Battery to power trailer hydraulics & winch

[Bird]

<font color=blue>Do I understand you correctly in that I should be OK to charge with this setup as well (especially if I get the isolator)?</font color=blue>

Gary, I think that's all there is to it, but it's been quite awhile since I wired any of those, and I know some of our other members undoubtedly know more than I on this topic. My first two travel trailers didn't even have an isolator like my last one did.

 

[Ozarker]

All this talk of isolaters and charging from the vehicle alternator is useless if you need this system to be self-contained for use on different vehicles.

First, you absolutely must use deep cycle batteries. The Gell type batteries are great and are what are usually used in electric golf carts.

You need to size your batteries to your anticipated use so that you can complete a job without recharging. That means determining how many amp hours of storage you need to raise and lower the dump as many times as normally required.....be that two times or ten times. Maybe you will need two, three or four batteries to do a job. When designing a solar house, the battery storage is such that the system will last through three or four days without sun to recharge. Perhaps you should work on the same principal.

Reharging can be done with a charger plugged in at home or, if you do this infrequently, with any of the new solar chargers available for charging RV batteries while it is sitting. Just park it and aim the panel at the sun. It will be ready to go when you are.