I read a few posts but not sure if I am going to do something that my alternator will not like. I have a 2010 Lariat with the tow package. I am an artist and I travel the country selling my work. At the fine art fairs I attend I will use batteries to power lights in my booth. When I am at the show in the evening I will take the batteries back to my hotel room and charge them. But between shows I made a space in the bed of the truck that holds my batteries, weights, etc. What I am wondering is if I am asking for trouble trying to have the truck charge them in between shows.

I am also pulling a small utility trailer with brakes so it is already charging one small battery for the brake backup.

If you have had any experience with this I would love your opinion and if it is a good or OK idea how would you go about wiring it up?

I will add a photo of my setup once I figure out how to do it.

 

I would not do what you are suggesting, only because it is very inefficient, in my opinion to run your truck's engine for long periods just to charge batteries. Probably not good on the engine either to idle for prolonged time.

Instead, I'd buy a portable generator. Honda makes one and I've seen Honeywell (I think at Costco and Home Depot). I have a 1000W Honda generator that I use for camping and it keeps the two 12V, deep cycle batteries in my trailer charged by running it about an hour in the morning and then again about 2 hours in the late afternoon-evening. You want one that is "quiet" - my Honda is rated at 54 db as I recall which is about the level of speaking voice, and that costs more than the cheap generators you might find in places like Harbor Freight.

You can also replace any incandescent lighting you use with LEDs. They make both flood and spot lighting and you can get color temperatures ranging from 3000K to 7000K. (Probably, 5-6000K would be ideal for your uses.) They pull far less current than incandescent lights. I've replaced all the lighting in my trailer with LEDs. An excellent source is www.SuperBrightLEDs.com. I like them because they give full specs on all lights, ship quickly, are priced reasonably and will replace any faulty units promptly.

Hope this helps.

- Jack

 

Alternators aren't really set up to truely charge a dead battery, more like charge what is lost during cranking and maintain voltage during the drive cycle.

If you get a stronger alternator you could do what you're thinking

 

What Patman said about alternators is completely true also. An alternator's purpose is to maintain a charged battery, not recharge it.

- Jack

 

ok thanks guys.
Actually the only thing I would be doing is charging as I am driving, not just to have it idle. Thanks for everyones input.

Marc

 

I don't know that you'd get the batteries recharged that well during a "drive". The alternator with the tow package is probably up to the job, but it does take some time to restore batteries that are down. If you DO try this, you'll want very heavy gauge wire from the alternator to those batteries, 10 gauge minimum. I don't think the tow package wiring to the 7-pin connector is this heavy.

- Jack