Hooking up a New Battery

[john"Wishbone"willems]

My '68 Spotty has no battery in Camper, but has 12 lites that run off Tow Vehicle. I was wondering if I can put a Battery under dinette seat & cut wire from TV & hook to battery. hook other side of wire to battery to run lites. Will this charge my battery going down the Road or not. Do I need to put a cutoff switch  to keep battery from over charging. Or should I put a battery maintainer or battery charger in & run off shore power that shuts off when fully charged.  Wishbone-Ks

[Richard W. Cobbs]

First, It's not good to have a battery inside, what with sulfuric acid and hydrogen gas.  Is it possible to mount it on the trailer tongue?  Second, you need a fused circuit from your second battery into the trailer wiring, otherwise, a normally small incident can burn your trailer to the ground!  The battery maintainer is a good option, can be left on with no worries about overcharging, but may not recharge as quickly as you would like. 

RWC

[john"Wishbone"willems]

When I had My Pop Up I had a battery maintainer in it & at I kept it plugged in always so it was ready to go. I used to to a bluegrass fest for a week in the fall & never went dead evening running heater at nite. I always kept heater on 55-60 degrees to keep chill off. About the only time I use lights is at night getting ready for bed. I think I'll find a big metal ammo box & mount on tongue with batt maintainer inside it. Would it be wise to mount a Fuse block on the wire coming from Van & 1 to inside camper lites? My camper has a Heater but doesn't run off battery. There is also a Coleman propane lite in front of camper. The globe is different from lanterns. I bought one off E Bay & when I went to put it in it shattered. 30 bucks down the drain. Old & brittle. Going to get one off Amazon built by Mr. heater. Thanks for Help,Wishbone

[Richard W. Cobbs]

Hi John, I like the ammo box idea, they are well built.  I am slightly concerned about hydrogen build-up; possibly you could drill some vent holes.  The wires coming from the van should already have fuse protection.  You should only have to protect from the new battery.  When I installed a fairly large inverter in my camper a few years ago, I was able to buy circuit breaker type disconnects through Ebay.  I believe that they are used for these massive sound systems that are being installed in some vehicles.  That would protect from a massive problem, but there should also be a fuse panel in the trailer for individual circuit wiring, sized to match the draw and wire size.  RWC