Single battery for tow veh and tent trailer

[exm38a1er]

Hello all!!!!
I am new here and despite the fact that i'am a Jeep owner LOL i've been lurking for a couple of years and finally took the time to post my 1st thread...
You have guys inspired me and started building my own tent trailer.
I bough my first winch,so it's time to upgrade my battery.
Winch(Superwinch LP10000) needs min 650CCA in order to pull heavy loads.
My original idea was to install a second battery for winching and
feed power my tent trailer for my weekend trips.A small fridge 12V a couple of 12V bulbs and maybe an inverter(600-700Watt).
But lack of space and ease of installation call for a single battery.
What kind and which one do you think?
Please?

 

[kilo]

I don't know which battery you would need or how to wire it up?? I'll be doing the same to my trailer in a few weeks. Somebody here will know and many more will have a ton of different ideas and options. Just give it a bit and someone will chime in. Have any picks or updates of your trailer? Good luck!

 

[RockMolester]

Why not leave your underhood battery alone and add a deep cycle battery to your trailer?

 

[exm38a1er]

Thank you for your time to respond
Here is the link to my trailer and if you guys like it (just a little)
I can open up a thead over here too)
Odyssey jeep trailer - Expedition Portal Forum

 

[exm38a1er]

Why not leave your underhood battery alone and add a deep cycle battery to your trailer?

I might go this(the right) way at the end but right now i need abattery for my tow veh and if i put another one on my treiler that makes;em
two$$$$$

 

[Ebag333]

You don't really provide enough info.

You need to think about what you'll be doing and what you'll need. For example, my current plans for my trailer will only use 12v LED lighting and enough power for the laptop, cell phone, etc. Maybe a few other misc power drains, but those would be the primary ones. So my power drain is almost nil, and I plan on using a portable power pack (IE: one of those portable power supply jobbies used to jump vehicles) as the "battery" for my trailer.

If you're running a fridge, what type and how many amps of power do you need? The engel/ARB fridges are very efficient by only drawing maybe 5-7 amps. A 700 watt inverter will pull a lot of amps. 12v incandescent lights can take anywhere from .5 amps to a couple of amps, so how many are you planning on running and what is the amp draw?

You need to figure out how much juice you're going to be using, and also how you're going to replenish it. All the power in the world won't help you if it's dead.

How long do you need your power to last? How much do you have to spend? What options have you considered?


The easiest way to use your vehicles batteries for your trailer is to connect the trailer to your 12v system. This is what I plan on doing for mine to keep the battery pack in the trailer topped off. That would limit you to only having trailer power when the tow vehicle is present....with my setup I can leave the trailer behind and take off exploring/wheeling, without depriving the of power.

 

[fj40charles]

I might go this(the right) way at the end but right now i need abattery for my tow veh and if i put another one on my treiler that makes;em
two$$$$$

Having 1 battery is a VERY bad idea. What are you going to do when you drain the only battery you have?

 

[exm38a1er]

Having 1 battery is a VERY bad idea. What are you going to do when you drain the only battery you have?

I bought a portable power pack so i hope iwillnot drain the battery but i really don't know much....
If i drain it ?????hmmmmmm....Jump starter maybe?

 

[exm38a1er]

@Ebag 333

We're on the same boat .
My need is for a couple of reading lights a charger for cell phone
and lap top.I'll be using a cool box (4A,48W).
Having two babies for the next couple of years i'll be able to camp only on Summer weekends.
As mentioned before i bought a portable power supply with a 12V rechargable battery(7Ah).
I can always get a spare one as i've found this very cheap(30$).
Maybe these in combination with an Odyssey 1500 will do the trick...

 

[Ebag333]

If that's all you need, then you can probably get away with a small battery and use the tow vehicle to charge it up.

I know some people use the Costco golf cart batteries. Dirt cheap, only 6 volts so double 'em up.

Be sure to get a deep cycle battery if you can. A starting cycle battery is dead at around 70%-80%, compared to a deep cycle at 40%-50%.

 

[exm38a1er]

Yes that's why i'll probably buy an Odyssey CP 1500(funny enough that's how i call my
trailer project-Odyssey-).
Any idea how many Ah these would need to be?

 

[exm38a1er]

I bought a portable power pack so i hope iwillnot drain the battery but i really don't know much....
If i drain it ?????hmmmmmm....Jump starter maybe?

I've found this chart on www.mikenchell.com

If i use an acurate voltometer won't it keep me from discharging the battery(knowing when it is time to start the engine and fully
recharge it?

 

[Ebag333]

Yes that's why i'll probably buy an Odyssey CP 1500(funny enough that's how i call my
trailer project-Odyssey-).
Any idea how many Ah these would need to be?

Odyssey PC1500

Has a handy chart that tells you how long they last.

So lets say you're trying to run 10A, which really isn't very much. A PC1500 will last you roughly 5-6 hours.

But that chart shows the time it lasts until it's fully discharged. Do that 2 or 3 times and you'll be buying a new battery.

The PC1500 seems to be more of a deep cycle style (though not a true deep cycle), so lets assume you don't drop it below 50%. Now that battery lasts you only 2-3 hours.

So if you wanted to run 10A for 8 hours, you'd need three of them (at least).


If you want to run a lot of power, step up to the group 31 such as the Sears PM-1. Price seems comparable, but it has nearly twice the reserve capacity, and is a bit more of a deep cycle battery (higher RC, lower CA/CCA for the size of the battery).

Of course even one of those won't prevent you from running your battery dead if you run your fridge all day and all night.

You could get a couple of these to offset the power drain....but then you're adding expense, and that assumes a bright, sunny, clear day where the panel gets sun all day long. Plus those get expensive quick, since one panel is only going to give you about 1 amp of power.

I've found this chart on www.mikenchell.com

If i use an acurate voltometer won't it keep me from discharging the battery(knowing when it is time to start the engine and fully
recharge it?

Keep in mind that chart shows 0% as truly 0%.

Most starting/auto style batteries are considered dead at around 80%. Marine (which are starting and deep cycle hybrid) are more like 50%-60%. True deep cycle (which are very expensive) can go as low as 30%.

If you run your battery past that point more than once or twice, you'll kill it in short order.

So a battery might say that it has 5 hours reserve capacity, but you really wouldn't want to run it more than 2.5 hours.....