external 12v power supply idea help please

[jimmyenglish]

Hi everyone. My wife and I pull a trailer when we go on our long trips. We camp most of the time and like to bring as much stuff as possible. I want to get a midsize, deep cycle battery to tote around in the trailer to power things around our campsite. I have a modest 350watt power inverter which is ample for what we need (we run mostly led xmas lights, phone chargers, small lcd TV, small laptop and a laser kaleidoscope. Also various 12v items. Not all at the same time). However, I don't like the idea of it running off the bike battery all night. Which leads me to my next question..

 

How could I rig it up to have the bike charging the external battery while we're riding? Is it as simple as just hooking it up in parallel with the main battery? Thanks everyone!

[mike_kelly_68]

Hi everyone. My wife and I pull a trailer when we go on our long trips. We camp most of the time and like to bring as much stuff as possible. I want to get a midsize, deep cycle battery to tote around in the trailer to power things around our campsite. I have a modest 350watt power inverter which is ample for what we need (we run mostly led xmas lights, phone chargers, small lcd TV, small laptop and a laser kaleidoscope. Also various 12v items. Not all at the same time). However, I don't like the idea of it running off the bike battery all night. Which leads me to my next question..

 

How could I rig it up to have the bike charging the external battery while we're riding? Is it as simple as just hooking it up in parallel with the main battery? Thanks everyone!

 

 

Why not use a solar panel mounted to the trailer? Keep the battery hard mounted in the trailer and make an extension cord to get to the tent.

[Sylvester]

I favor the solar charger. Your motorcycle will not have enough charging system to keep up with two batteries.

 

[Herb In Texas]

But there is the problem of your stator being somewhat insuficient. Dingy would be the go to guy in this case. I say try it. Would say tho put a 20 Circuit breaker that auto resets in line with the extra battery that way if the draw was enough to trip the breaker it could cycle on and off till it caught up. Can't say that it won't eventually fail but yuo won't be over taxing your stator for long periods. It's your bike so I ain't skeered. Realy I wouldn't be scared if it were mine either.

[KiteSquid]

Or hook up an alternator to run off of one of the trailer tires.

 

I got the idea from a hot rodder who moved his alternator to the rear end of his car, to clean up the engine bay.

 

 

for your application, a small one would do.

 

BUT it would probably be easier to put a photovoltaic array on the lid of your trailer like previously discussed.

[Flyinfool]

It will be tough to get a solar system big enough to make a difference in just one day of bright sun charging.

 

I do use a solar float charger for the batteries in my RV while it is stored and for that it works great if I have a month for it to charge.

 

I would use the self resetting circuit breaker but I would use a 10 amp fuse. You do not want to risk pulling the main fuse going down the road.

[jimmyenglish]

Thanks for all the info guys. I guess I thought the alternator would be enough to charge the extra battery while we're driving down the road as the voltmeter always reads strong(that's the only time the extra battery would be hooked to the bike, to charge). Solar's neat but too slow and expensive. Probably just tote a small battery charger around and charge when we come across some electricity. Thought it would be cool to know it's charged when we get to the next site. Thanks again!

[Herb In Texas]

I like the idea of the alternator connected to the trailer tire via a belt. Kind like the way they used to light up train cabooses when they still used them. Bet it wouldn't be to hard to do either. would need to rig up a spring loaded idler or mount the alt. to the axel as the suspension springs would cause variing belt tension. member the little gemerators to power the head lights on your Schwinn? a feller could machine a friction drive like that also. ramble ramble oh ramble on.