edwardo37

I have a 2014 F150 with Max Tow and HD packages. Does this have any heavier duty charging wires or alternator for charging a travel trailer battery than trucks without these packages? I'm wondering if I might need to install heavier gauge wire to charge the trailer batteries while towing between campgrounds.

EventHorizon

All towing packages have the same wiring. You will be fine just the way you are.

smokeywren

No. Assuming your dealer's shop did a good job on the PDI (pre-delivery inspection), then your wiring harness is properly protected by fuses and relays and is strong enough to charge and maintain the charge in a big 12-volt battery in the RV trailer.


One of the pins in the 7-pin trailer plug is a 12-volt "hot" wire that's normally used to charge the trailer battery. If you don't modify the wiring in the trailer so you need more 12-volt current in the trailer battery charging wire, then you're good to go.

brulaz

If your trailer battery has been drawn down to under 12V (~50% state of charge), it will need a lot of current to get back up to full charge in a reasonable time.

AFAIK, there's no truck out there with big enough charge wiring to handle a high current draw. The voltage will drop because of the small wire's resistance and the current too.

For many this is not an issue. Trips are short and 120VAC charging is not far away.

But there are some (often full-timers) who rely on their trucks' alternator to charge their trailer batts routinely. They often upgrade the alternator and charge wire. It's a long run from the truck's engine compartment to the trailer tongue and a large diameter cable may be needed.

But most heavy battery users just get a portable generator, and/or solar to keep their trailer batteries charged and forget about the truck's charger.

acadianbob

Get a nice quiet (Honda type) generator. Camping takes a lot of battery power. You'd have to be quite a ways between campgrounds to recharge the battery; as in 3 to 8 hours depending on how far down you draw the battery.

smokeywren

We usually haul a Honda inverter EU2000i. generator. Easy for an old man to pick up and load into the "basement" of the TT, and provides up to 1,600 constant watts of clean power. That's plenty to run the furnace, TV, lights, microwave, and charge the battery, but not enough to start up even a smaller 13,500 watts AC. The Honda EU2000i starts every time with one weak pull. Much quieter than other generators.

We also have a 5,000 watt Honda generator with electric start to use when we must run the AC without shore power. It's fairly easy to start, but more than an old man can usually get started with a rope pull. Thus the 12-volt electric start. Plus it's around 300 pounds, so lot heavier than an old man can move around. If we haul the big generator for our current rig, it's in the bed of the pickup.


Way back when we were camping at Texas Motor Speedway for the NASCAR races twice a year, we hauled the big generator on a luggage carrier plugged into the receiver hitch on the back of the 5er. Worked fine, with plenty of power to run the 15k AC, and with electric start even an old man could get it started.

BudmanAtl

I crawled under the truck this afternoon to look at the trailer wiring. I want to add a 12v outlet in the truck bed and was looking for a reliable source of power.

That "Charge line" (orange) is tiny. It's one of the smallest lines going into the connector. If it's 18 gauge I'd be surprised. The ground wire looks like a 12 gauge. I'd be amazed if that wire would charge a flashlight battery.

I'm going to seriously think about putting in a separate isolation relay and running at 10 gauage wire from the battery, through the relay and to the connector as we used to do in the "good 'ol days" before factory wired harnesses.

The other thing that was mentioned in some other forums - it appears that the exising charge line is controlled by onboard electronics - it doesn't power up unless it senses a battery that needs charging. And it apparently (can't confirm this yet) no longer has a relay - probably controlled by a solid state charge system. Either way - tapping it for other uses is not gonna work.

smokeywren

I've never seen that. Most common is the battery charge line is a constant 12-volt always-hot-when-the-key-is-on hot line at the trailer plug, and protected by a relay and/or a fuse. After it goes through the trailer plug, that line goes through a battery charger that is part of the 120-volt/12-volt power supply in the RV trailer. That battery charger part of the newer trailer power supply is an automatic that won't overcharge the battery(ies) in the RV.


Way back when, over 15 years ago, the battery charger in the power supply of my trailer was not an automatic, so the battery would overcharge if left plugged into shore power. My trailer batteries were gone south within a year, until the tech at my RV dealer told me to disconnect the RV battery if I was going to leave the trailer plugged into shore power. If I wanted to be sure the trailer battery/ies didn't discharge or overcharge then disconnect the negative battery cable and use a trickle charger/battery maintainer such a Battery Tender to maintain the charge in the stored trailer.
http://www.batterytender.com/Charger...12V-0-75A.html

BudmanAtl

Smokeywren - yep - I know that's the way it used to be - but in the 2016 model Ford pretty much changed out all the electronics in the truck - they switched from Sync 2 (Microsoft) to Sync 3 (Ford inhouse) - and as a part of that the same onboard computer that controls the radio now controls almost every thing from the turn signal release (it's not mechanical anymore - the computer decides when to turn off the turn signal) to the Charge line on the 7 way connector.
The computer can sense when a trailer is plugged in, tell you if all the lights are working, tell if there is a battery at the end of the charge line, and (of course) control the trailer electric brakes.

raisin

Many years ago I ran 3 conductor (black,white,green)#10 machine power cord with twist lock connectors at hitch. Worked well. Stock Ford wiring will not fully charge 50% battery in a few hours driving. Just a little wire with a long way to go...voltage drop