Powering deep cycle battery off tow vehicle

rmcarthur

I have a T@B 320 cs-s. I will probably have 140 watt portable solar to supplement my deep cycle battery. However, I understand I will not have DC power provided from the solar, so none of the outlets will be charged. I was thinking I might be able to charge my battery by running my vehicle for a bit once in a while, as I have an adequate charge line from the vehicle to the T@B. Will that take care of the DC power? I am thinking in terms of occasionally charging a laptop, or running our nutri-bullet for making smoothies. We have a solar-powered charger for the cell phones.

VictoriaP

I think there’s some confusion here.

DC power is 12v...that’s your battery and cigarette lighter style outlets. These outlets will always be powered as long as your battery has adequate charge and is not disconnected.

AC power is 110v...your normal household outlets, that you’d use for the Nutri Bullet and laptop charger. These outlets do not run off battery. You either need to be plugged into a campground power pole, or plugged into a running generator of appropriate capacity to use these.

If I’ve read your post correctly, you want to be able to use your 110v outlets while boondocking. Charging your trailer battery, whether via solar or via your vehicle, will not allow you to use the 110v outlets. If you need to use the laptop and blender, and cannot get 12v power cords for them, you’ll need an inverter of the correct size attached to the battery.

Cbusguy

You will need either dc power cords for your appliances or an ac inverter.    

The solar will charge your dc power, battery, if to exposed enough sunlight

The inverter will convert the dc power to ac power.   To properly size the AC inverter look at the bottom of the AC appliances you would like to power there should be a wattage rating.......good practice is to multiply the largest number by 1.5.   it will give you plenty of wiggle room.

I imagine that nutribullet is probably 1000 watts or better.

pthomas745

It was asked in the other thread: what is the size of your battery in amp hours?  You can't know the answers to many power questions until you know that number.  Its like trying to estimate how many miles you can go on a tank of gas...but you don't know how many gallons the tank holds!

I run several things inside my trailer on the 12v system (the little cigarette plug things).  I have a 12v adapter for my laptop, for example.  The 12V system in the trailer is attached to a 15amp circuit, which limits the wattage of the devices you can use inside the trailer.  In essence, the limit is 180 watts:  180 watts ÷ 12volts= 15 amps. Using a device bigger than 180 watts will blow the fuse.

I have many other toys that can be used in the trailer on the 12V system: battery chargers, phones, etc.   Those devices use very little power.  Charging my laptop probably runs 4 or 5 amps per hour, which is the most "expensive" power user I have.

I run these things from a simple 12v inverter like this one:  there are many of them just like it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N3Q8YAI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I do all of this with a 100 watt panel on a stock 70AH battery.  I've learned the limitations of the 12v system, how to monitor/estimate my amp hour use and my battery state of charge.   It isn't very hard, just takes a bit to get used to. 

Denny16

Or or you can add a Victron Battery Monitor and find out how much 12VDC you have and are using.  Using an inverter will also draw down your battery faster than using the 12VDC outlets.
cheers

ScottG

AC vs DC and other considerations aside, idling your tow vehicle for a bit once in a while is probably not going to be sufficient to fully charge a deleted deep cycle battery. You may see a brief spike in measured voltage but that is likely just a surface charge that will deplete quickly under load.

Cbusguy

To elaborate on what scott stated......your battery is probably 100 amp/hour.....   your tow vehicle would need to supply 100 amps for 1 hour to fully recharge it from depleted......more than likely your tow vehicle is supplying between 5-10 amps so it would need 10 to 20 hours to recharge it.

the great thing about solar is it charges passively so you can easily harvest 50-60 amp/hours daily with minimal effort or expense.    

your solar suit case will probably charge between 6-10 amps so you should be able to completely recharge your battery during a sunny summer day.

rmcarthur

VictoriaP said:

I think there’s some confusion here.

DC power is 12v...that’s your battery and cigarette lighter style outlets. These outlets will always be powered as long as your battery has adequate charge and is not disconnected.

AC power is 110v...your normal household outlets, that you’d use for the Nutri Bullet and laptop charger. These outlets do not run off battery. You either need to be plugged into a campground power pole, or plugged into a running generator of appropriate capacity to use these.

If I’ve read your post correctly, you want to be able to use your 110v outlets while boondocking. Charging your trailer battery, whether via solar or via your vehicle, will not allow you to use the 110v outlets. If you need to use the laptop and blender, and cannot get 12v power cords for them, you’ll need an inverter of the correct size attached to the battery.

Thanks, Victoria ... I am not the least bit knowledgable about electricity - but with your information I am a bit in line now!

Cbusguy said:

You will need either dc power cords for your appliances or an ac inverter.    

The solar will charge your dc power, battery, if to exposed enough sunlight

The inverter will convert the dc power to ac power.   To properly size the AC inverter look at the bottom of the AC appliances you would like to power there should be a wattage rating.......good practice is to multiply the largest number by 1.5.   it will give you plenty of wiggle room.

I imagine that nutribullet is probably 1000 watts or better.

I guess I will do a little research regarding DC power cords. Thank you, Cbusguy!