Rear 50 amp anderson plug for camper trailers

I am assuming you need quite a bit of power for a fridge or similar.

I only need power for LED lights and maybe a TV so I just use the live feed in the 7 pin plug which is from the wire in the car's wiring.

When parked I have a Merit/Hella 20 amp plug on the rear bumper linked to a 4 gauge cable to the rear bumper from my second isolated battery which is connected to a cable with another 7 pin plug on it, which attaches to the trailer male plug.

If you need an Anderson plug then you must need lots of power therefore you need to isolate.
Regards Philip A

You realy are limiting the amountnof current available using the trailer plug...the pins are generally only rated for 15 amps.

AND...there is quite a bit of discussion about there beeing no reliable standard for power supply using the standard trailer plug.

its a pretty poor idea realy.

Jusr because you have an anderson plug...it does not necessarily follow that you need lots of power.

cheers

cheers

Yes, I have had it set up for eight years now and it has always worked perfectly,unless of course I have tripped over the cable.

So I guess we don't know yet whether it is a good idea.

Seeing 15 amps is 180watts and the absolute most I ever use is 40W (TV) 10W ( masthead amp), and 1 x10W LED = 60W, then I think 15 amps is plenty.
If I ever had a problem I can always plug appliances directly into the Merit plug on the back of the car rated at 20amps.

Or of course I can use my 50Amp Anderson Plug in the rear load area which is usually reserved for my 50AMP 150 l per min compressor, or my 300W inverter.
The point I am making is horses for courses and really a 50 amp Anderson plug can be overkill , and useless if the wiring to feed it is insufficient.
Regards Philip A

Hi John,
Thanks, I have a new car that we will be travelling in with our new camper trailer. Our camper trailer has a 100 amp battery in it to power the LED lighting as well as the Engel fridge and a few 12v outlets, All I want to do is while the camper trailer is connected to the car that it tops up the battery in the camper trailer. The vehicle will not be fitted with dual batteries, will be standard one only.

***The auto sparky mentioned if the alternator is variant current????
that we can get away with it.

Why the Anderson plug? I have no idea, just want a separate plug that can be on the car and trailer other than the 7 pin plug. I have just seen mostly that Anderson plug set up on allot of caravans and camper trailers so though it would be kinda universal as well.

Cheers
Brenden

Hi Brenden,

My apologies - I missed your reference to a camper trailer - dunno how, it's pretty obvious, but that was what was behind my queries about why you need an anderson plug.

For your purposes I'd definitely go with the anderson plug and some good solid cabling from the engine bay to the back of the vehicle. In some cases you can get away with using the 7 pin connector or, its 14 way big brother, but the anderson plug is a much better way to go.

The alternator is an interesting (and not straightforward) question. Many recent vehicles use computer control of the alternator voltage, where in older vehicles the voltage was set by the alternator characteristics and battery's requirements.

You need about 14.4 volts delivered to your trailer battery to charge it fully. Few alternators, especially the computer controlled ones, will provide this, especially if there are significant losses in your cabling. (That's why heavy cables are recommended.) Suggest discuss this with your sparkey. Mention of dc-dc chargers often starts a fight on this forum, but they can be a good way of increasing the charging voltage available to the trailer battery. That's what Evaready suggests below when referring to the BCDC 12/40 LV. (If you do go that way, suggest you insist on the LV version.)

HTH

John

Brenden - meant to mention that the suggested dc-dc charger is a 40 amp one - good gear but a bit much for a single battery system. There is a 25 amp equivalent which would be more suitable - see Evaready's link. These are a quick way of spending money, but do have good solar capability built in. I use a good 30A one from ABR Sidewinder (a respected ExplorOz member) here. ( I can't comment on his latest version that apparently handles solar, but appears to lack the low voltage capability.)

Cheers

John

I am confused to what the alternator has and to what I need, just wanted to check with people that have more of an idea than myself.

Forgot the link
Redarc