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Trailer batteries

Wades_76_cj7

RZR guy, NO I am not gay..
Joined
Jun 13, 2020
Member Number
1987
Messages
1,127
Loc
KC MO
Let's talk dump trailer battery. I run a 2ga cable thru an Anderson plug to my dump trailer battery. For the battery connection I just connected the leads to the 5/16" posts on the battery. The hydraulic pump is connected to the battery via the battery posts. Should I connect the 2ga leads from the truck to the battery posts? Are the 5/16" threaded posts directly tied to regular round posts inside the case? or is there a disconnect? Reason I ask is when making multiple runs I want the maximum juice available.
 
i run an aderson plugs f/r on all my rigs that tow. i run a hot lead to the battery and ground to the frame, not sure what gauge, i use weld lead that too short to use anymore.

i dont think you'll have any problem keeping the battery charged, leave the truck running while dumping. could run a volt meter at the trailer to keep an eye on it. worst case get a wireless dump controler so you can sit in the truck and run higher rpm while dumping.

a good battery in the trailer should handle a few heavy dumps before it noticibly drains. my dump trailer battery isnt great but plugged into the truck it dumps no problem all day running loads.

that battery posts are fine for anything the battery can put out, i prefer the treaded post over the typical round post. one thing i am good about with all my batteries is clean connections and a little dialectric grease to keep them that way.
 
I plugged the dump trailer in to the trickle charger that is built in and let it full charge. it was about 50% according to the charger when pushing the load test button. I would think that it would charge thru the anderson plug but maybe it needs fully charged with the charger? I dont know. It's a brand new trailer with a brand new Interstate battery. :confused:
 
Related, but similar question.

My wife sold off her escalade last week.

The original battery in it was weak, but would still start the truck up fine. It would just die if she was sitting in it listening to music while waiting for the kids to get out of school.

I bought some wires and put 2 new AGMs in it. They're a year old by now.

Anyways, I swapped back to the original single battery before selling it. Now I have 2 good AGMs sitting around.

Trailer has a single deep cycle in it to run the winch and lights, and eventually compressor. It would die after sitting for a bit before I installed a solar panel.

I was thinking of putting those 2 AGMs in the trailer in place of deep cycle.

Will the 2 regular batteries do better than a single deep cycle?
 
The one I use doesn’t get any charge from the truck just the charger when plugged in to an outlet . If it’s charged it’s hardly ever went dead on us with a very heavy day of work and 6-10 massive loads of trees. Last weekend we were in a rush and it had sat all winter we ran an extension cord to my grandmas house while cutting the tree down and loading and it never failed us . In the event it does “fail you” you just hook your jumper cables to the trailer Battery and you’re good to go .
 
I plugged the dump trailer in to the trickle charger that is built in and let it full charge. it was about 50% according to the charger when pushing the load test button. I would think that it would charge thru the anderson plug but maybe it needs fully charged with the charger? I dont know. It's a brand new trailer with a brand new Interstate battery. :confused:
load test button on the charger? the built in charger on mine doesn't have a load test button its just 3 lights one for plug in power, one that indicates its charging, and one that indicates its charged and in maintenace mode.

the little battery box for the break away brakes has a test button on it tho, 4 of my trailers are that way and none of them read a good charge when pressing the test button.

the battery hooked to the anderson plug should be chargeing off the truck while plugged in and running. unless there is a battery isolater somewhere in line.

also wouldn't surprise me if the brand new battery from the trailer dealership is junk. i know a couple contractors that have gone back after buying a trailer because the new battery wouldn't hold a charge. allot of those batteries get drained low enough to damage them and then are left to sit, only get charged if they have to. lots of battery swapping at trailer dealer yards
 
Related, but similar question.

My wife sold off her escalade last week.

The original battery in it was weak, but would still start the truck up fine. It would just die if she was sitting in it listening to music while waiting for the kids to get out of school.

I bought some wires and put 2 new AGMs in it. They're a year old by now.

Anyways, I swapped back to the original single battery before selling it. Now I have 2 good AGMs sitting around.

Trailer has a single deep cycle in it to run the winch and lights, and eventually compressor. It would die after sitting for a bit before I installed a solar panel.

I was thinking of putting those 2 AGMs in the trailer in place of deep cycle.

Will the 2 regular batteries do better than a single deep cycle?


the 2 starting batteries should be better than the one deep cycle. just know that the deep cycle is more tolerant off being drained and charged repeatedly. you want to keep the starting batteries topped of as often as possible.

i'm a big fan of using the anderson plug like Wades is using for trailer with batteries, especially for dump trailers. the plug is great for powering a winch to drag cars on to trailers and especially hand for jumper cables never have to pop the hood or worry about the the leads arcing etc
 
The one I use doesn’t get any charge from the truck just the charger when plugged in to an outlet .

thats a little odd. a 7way trailer plug does have a 12+ constant that should be hooked up to any battery on a trailer, break away battery/ dump powerbattery, its a low amp charge that usually wont keep up with the discharge from dumping, but does helps enough that i tell everyone using my trailer to always leave their truck running while operating the lift.

