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Location: hudson valley, NY | I was wondering if anyone has used their brake-away battery to run a loading light? Some times the truck is not hooked up and we need a light for whatever reason. I was going to hook 2 brake-away batteries in paralell and use a white LED back up light on a switch at the load ramp. Trailer is a 2 horse 2 axle BP. |
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.jpg) Expert
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Location: Southern New Mexico | It would be better to add a marine or golf cart battery for the lights. You don't want to kill your breakaway battery and then not have it for an emergency. |
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Expert
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Location: North Carolina | My opinion is the same as Terri's Using the emergency brake battery for lighting is very much like eating one's progeny. The immediate benefits are far outweighed by the usual long term objectives of both endeavors. |
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 Elite Veteran
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Location: Western WA | A little off topic  , but just curious how you go about charging the break-away battery. Trailer maintenance how-to's dictate charging it, but I don't see how to remove it from my trailer much less how to charge it. |
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Expert
Posts: 2828
Location: Southern New Mexico | On my trailer the break away battery is located under the gooseneck in a black box. Two screws hold it shut. I take out the screws and there's the battery. Just take it out and use a automotive battery charger. I have a charger that has different settings that let you pick what size/type of battery so it knows how to charge it. |
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Expert
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Location: North Carolina | Originally written by headhunter on 2007-01-21 4:25 PM A little off topic , but just curious how you go about charging the break-away battery. Trailer maintenance how-to's dictate charging it, but I don't see how to remove it from my trailer much less how to charge it. Carefull !! Some batteries are dry cell types, not to be recharged. Only charge it if it's labeled as rechargeable or lead/acid |
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 Extreme Veteran
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Location: Texas | We do that with a trailer that's used for storage, just recharge the battery when the lights start looking a little dim. We just use the one battery and have two lights, not even LED's so you should be ok. Just make sure it's charged when you use the trailer and never let it totally discharge and freeze, otherwise the main drawback is that battery life will probably be shorter than normal. |
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Location: hudson valley, NY | ok what I did was take the battery(12.5volts) and hook up the LED on the bench. I left it on all night, about 6 hrs. In the AM the light was still on and the battery was at 9.8 volts. Just to make sure I'm going to use 2 batteries and hook 1 up just for the brakes and 1 for the load lights. I also put the load lights on a timer switch so they will go off automaticly. Thank you for all your input. |
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Location: N.E. PENNSYLVANIA | THAT TIMER WAS A GREAT IDEA!!! I THINK I WILL "STEAL" THAT IDEA FOR OUR LIGHTS AS WELL. SORT OF LIKE A SAFETY!! GOOD LUCK!!! |
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Veteran
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Location: Chillicothe, Ohio | If Im not mistaken these breakaway batteries should be wired into the trailer wiring so that they are charged when the truck is hooked up and running. Does anyone know this for sure? I know two trailers I have looked at have the charge wire from the trailer wiring going into the box. My trailer uses the "house" batteries for the break away switch. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 736
Location: Western WA | I was wondering the same thing. I have a LQ trailer that gets plugged in at nearly every destination, and is plugged in a good deal at home, not to mention, if the battery is wired to the trailer wiring, its getting charged going down the road. Anybody know? I wonder why the trailer owners manuals don't specify this..... Originally written by martyg on 2007-01-25 7:05 AM
If Im not mistaken these breakaway batteries should be wired into the trailer wiring so that they are charged when the truck is hooked up and running. Does anyone know this for sure? I know two trailers I have looked at have the charge wire from the trailer wiring going into the box. My trailer uses the "house" batteries for the break away switch. y |
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Location: hudson valley, NY | My trailer is a 2horse BP, no LQ. It uses a 5 amp gel cell that is connected to a 12v+ thru the 7 pin conn. This wire(orange/Ford) is hot only when the TV is running and puts out about 14.2 volts which then goes to the 2 interior lights and a 12vDC to 12vDC charger mounted in the battery box. With a meter at the battery terms. when the TV is running I get 12.8 volts(because of the charger). When the truck is off I get battery voltage(12v) and no backfeed to the TV. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 366
Location: Albany, Oregon | My research tells me you absolutly do not want to directly hook up your Tow Vehicle charge system to the gel cell 5ah battery......unless it has a 12-12v tow vehicle charger in line...it will cook the battery! The battery is not designed to handle the amperage. Some of the newer breakaway systems have a charger that charges the battery from the TV older ones don't so beware! http://shop.easternmarine.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=catalog.prodInfo&productID=4424&categoryID=149
Edited by xyzer 2007-01-25 3:01 PM
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Expert
Posts: 3802
Location: Rocky Mount N.C. | My horse trailers (E-brake batteries) have to be charged seperately, the hot wire does not run directly to the "E-brake battery". On my equipment trailers, the battery is connected to a charger that is fed by the "hot all the time, (GM truck)" wire in the 7 pin connecter. It has lights to indicate whether the battery is charging, fully charged or the battery needs to be replaced. If your E-brake battery was connected directly to the truck power then it would probely explode the first time you went to crank over the trucks engine. |
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Location: hudson valley, NY | Originally written by xyzer on 2007-01-25 2:55 PM
My research tells me you absolutly do not want to directly hook up your Tow Vehicle charge system to the gel cell 5ah battery......unless it has a 12-12v tow vehicle charger in line...it will cook the battery! The battery is not designed to handle the amperage. Some of the newer breakaway systems have a charger that charges the battery from the TV older ones don't so beware! http://shop.easternmarine.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=catalog.prodInfo&productID=4424&categoryID=149
That is why I went with a 12vdc to 12vdc charger, because the old battery was destroyed. (I shopped at eastern marine!)
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brake-away batteries and lights
