I have a 14′ dump trailer with a 9000 hydrolic lift, powered by an electric motor.
It is absolutely great when doing small projects or supplementation of commercial dumpsters on custom homes. It aslo comes in handy when we must hot shot some lumber. Pick it up, deliver and dump.
The trailer is self contained and has it’s own battery. This is a continual problem as the tralier can sometimes be left on a site for weeks. The battery runs down. My mechanic installed a charger line running from the truck, but sometimes when hauling there is not enough time for the chanrging to take place, especially when dumping full.
My thought, install battery leads from truck to direct connect on the trailer. Use a battery cable quick connect (like the type found on an electric winch) to connect the truck to the trailer when needed.
What do you think of my idea? Any reason it will not work? Any experience or advise?
Replies
It should work. Someone here must know for sure. It would limit you to hauling it with just the truck which is wired with the leads. That might be a plus - can't loan it to others without leads.
Or: Could you move the trailer battery to your truck, so you are charging it every time you drive your truck, and then run leads from the battery to the trailer when needed? Maybe a battery carrier that could be easily moved back to the trailer in case you want to use a different tow vehicle..
I don't have the answer - just looking at other ideas.
Theres only one way to find out if it works!PS. It will work.
how about a quality set of jumper cables long enough to reach from the truck battery to the trailer battery? hook 'em up at the dump site if you need them -
as an aside, I don't understand a battery discharging over the course of 'weeks' - perhaps a fresh battery would solve the problem?
I have done the quality jumper cable and fresh battery thing. Works Ok if they are always in the truck, but when your neighbor borrows and does not return, or they are left in the shop...bummer.
i have the same situation on my car hauler (8k winch), batt dies down after a few weeks. I put on a solar charger, it keeps the batt topped off with no overcharge.
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/NTESearch?storeId=6970&N=0&Ntk=All&Ntt=solar%20charger&Nty=1&D=solar%20charger&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Dx=mode+matchallpartial
Cool idea, but locating a solar charger on a dump trailer when it is subject to anyone who may throw trash into the trailer is risky. If something is broken (usually) no one comes forward to take the blame.
I have seen trash dumped in our trailers and dumpsters that had nothing to do with our job.
I sorta had the same problem.
I like to camp with the travel trailer at a non electric site . I dont like hearing the generator and Im sure the other sites dont either. So what I did ;
I ran a heavy set of cables stranded copper from the battery on the truck to the back bumper . Td it there to the plug recept to charge while pulling it . Main branch to a 30amp RV plug . Adapter splits it to 6 batteries. Sounds like to might add a battrery.
Hers the deal; Takes 1/2 hour from 120amp altenator to charge 6 batteries half charge. Thus giving three full batteries more or less . But it takes a LONG time to chartge to full because the alternator tapers off . Its an old camping trick to save gasoline from a generator. Now if you charged two batteries for 30 minutes from the truck you would have 1 full charge of one which is needed.
Side bar ; From my time on RV sites Ive heard about a 3 1/2 Briggs and stratton engine tied inline with a alternator set up homeade to do the same job which takes little gas. Thats no use to you in this application but I put it out there. There are RVers that deal with this all the time traveling to Arizona to spend the winter and live on nothing nearly. Summer comes and they end up in the North not needing air conditioning .
Your answer seems to be the installation plus another battery.
Or a solar kit
Or to keep it plugged in to a 1 amp charger like ATVs or snow mobiles.
Tim
I keep a cheap battery charger in the compartment with the battery. When we're working around the trailer with electricity available, we plug it in for an hour or two. I also keep a spare battery that I throw in the bed of my pickup, if I'm unsure when the last time the battery was charged and jumper cable off it if necessary.
Birth, school, work, death.....................
http://grantlogan.net/
Not exactly same problem but similar.
Boat trailer winches typically do not carry their own battery, but instead rely on a set of "built-in" jumper cables to the tow vehicle battery. Other, less classy, installations just use a long harness to reach the battery.
I would check out the local marine dealer - the guy who is catering to the trailerable boat crowd. I suspect he could set you up quickly with all the needed connectors, wire, fusing, etc. to solve your problem. The most convenient set up would be to have a weather-tight plug at the back end of the towing truck, and a relatively short lead coming from the trailer - marine dealer can help with this also.
Once you have an alternate source of power to the dump, the battery can be completely removed.
Beware of using undersized wire to power the motor - DC motors and low voltage do not get along well. Do some research on the motor plate before sizing. Significant voltage drop happens fast with 12vdc.
FYI, GM trucks have a pair of 1/4" auxillary posts (+ & -) for tapping-in just this sort of aftermarket wiring. They are located under the cover for the underhood fuse block. Suspect other makes have also.
You guys are awesome. There is enough positive response to my idea that I think I will spend the $ to do it.
