# Battery Question???



## Bull Elk (Feb 28, 2005)

I was out to look at our unit that we will be picking up next week. The battery was dead. I connected it to my suburban and was not able to see any change or charge after 20 minutes. I had thought that a charge would run from the TV to the battery through the connection. What am I not thinking about here?? I will ask the dealer at pick-up, but I thought I would ask the "EXPERTS" on this site first.








Thanks for any input.


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## Fire44 (Mar 6, 2005)

My first thoughts:

1. Has the dealer installed the battery in the camper yet?

2. Has the brake controller been installed in your Suburban yet? I believe that when you install the brake controller you will have a large fuse to install under the hood to send power to charge the battery on the camper.

Just a few quick thoughts,

Gary


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## Katrina (Dec 16, 2004)

The brake controller will have no effect on charging.
There is however, A 30 amp fuse that needs to be installed under the hood of a suburban before the rear connector has power available to charge the trailer battery.


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## Bull Elk (Feb 28, 2005)

Katrina said:


> The brake controller will have no effect on charging.
> There is however, A 30 amp fuse that needs to be installed under the hood of a suburban before the rear connector has power available to charge the trailer battery.
> [snapback]34490[/snapback]​


The battery is installed and has worked. The brake controller also has been installed. Do you or anyone else have more specific info on the 30 amp fuse.
Thanks - Rich


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## Ghosty (Jan 17, 2005)

I asked my dealer that same type of question a couple of months ago .. I asked him "if my battery goes totally dead can I charge it with the TV"...

This is sort of the answer I got:

YES but only KINDA OF...!!!







... They installed a 30 amp fuse ... and yes its suppose to be able to intercept a trickle charge from the TV but the charge through rate is so slow/low that it can barely be considered a sustainment rate let alone a charge rate... (in terms I understand is that it would take a long long loooonnnggg time to ever charge..)

He then told me that I should go out to Wally World and buy me one of those 17.00 dollar 6 amp trickle chargers and before I go out and do any dry camping give the batteries a full charge...

Now he seemed to know what he was talking about -- or at least fooled me ...

The dealership installed two batteries for me and they also told me that even on shore power the batteries would only hit about 90% charge rate and that this is why they recommend a twickle charger to take it to the 100% ... they also told me that the only way to do this precisly is to measure the voltage (which previously dealing with Marine batteries I fully appreciate becuase on the water a dead battery was really bad) shy

so with volt meter in hand I found the recipe for a healthy battery ::

a fully charged battery has a reading of 13.8 volts and a floating voltage of 12.9 volts and a fully discharged battery a charge reading of 10.8 and a float voltage of 11.4...

In my case to test the dealerships theory, after 4 days of running my batteries on shore power at the RV park and everything I took a voltage reading and got 12.72 floating which was about exactly what the dealership had told me it would be -- or 90% of its true capacity.... I then plugged a trickle charge in and with 15 minutes was up to 100%....

Now allot of things can cause the readings to be off -- temperature, type of battery, battery size, battery class... so take my opinion with a giant grain of salt...

----
PS. 
Float voltage is the battery voltage at zero current (with battery disconnected). You need to wait about 20 minutes for the battery to stabilize at this voltage after you take it off the charger or disconnect it from the TV or shore power....

Charge Voltage is the voltage a battery goes to while being charged on the TV, shore or chargers....


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## Bull Elk (Feb 28, 2005)

Ghosty said:


> I asked my dealer that same type of question a couple of months ago .. I asked him "if my battery goes totally dead can I charge it with the TV"...
> 
> This is sort of the answer I got:
> 
> ...


With all this said, should the 12 volt electronics work when the TT is connected to the TV, eventhough the battery is not charged? My belief would be that they should and I was not getting any power to the TT. I do have trickle charges for fishing and I appreciate the all of this info.
Thanks - Rich


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## Katrina (Dec 16, 2004)

Regardless of how long it takes a tow vehicle to bring the trailer battery up to full charge, when the tow vehicle is plugged into the trailer and running, the alternator of the vehicle is producing about 14.5 volts.
Since Chevrolets have 10AWG wire run back to the trailer connector, you should be able to plug in a running truck and go inside the trailer and run any 12v appliances you want too.
I've learned this from waking up to dead batteries in the middle of the night.

Bull Elk, Assuming you have a gas burb and not a diesel, There is a fuse panel on the drivers side fender under the hood. Black plastic box looking thing with a cover that lifts off to expose fuses inside.
The will be two spots that are marked "Stud 1" and "Stud 2".
These should both have 30 amp fuses in them. Sometimes GM ships the trucks with a "Dummy" fuse in one of the spots that is just a colored piece of plastic.
Check to make sure you have both fuses installed and that they are not blown and you should be good to go.

P.S. The above info does not apply to a diesel.
P.P.S. Gm did not offer a disel Suburban in 04, so I don't know what I was thinking.


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## Katrina (Dec 16, 2004)

Ghosty said:


> I asked my dealer that same type of question a couple of months ago .. I asked him "if my battery goes totally dead can I charge it with the TV"...
> 
> This is sort of the answer I got:
> 
> ...


Ghosty, It has been my experience that alot of dealers are idiots when it comes to batteries(not to say yours is or anything).
If you are going to spend any money at all on a charger, you would be way ahead to go ahead and invest in a good three stage charger.
A trickle charger will be hard on a battery that has had a weekends worth of discharge put on it.
Those trickle chargers are best for just maintaining a charged battery.


