Hooking up a battery to a popup camper?
I just bought a 2002 palomino popup. We’re going camping for a week, and they have no hook ups. My question is how do I go about adding a 12v battery so I can use the light, maybe a couple of outlets. It dosn’t have a battery system right now
Since you say it has 12V interior lights & 12V outlets then I would assume it has a 12V fuse box or panel, normally powered off of the tow vehicle. Use a battery box to install a 12V deep-cycle battery on the trailer tongue. Ground the new battery to the trailer frame. Run an 8 or 10 gage wire from the positive battery terminal, through a fuse or circuit breaker [30 or 40 amps] to the input side of the above mentioned fuse panel. When the trailer is pluggged into the tow vehicle, with engine running, voltage at the trailer battery should be within .5V of tow vehicle battery [12.8-14.5V], that shows that it is getting charged during tow.
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When you say pop up I take it you mean like a trailer tent.If your on a tow hook with the standard seven wire plug,you can utilise the rear fog light wire to a splitter relay,which you then run to a second battery to charge whilst towing.The majority of alternator output goes to earth unwanted so there is always plenty to go round.You will need a diagram and a relay to show the method of wiring.Good luck
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yur going rough camping.
A 12 volt battery for a few lights would be fine—u can use 12 volt brake light bulbs for a lot of light when it is dark there. But make sure u puta fuse on the line to be safe. so u have the battery,,then one of those in=line fuse adapters ( from the suto store) and then the wire with a few socket adapters for the bulbs. I would use the the older type socket bulbs with the brass twist socket. i think the parts and the bulbs are cheaper. A marine type battery will last a lot longer.
you hook up the lightsockets in parralell,(,so u dont bleed off the voltage and the end light becomes dim.)
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First, you have to have a way to charge it. It won’t last a week. If you had a decent solar charger to charge it during the day, maybe. You’d need a regulator for the charger, and the battery should be a marine type deep cycle battery.