I have been the fresh battery, jumper cable, battery charger route and am looking for a low maintance solution. The F350 Ford diesel we will use to move the trailer should be good for another 200,000 miles.
Any wire size experience? I found an old burnt up winch we used with quick cable connections for 1-2 gage wire. I found quick connect at NAPA with connections for 1/0 and 2/0.
What size wire would you guys recommend, 1 or 2 gage or 1/0 or 2/0 or somthing else?
If anyone remembers my post in a thread about thieves, this is the trailer that was stolen and recovered. Insurance company would not pay, and I was about to buy another but found it myself in a commute from site to site. The thieves had fixed the lites, replaced a tire and welded ramp cleats on the rear.
Wire size is dependent on three factors 1) amps required by the motor, 2) the total distance run (battery to motor + motor to battery) and 3) permissible voltage drop.
If you can supply items 1 & 2, I will look up item 3 in a reference book - I have tables for 2% and 10% voltage drop. Plus formulas for any other drop required.
Jim
Never underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
Our trailers are all electric over hydraulic. We have a plug on a cord coming from the motor on the trailer, then a receptical that it plugs into mounted on the bumper of the truck. The plug is hooked to a wire that runs to the positive battery post on the truck.The recepticle is insulated from the steel bumper so it doesn't ground out. I think they are called male and female phono plugs. You can buy them at a welding supply house. We use the hitch for a ground from the truck to the trailer. Saves worrying about another wire.
One more tip. When running your wire along your truck chassis. Make sure it's in pvc You definatly don't want a hole rubbed in the hot wire which will happen eventualy. It'll short your truck out.
If you want I can take a pic of our hook up tomorrow.
http://www.hay98.com/
I never saw the thieves thread, did you turn them in to the cops?
Yes, I called local police and they called DPS, our local highway patrol. The fellow in possesion told all that he bought it from a friend of a friend of a friend. You know how those stories go. He did not know who the guy was and "gave him cash".
They had ground off all ID, dump tags and serial numbers. DPS sent a vehicle recovery specialist. She said I would not be able to take possesion, because there were no serial numbers proving that it was mine. She said she fonund my original theft report, but there were 20 trailers in the Houston area like this one missing.
She said they would need to haul the trailer to their impound yard until proof positive could be made that I owned the trailer. I would pay for the towing and storage until the investigations was complete.
Not wanting to be victimized three times (theft, insurance, DPS), I immediately contacted two of my employees on my cell. Both employees were off site, sight unseen. They walked the DPS offficer around the trailer while on the phone, telling her of all the dings, scrapes, paint spills and some custom work we had done on parts of the trailer. She was convinced that the trailer was mine, as was the guy in possesion.
She threatened him with possesion of stolen property, altering a vehicle, and told him it was against the law to obtain a new "home built" liscense for a trailer he ahd not built and that had been previously liscensed. Aside form this, she told him the trailer was obviously not home built. I did not force any issues, and I do not think DPS ever pressed charges.
The insurance company had refused to pay at my first report, sighting no evidence of a hostile theft. No evidence that the trailer was secured as best as possible, nor that someone had broken a hitch lock or gate to get the trailer. I guess they get a lot of theft scams by owners. I will know if something happens next time.
Make sure you put a suitable fuse in as close to the power supply as possible.I hate the smell of burning plastic.
Yes that will work as that is what i have done with mine. This means one truck to haul and no second battery to maintain. One thing i did do is buy a metal connector that is used on a semi trailer hook up. The first one i had install was made of plastic and did not last long
I suggest switching the trailer battery over to an AGM deep cycle. It will have a much less self discharge rate.
How about carrying a portable jump starter to get extra juice.
A typical seven pin trailer harness has a hot lead in it for battery charging so I wonder what wiring the mechanic had to install for you.
That's a great idea. Our 14' dump had the same problem and while it sounds like a good idea to have a battery on the trailer it never pans out over the long haul.
Aircraft are jumped all the time and have a snazy high quality polarized plug that's easy to install in any vehicle to creat a quick connect for high current. ...if you can't find something more suitable.
Personally, wire is cheap and the current path from your truck's battery to the trailer is quite a span so get the largest available. I'm also a fan of using solder on connectors instead of crimps after having a heavy gauge set of jumper cables with no obvious signs of corrosion become inoperable after getting wet. There was just enough corrosion between the wire and crimp to produce partial voltage.
Cheers,
Don
we use a deep cycle battery $60 in our dump trailer that goes months without a charge, but to make life easy ,I mounted a trickle charger $25 in the battery box & plug it in if we have easy access to electric. This set up has worked for us 7 years & counting. Good Luck
We use the same set up. In fact we rarely ever use a dumpster because our jobs are generally smaller. Anyway, we put a battery charger on the battery every 3 dumps. Just run a cord to it from the site, house, shop and stick a 10amp charger on it for a few hours. Been doing it that way for 5 years with no problems. DanT