Should a Trailer Breakaway Battery Be Brought inside When Trailer is Winterized

Question

Question:

does the battery need to come in for the winter? I have the trailer up high enough to remove tires for winter after doing so should have just covered tires with large garbage bags. And in winterizing the trailer for winter forgot about brake away box battery. Does it need to be stored inside? and does it need to be trickle charged? And have 2 other questions I have a Homesteader Patriot model I picked it up for a hunt in Alberta Ca. It has freezers secured inside and room for a cot to sleep in. ! I Plan to insulate it so can put a small heater inside so when the weather dont co-operate can take the chill off and dry wet clothes and boots. Would it do nest to use a foam board of have it sprayed in which would mean if ever had to repair skin would be a mess. Or use fiber glass batting? I had some of the plywood panels off to stop the sides from drumminginch as traveled and would at sometime would start to crack around the rows of exterior screws. Maybe should have fiber glass all the bays between tubing in walls?roof insulation also? Also wish to put RV latch on man door along with the bar lockinch trying to keep door shut with para=cord tied to handle and pulling it shut dont work too good and youre inside.

asked by: Wayne H

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Expert Reply:

It would be a good idea to bring your breakaway battery inside and put it on a trickle charger if it's going to be parked for a while in the bitter cold. An inactive battery will slowly lose it's charge over time, especially in the cold.

For a charger with pulse maintenance that would do an excellent job keeping your battery in good condition for the winter you would want the CTEK # CTEK56353.

For the man door you have you could use the # SL716SS installed on the inside of the door so that you could secure the door shut from inside since you said it uses a cam-bar latch system.

We don't carry insulation that would work for your trailer, but I checked around online and found that a lot of guys in your situation go with a blue board style of insulation. Using a spray insulation on a trailer can work, but since the trailer will flex as it goes down the road it can crack.

expert reply by: Jameson C

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Answer 1

You will want to use a standard 12 volt deep cycle trailer battery to operate the Bulldog Powered-Drive Trailer Jack, part #BD500200. You will NOT want to use a trailer breakaway battery. The breakaway battery is not designed to power other trailer…

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Answer 2

You could potentially store the Hopkins Engager Breakaway Kit #20099 battery inside but that would only protect it from the colder temperatures, so you would still need a solution to re-charge it, and there really isn't an easy way to remove it…

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Answer 3

In order to determine the torque rating for the lug nuts on your trailer you will need to know check out the chart I attached that shows all of the torque specs for all the trailer lugs available based on stud size, wheel material and wheel size.

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Answer 4

If your trailer has 7 wires running all the way back to the brakes, then yes, you can tap into the existing wiring. Each of your new brakes will have two wires for the brake magnet. One wire is for 12 volt power to the brake magnets and the other…

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Answer 5

You have it right so far, the 4-way connector is just as you have stated. Remember that Yellow has a L in it so that is the left side brake/turn signal and green has a R in it so that is the right side brake/turn signal. The colors for wiring a 7-way…

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Answer 6

You can put a maintenance charge on your trailer battery with the 12 volt accessory circuit of the 7-way. The 1:00 position of your 7-way carries this circuit. You would just need to run a length of 10 gauge wire like part #10-1-1 (sold by the foot),…

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Answer 7

It could be a tow package fuse on the vehicle. Use the owners manual to find the locations of fuses/relays related to the tow package wiring to check them and replace as needed. If the issue is not a fuse or relay then you can test the vehicle side…

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Answer 8

A 4-Way trailer connector has the basic lighting functions only; running lights, left turn signal and brake lights, right turn signal and brake lights, and ground. A 7-Way has these functions and a 12 volt circuit, a circuit for electric trailer…

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Answer 9

Since wire color codes are NOT universal, we always recommend wiring by function, rather than wire color. If you look at the Trailer Wiring FAQ article I have linked you to, you can see some diagrams showing the proper way to wire a vehicle and…

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Answer 10

When wiring a trailer connector, it is best to wire by function, as wire colors can vary. We have an excellent wiring diagram on our website, I will provide you a link so you can look at it. If you are looking at the inside of the trailer connector…

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Answer 11

I did some checking and the hub/drum we offer that will work for you is the part #8-430-5UC3. This uses the same bearings as the 8-415 and will be an exact fit aside from the fact this is a non-ABS setup and the 8-415 came in an ABS setup and non-ABS…

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Answer 12

Typically 4-way wiring consists of 18 and 16 gauge wires. For a 4-way that has all 16 gauge wire you would want the Wesbar 4-Pole Flat Connector #W787264. The part #HM38138 uses 18 gauge for all wires but the white that uses 16 gauge.

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