Menards and found a NOCO Genius charger like you suggested. It had the pigtail and everything needed to hookup this up as a maintainer charger, so good to go now. My son is telling me this 2002 trailer does not have the setup to charge the battery while connected to a vehicle. That would be a nice way to go, may work on that in the future. Right now I plan to do a lot of work to clean it up, do some body work/painting and put new side boards on it. It was used to haul roofing from tear offs so it has taken a beating at times, but solid and very little rust, etc. It will make me a nice trailer to haul stone, mulch and other stuff around the farm and home.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to respond.

Cool, I have several Noco's. They work really good.