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## Bull Elk (Feb 28, 2005)

Katrina said:


> Regardless of how long it takes a tow vehicle to bring the trailer battery up to full charge, when the tow vehicle is plugged into the trailer and running, the alternator of the vehicle is producing about 14.5 volts.
> Since Chevrolets have 10AWG wire run back to the trailer connector, you should be able to plug in a running truck and go inside the trailer and run any 12v appliances you want too.
> I've learned this from waking up to dead batteries in the middle of the night.
> 
> ...










This is exactly why I talked about the "EXPERTS" on this site. I have a fuse in the "Stud 2" for the brake, but the "Stud 1" has a dummy fuse. Thanks to all of you for the quick help. I can not sleep, when something seems simple and I can not figure it out. By looking at the times of some of the post on this site, I do not think that I am alone.








Thanks - Rich


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## Ghosty (Jan 17, 2005)

Katrina said:


> A trickle charger will be hard on a battery that has had a weekends worth of discharge put on it.
> Those trickle chargers are best for just maintaining a charged battery.
> [snapback]34495[/snapback]​


Yep -- I have to agree with you that most dealers are willing to say almost anything to make you think they know what they are doing ... and the battery charger I have is a 2/6/10 which does fine for what I need it to do...


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## Bull Elk (Feb 28, 2005)

Katrina said:


> Regardless of how long it takes a tow vehicle to bring the trailer battery up to full charge, when the tow vehicle is plugged into the trailer and running, the alternator of the vehicle is producing about 14.5 volts.
> Since Chevrolets have 10AWG wire run back to the trailer connector, you should be able to plug in a running truck and go inside the trailer and run any 12v appliances you want too.
> I've learned this from waking up to dead batteries in the middle of the night.
> 
> ...


Katrina,
I put the fuse in the "stud 1" and hooked up to the TT. Guess what??? Everything worked.








Thanks a ton - Rich


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

I'll throw my .02 cents in (as always)

Glad Katrina knew where the missing fuse went as I don't have any first hand info on the burb.

That said there may not be much of a charge rate at idle even at 14.5 volts. The alternator is speed dependent to generate the amps needed to send a charge to the trailer. There will be some, just not enough to recover much on a dead battery. If you can put it on a fast idle and leave the rest of the DC loads off in the TV you may see results in 45 minutes.

I use just the trailer converter to maintain my batteries during the summer as it charges at 13.6 vdc and as required for current. Always seems to have a really good charge when I go camping. I leave it plugged in all the time and check the water level about every 3 weeks and seldom need to add any.

During the winter I use a battery tender that runs continuously at 13.2 vdc and 1.2 amp. No water loss and they sit at 12.9 vdc 24 hours after removal from the tender.


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## hatcityhosehauler (Feb 13, 2004)

You already have the fuse thing answered, so the fact that there should have been a fuse with the brake controller pigtail delivered with the vehicle (assuming you bought it new, with the tow package). At least it was included in the '02's.

Tim


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## Thor (Apr 7, 2004)

The TT batteries will charge while hooked to your TV. You should be able to notice the difference in a few hours.

I was dry camping last year for 7 days and the furnance would not stay on by the 7th day. The fan could not blow enough air, so the safety kicked in. I simply hooked up my TV (not running) for an hour and my battery meter read 1/3 from E. The furnance work again.

To keep your batteries some what charged I would simply hook up my TV for an 1hrs a day ... and making 7 days should be no problem. Please remember to unhook if you do this because you always want your TV to start.

This year I purchased a 15watt solar panel. The batteries were roughly 2/3 charged after winter storage...I hooked the solar panel up for an entire day and the meter read full. I continued the next day for a few more hours and my charge regular now read charged. The plan is to dry camp for 14 days the last weeks in Aug. I should not have any issues with power









Thor


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## Castle Rock Outbackers (Jan 18, 2004)

I had a similar experience while dry camping, and I swear the TV was charging the battery at a decent rate. Waking up in the morning, our power level usually reads 1/3 after the furnace ran during the night. I connect the cord, start the truck, and let it run for 15 minutes. Turn off the truck, disconnect the cord. FULL power. I know...it could be that the power indicator lights are off, but still, it DOES seem to work.

Randy


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## dougdogs (Jul 31, 2004)

hatcityhosehauler said:


> You already have the fuse thing answered, so the fact that there should have been a fuse with the brake controller pigtail delivered with the vehicle (assuming you bought it new, with the tow package). At least it was included in the '02's.
> 
> Tim
> [snapback]34519[/snapback]​


My 05 had the fuse wrapped in the pigtail. Funny thing is that with the GM diesel, you already get the two battery high output alternator setup, towing package is included, and you don't need the fuse. (the 7 pin is always "live")

anyone need an extra fuse ??


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## Dabmansr (Mar 18, 2005)

Castle Rock Outbackers said:


> I had a similar experience while dry camping, and I swear the TV was charging the battery at a decent rate. Waking up in the morning, our power level usually reads 1/3 after the furnace ran during the night. I connect the cord, start the truck, and let it run for 15 minutes. Turn off the truck, disconnect the cord. FULL power. I know...it could be that the power indicator lights are off, but still, it DOES seem to work.
> 
> Randy
> [snapback]34568[/snapback]​


You may have been using the power from your TV battery as well as the power from the altenator for a quick charge to your TT battery. I suppose the connection places your TT battery and TV battery in paralell and the batterys attempt to equalize.


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