if its not hooked up to the power wire from the 7way, i would take a couple minutes and correct that.
 
load test button on the charger? the built in charger on mine doesn't have a load test button its just 3 lights one for plug in power, one that indicates its charging, and one that indicates its charged and in maintenace mode.

the little battery box for the break away brakes has a test button on it tho, 4 of my trailers are that way and none of them read a good charge when pressing the test button.

the battery hooked to the anderson plug should be chargeing off the truck while plugged in and running. unless there is a battery isolater somewhere in line.

also wouldn't surprise me if the brand new battery from the trailer dealership is junk. i know a couple contractors that have gone back after buying a trailer because the new battery wouldn't hold a charge. allot of those batteries get drained low enough to damage them and then are left to sit, only get charged if they have to. lots of battery swapping at trailer dealer yards

This has got to be it. Everything he's posted about that trailer is pointing towards something not right out of the box.

In theory, shouldn't you not even need a battery in the trailer with the Anderson leads?
 
This has got to be it. Everything he's posted about that trailer is pointing towards something not right out of the box.

In theory, shouldn't you not even need a battery in the trailer with the Anderson leads?

yeah he should charge it over night and have the autoparts store do a real load test on it.

yes, can run it on just the anderson plug. i use the anderson plug connection to jump start cars and run direct to winches etc. i wouldn't do it all the time because its got to be hard on the trucks chargeing system (although probably not any harder on it than having a bad battery in the dump trailer hooked up)

if the battery is really only at 50% i imagine he would be better off by-passing the dump trailers battery all together.

Wades_76_cj7 you can also leave the battery on the charger over night, then disconnect it and let it rest for 15min... then check it with a volt meter. a good battery should read 12.8v if its only chargeing 50% i think it will read 12.4v. a proper load test is best but the voltmeter will give you a clue.


i think most of us have tried to jump start a car where the battery was so low you have to disconnect the battery and run just the jumper cables to get the car to turn over. ie the jumper cables have enough juice to turn the car over, but not enough to turn it over with a junk battery dragging it down too.
 
thats a little odd. a 7way trailer plug does have a 12+ constant that should be hooked up to any battery on a trailer, break away battery/ dump powerbattery, its a low amp charge that usually wont keep up with the discharge from dumping, but does helps enough that i tell everyone using my trailer to always leave their truck running while operating the lift.

if its not hooked up to the power wire from the 7way, i would take a couple minutes and correct that.
Trailer and truck bought new in 2013. Everything we have ever been told is the 7-pin will help maintain a full charge but it will not charge a dead battery . On our first dump last weekend it was very low too much for the 7-pin to keep up with so we plugged it into the house ( it was my grandmothers place ) and rocked on . As said previously if it’s real low and nowhere to plug in to charge for several hours we use jumper cables from a second vehicle . I searched it after reading your post also and everything I read says the same thing .
 
so it does get chargeing from the truck like it should. good deal. its basically a trickle charge, it will charge from dead if hooked up long enough. the primary reason for it is to keep the small battery for the break away switch charged. every little bit helps when you have a high draw like like a 12v hydraulic pump.

look into to anderson plug we've been talking about if you dont want to ever has to mess with jumper cables again. i bought a truck that already had the plug... now all my trucks need to have them.
 
tracyb we run Anderson plugs on every service truck in our shop at work I’m very familiar with them they’re nice but this is side work for all of us .
 
ive been thinking about adding some to my truck for a while now but never have, what anderson plugs are you guys using?
 
this is who I bought my kit from. They have several different kits available and if you need something custom made just email them and they will do them. It's a mom and pop shop and everything I have ordered from them comes with a personal thank you card and a trinket as well. it's nothing fancy or $ but it is a nice touch.

 
The battery in the trailer not being any good had not occurred to me. New trailer should = new good battery. It is possible that it's gone bad from sitting especially as cold as it was a month before I bought it. if it was low and it froze it woudln't hold a charge worth a fuck. It's been on the trickle charger for a couple days now. I will unplug it and check voltage like tracyb suggested. maybe pull it and have it actual load test at O'reilly today
 
this is who I bought my kit from. They have several different kits available and if you need something custom made just email them and they will do them. It's a mom and pop shop and everything I have ordered from them comes with a personal thank you card and a trinket as well. it's nothing fancy or $ but it is a nice touch.


Holy shit, those prices are great, I'd have expected double that.
 
this is who I bought my kit from. They have several different kits available and if you need something custom made just email them and they will do them. It's a mom and pop shop and everything I have ordered from them comes with a personal thank you card and a trinket as well. it's nothing fancy or $ but it is a nice touch.


good link, i've been thinking of putting up a 40' flag pole. gonna order a monster flag from them
 
So i unplugged the trickle charger and left it an hour or so. checked voltage and it's got 12.8v so maybe it's just a case of the first time I used it it wasn't fully charged.. although with the dump trailer power cable kit i would think it would be able to run solely off that cable without even needing a battery
 
So i unplugged the trickle charger and left it an hour or so. checked voltage and it's got 12.8v so maybe it's just a case of the first time I used it it wasn't fully charged.. although with the dump trailer power cable kit i would think it would be able to run solely off that cable without even needing a battery

Ya, but check it at the end of the day and tomorrow. I had a battery in my truck that would charge up good, but like a day or 2 later it dropped way down.

