Just bought a winch for the trailer and I want to do two things. First power the winch and second power the break away battery off the 12v lead on the seven pin connector. Do I need an isolator? Can I just run the 12v and a ground to the aux battery then to the break away? Also would you mount the battery box to the tongue or inside the trailer? Any schematics or suggestions appreciated thanks.

My trailer has 2 batteries.
One on the tongue that powers the jack and I need to connect it to the breakaway switch. Breakaway has it's own battery but they never last....

It gets charged from the trailer connector and the tow vehicles 12 volt charging system....That connection is fuse protected...

Second battery inside under counter top. Powers winch and also is used to start Onan generator in gen. compartment and trailers 12 volt lights.

Gets charged by an automatic charger mounted near battery. Any time 120 Volt is connected to trailer or if generator is running.

Both batteries securely mounted and in Marine style plastic boxes with covers.

Inside battery is dead short protected with auto reset circuit breakers on B+ side....

No isolators are needed but some sort of dead short protection is a good idea on the B+ side out from any battery..

quote:

Originally posted by SCDIV1:
Second battery inside under counter top.
Gets charged by an automatic charger mounted near battery. Any time 120 Volt is connected to trailer or if generator is running.

Inside battery is dead short protected with auto reset circuit breakers on B+ side....

Rich,
If/when you have a chance, I would like to see your setup for that inside battery. Or at least maybe some Mfrs & P/N's for the isolator and automatic charger. Wanting to set mine up that way. Thanks.

I have a single battery in my trailer inside the cabinets in a marine-style box. It powers the 12v lights, breakaway & trailer jack and I have a battery tender mounted next to it so whenever the trailer is plugged in to the motorhome generator or my garage the battery is charging. Its pretty simple & works well - its really nice to be able to flip on the 12v lights or work the tongue jack without having to connect to the tow vehicle.

I also have an Inverter connected to the inside battery under the counter top. It's Outlet cord is fed up thru the counter top thru a hole and allows me to run my weather station and plug in my laptop without running a generator. I use it sometimes to charge my phone or just give my generators a break and save some gas.

Small inverters under 1000watt work good for low current draw items.

I had the exact same one in my old pickup camper and could watch TV without a generator running for hours without killing the battery it was powered from.

I rarely watch TV in my MH but need to install one in there just for that purpose this spring....if it ever arrives....

That's a great tip actually. When we take the motorhome, I will sometimes plug the trailer into the mh inverter to power lights when we go in there...if the generator isn't running.

I have the same setup as Rich, it works great. I also have a solar panel on the roof to keep things charged up when it’s not plugged in.

quote:

Originally posted by Cashflow:
I have the same setup as Rich, it works great. I also have a solar panel on the roof to keep things charged up when it’s not plugged in.

+1 for solar panels, I have two on the roof of my trailer. One charges the trailer battery which powers winch, 12v lights, radio, computer, and I wired up a couple of USB jacks on the bench for charging phones and GoPro. The other charges the race car battery. Also have one on the roof of the motorhome. It's nice not having to worry about if the batteries are charged.

The solar panel setups are ~35 watt panels from eBay and battery tender solar charge controllers.

I also have the same setup, batteries, inverter, winch, charger, and solar panels. Has been that way for many years and has always worked great. Now a Question changed to 16volts in the race car does anyone make a solar charge controller for 16volts

One battery for it all here too. Run a regular disconnect like you see on the racecar also to kill everything if needed. Also run a reset breaker on everything but the winch power cable. Charger that switches to maintainer always on it when plugged in at home or at the track. My gen doesn't use much fuel.