Powering Interior Lights of 2010 Lark Enclosed Trailer

Question:

My interior lights on my 2010 enclosed Lark trailer will only work when my vehicle is running. How can I get my lights to work when vehicle is off and still plugged in? I understand that this is probably intended to prevent the battery from being drained but there are ALLOT of times that we need interior trailer lights and vehicle is off. OR....... Is it possible to run the interior lights to the emergency brake battery to prevent vehicle battery drain? Would it be wise to install a LED light to prevent battery drain? I tried the battery powered lights that look light a light bulb and the batteries only lasted 1 weekend, not to happy. The trailer is currently wired for dual lights and dual switches near man door and rear ramp door and the lights work fine as long as truck is running.

asked by: Gregg

Expert Reply:

It sounds like the interior trailer lights are wired to the auxiliary 12-volt circuit from your 7-way that is only powered up when the tow vehicle is running.

Since LEDs use a fraction of the power that incandescent lamps do, I would recommend using LED interior lamps. Since it serves such an important purpose, I cannot recommend tapping lighting circuits into the break away battery. A better idea would be to use a separate 12-volt battery installed on the trailer to provide power to the interior lights. The 12-volt accessory power circuit can be used to provide a maintenance charge to this battery, but the alternator on the tow vehicle and the limited gauge of the wire feeding the circuit will prevent enough power from getting through to charge the battery if it becomes depleted. When shore power is available, you can use a charger like the # CTEK56353 to charge the battery.

expert reply by: Mike L