Shore Power Battery Charging For Brake System & Accessories

Question:

I want to put a trinkle charger on my brake battery, that also powers 12v lights in my cargo trailer. The trailer is already fitted for shore power. if i plug my trailer into shore power, my battery charge into the 120v outlet using a normal 120v battery charger could i connect into one of my 12v lights inside? or do i have to run wires from the charger all the way to the battery?

asked by: Wr H

Expert Reply:

You'll need to run the wires from the charger directly to your battery # HM20008. If it were my trailer, I would get a charger like this # BRW54FR because it's FREE energy!! This one is a trickle charger putting out about 7.5 watts which is good for any battery with 5 amp hours or more. It can go on the side of the trailer where your battery is so the wiring won't go from one end of the trailer to the next. It's also pretty low profile so it's not an eye sore.

That being said, you should not have anything connected to your brake battery. I recommend not connecting anything in line with the charger or the brake battery. It's best to get a separate battery to power everything else in your trailer. Keeping it independent will make sure that when you're needing the brake battery for emergency braking, there is no chance it could have been drained. It'll give you peace of mind and it's much safer. Then, you can have your charger # CTEK56353 hooked up to this inverter # 34280173 which would be tied into your shore power line and then the charger to your accessory battery. You can keep all this in there and hooked up so when you plug into shore power, your inverter will fire up, giving your charger power, thus charging your battery as you use the accessories in your trailer.

expert reply by: Adam E