I don't know what to say about it not working with the Anderson leads hooked up.
 
this is who I bought my kit from. They have several different kits available and if you need something custom made just email them and they will do them. It's a mom and pop shop and everything I have ordered from them comes with a personal thank you card and a trinket as well. it's nothing fancy or $ but it is a nice touch.

thank you much appreciated
 
Wow that’s an awesome link heck of a price ! When someone successfully receives a kit let me know !
 
Let's talk dump trailer battery. I run a 2ga cable thru an Anderson plug to my dump trailer battery. For the battery connection I just connected the leads to the 5/16" posts on the battery. The hydraulic pump is connected to the battery via the battery posts. Should I connect the 2ga leads from the truck to the battery posts? Are the 5/16" threaded posts directly tied to regular round posts inside the case? or is there a disconnect? Reason I ask is when making multiple runs I want the maximum juice available.
One of my customers ditched the dump battery all together.

I ran 2x 1/0 cables from the (duramax diesel) starter B+ post and Negative to the rear bumper Anderson plug through a 300 amp breaker.
Did this to both trucks and built him a 1' setup to use a battery if needed.

He loves it, no more dead batteries, no limit to dump cycles and no expensive DC-DC charging gear to rapidly recharge the dump trailer battery.
 
Related, but similar question.

My wife sold off her escalade last week.

The original battery in it was weak, but would still start the truck up fine. It would just die if she was sitting in it listening to music while waiting for the kids to get out of school.

I bought some wires and put 2 new AGMs in it. They're a year old by now.

Anyways, I swapped back to the original single battery before selling it. Now I have 2 good AGMs sitting around.

Trailer has a single deep cycle in it to run the winch and lights, and eventually compressor. It would die after sitting for a bit before I installed a solar panel.

I was thinking of putting those 2 AGMs in the trailer in place of deep cycle.

Will the 2 regular batteries do better than a single deep cycle?

AGM's don't like to be deeply discharged. No more than 50% usually (consult the actual battery tech specs for the real info).
True deep cycle batteries are rated for deep discharging to 30% usually. So you can see if both banks are the same label Ah rating the AGM will actually have less power available than the FLA bank.
People love AGM for the cleanliness, no need to add water etc. but I think in most cases they have less power available and are not worth the additional cost.
A good set of AGM's these days is VERY near the cost of DIY Lipo.
 
this is who I bought my kit from. They have several different kits available and if you need something custom made just email them and they will do them. It's a mom and pop shop and everything I have ordered from them comes with a personal thank you card and a trinket as well. it's nothing fancy or $ but it is a nice touch.

After looking at the link I remember that guy, the products are real but if I remember correctly that isn't OFC/Oxygen Free Copper or 100% copper wire it is CCA/Copper Clad Aluminum wire.

I had to message the guy and he was nice enough but did say it was CCA wire.

I will let you guys fight over if that is good or not but I don't mess with it on anything I do.

I use welding cable from Amazon, either ECWS or Windynation, only 100% OFC.
 
this is who I bought my kit from. They have several different kits available and if you need something custom made just email them and they will do them. It's a mom and pop shop and everything I have ordered from them comes with a personal thank you card and a trinket as well. it's nothing fancy or $ but it is a nice touch.



30ft 800 AMP 3pc Extreme Commercial Jump Set​

Product Code: ECJS800

30ft 800 AMP 3pc Extreme Commercial Jump Set, true 0 AWG gauge. Perfect for Commercial Service Truck, Winch, Tow Truck, Wrecker, 4x4, jumper cable needs.

Set includes:

  • · absolute 0ga (.37 ) DCCA Copper Wire rated at 900 AMPS
  • · 800 AMP Parrot Clamps
  • · 23ft Master Cable
  • · 6ft Vehicle Cable
  • · 18 inches "Other End " Jumper cable


0ga wire doesn't seem right for a 800 amp 30ft run, actually would be a 60ft run. What am I missing?
 
0ga wire doesn't seem right for a 800 amp 30ft run, actually would be a 60ft run. What am I missing?
For jumper cable use you can get away with smaller wire than you can for continuous use like the ampacity charts all assume.
 
0ga wire doesn't seem right for a 800 amp 30ft run, actually would be a 60ft run. What am I missing?
You're not missing anything, that wiring is not up to snuff in actual engineering terms.

It's also not "copper" wire.
 
For jumper cable use you can get away with smaller wire than you can for continuous use like the ampacity charts all assume.
I agree to a point. I have a 30' CCA 1/0 jumper cable I am fixing to test powering a Warn 2k ATV winch. I plan on doing some load bank voltage drop tests on it.
 
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