OOB thinking - boosting voltage to charge trailer bank from towing vehicle
rickst29 over on the DIY Solar Forum has a neat solution to passing power from the towing vehicle to the trailer’s bank. He feeds ~440w to the trailer bank with what he calls a “virtual panel”.
He overcomes the current limits in the 7-pin wiring by ~tripling the voltage, thereby reducing current by 2/3rds. Power (~13A) is carried on the cable’s black trailer battery charge wire.
simplfied version
The original post contains a lot of detail and automation. Here is a simplified version:
On the truck: isolator -> DC-DC upconverter (36v) -> Bargman 7-pin trailer connector
On the trailer: 7-pin -> MPPT controller input
At the MPPT input: heavy switch to choose between real panels and “virtual” panels (tow vehicle charging)
Rick automates the controller input switching (and running the DC upconverter, as far as I can tell) with relays. When I need to switch inputs on my little 10A mppt (portable panels vs. the DC power supply (DIY converter) I use a manual battery switch. Rick says the most complex part of the project was the automation, so if you want a cheap/simple version a manual battery switch might suffice.
thoughts
I think Rick is using Bargman because of the heavier wiring in the 7-pin; the barg looks like it is a gauge heavier than typical OEM cablles on each pin. According to Bargman their version is:
- 14ga - Yellow: center auxiliary
- 14ga - Green: tail and license lights
- 14ga - Brown: right turn and stop lights
- 14ga - Red: left turn and stop lights
- 12ga - Blue: electric brake
- 10ga - Black: battery charge
- 10ga - White: ground (return)
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